The Life of Jay Z
by Corbin Grondin
Shawn Carter Born
Thursday, Dec 4, 1969, 09:00 PM
Brooklyn, NY, United States
Shawn Corey Carter
Childhood
Music Career
1995-1997
When Jay-Z was young he would always wake up his siblings at night banging drum patterns into the kitchen table. Eventually his mother got tired of it and bought him a boom-box for his birthday. This inspired his love for music and he started writing lyrics for rap songs and practicing his free styles.
Jay Z had no major labels that wanted to give him a deal so he sold CD's out of his car and with a few of his friends he created Roc-A-Fella Records as their own independent label. He released his debut album Reasonable Doubt in 1996 with beats from popular DJ's at the time and Biggie Smalls himself. This album reached No. 23 on the Billboard 200. This album would eventually be included in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" as number 248 and also reach platinum status.In 1997 he releases My Lifetime, Vol. 1 and Jay Z states he made this at a very bad time in his life while he was still mourning the death of Biggie. My Lifetime, Vol. 1 shortly reached platinum status.
1998-2000
In 2000 he released The Dynasty which helped to introduce newcomer producers like Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Bink, which have all gone on to receive notable success. The Dynasty sold over 2 million U.S. copies.
2001-2002
During the wake of September 11th Attacks, he dropped his sixth studio album The Blueprint. The album managed to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, selling more than 427,000 copies.
Jay Z's Contact Information
Website: the4040club.com
Location: The 40/40 Club 6 W 25th Street New York, NY 10010-2703 USA
Phone: (212) 832-4040
Facebook: facebook.com/JayZ
Twitter: @s_c_