Birth Name: Shawn Corey Carter
Birthday: December 4, 1969
Born In: New York, New York

Early Life
Sean Corey Carter, or Jay-Z, is the one of the most finacially successful hip hop artists in America. Originally from Brooklyn, Jay-Z attended several different schools with many other rappers. He went to Eli Whitney High School with rapper AZ. When Eli Whitney closed down, he transferred to George Westinghouse Information Technology High School with rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes. He then went to Trenton Central High School, but never graduated.

After his mother bought him a boom box for his birthday, he began freestyling and writing lyrics. In his neighborhood, he was known as "Jazzy" which eventually developed into his stage name Jay-Z.

He can breifly be heard on some of his mentor's, Jaz-O, recordings in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

Early Music
When no major record label would give him a deal, Jay-Z, Damon Dash, and Kareem Biggs created Roc-A-Fella Records as their own idependent label. He then released his debut album Reasonable Doubt in 1996. The album was later included in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" at number 248.

In 1998 he released his third album called Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life. The album had several cart topping hits including "Can I Get A...". Vol. 2 eventually became Jay-Z's most successful albums, it was certified 5x platinum and has sold over 5 million copies to date.

His sixth album The Blueprint was released on September 11, 2001 during the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Despite having been released on 9/11 The Blueprint sold over 426,000 copies during the first week, and reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Although in 2002 he announced his retirement he continued to work on his seventh album The Black Album. In 2003 he held a concert in Madison Square Garden which was his "retirement party". He continued to do side projects and appearances, and also worked on a greatest hits album and collaboration albums with R. Kelly and Linkin Park.

In 2006, Jay-Z returned with his comeback album Kingdom Come. The album sold over 680,000 copies in the first week and ended up being the highest single-week total in his decade long career.

In 2009 he released his 11th stuido album, The Blueprint 3. The album was Jay-Z's 11th album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200.

Record Labels and Businesses
Jay-Z is considered one of the most successful Hip Hop entrepreneurs in America. He not only has his hands in several record labels, but owns other businesses of his own.

He is one of the three founders of Roc-A-Fella Records, the former CEO of Def Jam Records, StarRoc, and the founder of his new venture Roc Nation. Roc Nation is a record label, talent/management agency, and music publishing company.

Besides record labels, he is the founder of his clothing line Rocawear, a line for children and juniors. He also co-owns The 40/40 club and the NBA's New Jersey Nets.

Family Life
Jay-Z married long time girlfriend Beyonce Knowles on April 4, 2008.

 

Thanks to wikipedia.org for the information on Jay-Z