Although he is mostly known for his hip-hop music career, the award-winning Jay Z has proved himself not only a talented artist but also a successful entrepreneur and investor; however, this man’s trajectory is not to be put aside or ignored. He’s been honored multiple times with different awards and sold over 18 million copies of his albums worldwide, and became, along the way, one of the most renowned rappers ever, leaving a print in this genre’s history.
Born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4th, 1970, in Brooklyn, New York City, he was raised alongside his other three siblings by his single mother, Gloria Carter, in the drug-infested Marcy Houses. Even though he had a rough childhood and teenage, growing up in such a delicate environment, surrounded by drugs and violence, young Carter turned to music and developed his rap skills since an early age.
In 1989, he joined Jay-O, a performer who acted like some kind of mentor for Carter. As he was known as Jazzy in his neighborhood, he also adopted this nickname in stage, which he would eventually transform into Jay Z, as he’s known nowadays. At the very beginning of his career he used to sell CDs out of his car, since he hadn’t sign up to any record label, being an anonymous artist. Until 1996, when two friends of his, Dash Damon and Kareem Burke, founded their own record label, Roc-A-Fella; then, he released his first album, Reasonable Doubt, which was a striking success.
Two years later, he released his second album, Vol. 2… Hard Knock Life, which gained an even greater success; from that moment on, his career would only be catapulted, receiving award after award and being honored with nomination after nomination for his work, having released The Blueprint, an album that would mark hip-hop’s history forever. After that, he resealed The Black Album, in 2003, before Kingdom Come, American Gangster, The Blueprint 3 and Magna Carta Holy Grail. But while Carter was in the peak of his music career, he turned his attention toward business, among which the most remarkable ventures of his are the clothing line, Rocawear, and the New York 40/40 Club sports bar.
He married the famous artist Beyoncé in April 4th, 2008, in New York, and four years later, the marriage would have a daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, on January 7th.
In 2014, Forbes Magazine estimated Carter’s fortune worth about $250 million, but by 2016, he is ranked N. 36 in Forbes Magazine’s List of Highest Paid Celebrities, with an estimated fortune of $56 million.
