Shawn Corey Carter, also known as Jay Z, is an American songwriter, rapper, businessman, record executive and media proprietor. He is well known as the most influential hip-hop artist globally, and he is also the former CEO of Def Jam Recordings, where he has been cultivating other artists in the industry such as Rihanna and Rick Ross.
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Personal Details
Net worth: $1.4 Billion
Born: December 4, 1969
Nationality: United States of America
Occupations: Rapper, songwriter, record executive, businessman, media proprietor, record producer
Last Updated: 2021
The Early Life of Jay Z
Jay z was born in Brooklyn borough of new york city in December 1969. He grew up in many houses. After their father abandoned the family, Jay Z and his siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter, though their father would meet with him to reconcile before he died in 2003. Shawn Carey attended Eli Whitney high school, located in Brooklyn until it was closed permanently.
He later joined George Westinghouse career and technical education high school in the company of other rappers like the Notorious B.I.G and Busta Rhymes, and others. However, he didn’t graduate from high school. According to interviews and lyrics, he involved himself in selling crack cocaine, and he was shot three times. Although Corey’s mother stated that he used to wake up his siblings and start banging out drum patterns in the kitchen, she later decided to purchase him a boombox during his birthday, accelerating his music interest. He decided to write lyrics as well as freestyle.
Jay Z has found himself embroiled in multiple battles with co rapper LL Cool J in their early 1990s. Jay z became popular during the posse cut ‘ show and proved’ in 1994 during the big daddy Kane’s hype man. The junior Jay Z was featured in the popular song of Big L, known as ‘Da graveyard’ and on Mic Geronimo’s known as ‘Time to build. His first official rap single was na as ‘In my lifetime which was later released a video in 1995.
The Music Career of Jay Z
Some of the music and albums Jay-Z has released includes
- 1995-1997: Reasonable doubt and in my lifetime, vol.1, he managed to sell CDs using his car. In collaboration with Damon and Kareem, they established Roc-A-Fella records which were independent labels in 1995. They struck a deal with Priority. Thus Jay-z ended up releasing his debut album in 1996, known as reasonable doubt, with the help of beats from acclaimed producers like DJ Premier and others. This album was number 23 on the billboards out of 200. In 1997 he got another deal by releasing ‘In my lifetime, vol.1 and was produced by sean. The album earned a reasonable status in the US.
- 1998-2000: Vol. 2…, vol. 3.. and the dynasty, in 1998, jay-z released vol..2 named as hard knock life
- In 1999, jay-z collaborated with Mariah Carey to release heartbreak from her seventh album known as the rainbow. This happened to be the jay z chart-topper in the US, thus spending two weeks on the top of billboard hot 100.
- 2000, Jay-z released one named The dynasty was known as Roc La Familia. The album was of importance as it helped in introducing new producers such as The Neptunes, just blaze and Kanye West.
- In 2001, September just a few hours before the September 11 attack, he released his 6th album known as ‘The Blueprint,’ which welcomed a coveted five mic review from the hip hop magazine. Within two days, the album had already sold 427000 copies and was debuted position one on the US billboards.
- 2003-2005: Released the black album and initial retirement
- 2005-2007: Kingdom come and America Gangster
- 2008-2011: He released blueprint 3 and watched the throne
- 2012-2016: Released Magna Carta holy grail and other ventures
- 2017-2018: 4:44 and everything is love
Musical style
Corey stated that his exposure to music was through his parent’s record collections and was mostly of soul artists like Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway.
Jay z controversies
Shawn and Beyonce were sued for using a Hungarian artist’s voice in their own song named ‘Drunk in love.’Also, his business in Tidal has been sued by ‘ The American dollar artist named Richard Emanuel for not adhering to agreements of paying full royalties to them. In 1957, he was sued for using Hamdi’s 1957 hit song named Khosara khosara to produce his song ‘ Big Pimpin.
Salary breakdown for Jay- Z as per Forbes
- May 2020: $ 53.5 million
- September 2019: $ 81 million
- 2018: $76.5 million
- June 2017: $42 million
- July: $ 53.5 million
- June 2015:$56 million
- September:$60 million
- June 2013:$42 million
- April 2013:$475 million
- May 2012:$ 38 million
- June 2011: $ 37 million
- 2010:$ 63 million
The total net worth of Jay Z as of today is $1.4 billion.
