Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter, on December 4, 1969 and was raised in the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn, New York. During his school days, he befriended a young Christopher Wallace, who grew up to be known as the Notorious B.I.G.
He invented an entire rhyme in his head and committed it to memory, without ever writing it down. That skill is still evident, as
Jay-Z is known to create an entire album by playing the sample track in the studio in a trance, with the eventual lyric spewed out on the spot before recording it for good.
After scoring some underground success,
Jay-Z learned from other rappers who got a raw deal from the music business, and opened his own label, Roc-A-Fella, with friend Damon Dash.
In the wake of his 1996 debut, «Reasonable Doubt»,
Jay-Z's albums sold millions upon millions with each release, and his endless parade of hits made him omnipresent on urban radio and video television. He retained a strongly devoted fan base and challenged whatever rivals attempted to oust him from atop the rap game, sparing most memorably with Nas.
Jay-Z and his Roc-a-Fella associates greatly influenced the industry and established many of the trends that pervaded during the late '90s and early 2000s. After his self-declared retirement from rapping in 2003, he assumed the presidency of the seminal rap label Def Jam and, as an industry executive, embarked on another phase in his illustrious career.
In 2005
Jay-Z came out of retirement for the I Declare War concert in New York City. The ambitious show featured a parade of high-profile guest stars, including Diddy, T.I., Kanye West, and in a peacemaking move, Nas. With this longstanding beef squashed,
Jay-Z announced he was coming out of retirement for good. He made it official when Kingdom Come hit the shelves in late 2006. Less than a year later,
Jay-Z returned with another post-retirement album, «American Gangster» (2007), this one inspired by the concurrent film of the same name.
