1. Jay-Z served as president and chief executive officer of Def Jam Recordings from 2004 to 2007, and founded the entertainment company Roc Nation the following year.
93 Facts About Jay-Z
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Each of his eleven subsequent albums, including The Blueprint, The Black Album, American Gangster, and 4:44, debuted atop the Billboard 200; Jay-Z holds the joint-record for the most number-one albums of any solo artist on the chart.
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Jay-Z has released the collaborative albums The Best of Both Worlds and Unfinished Business with singer R Kelly, Collision Course with Linkin Park, Watch the Throne with Kanye West, and Everything Is Love with his wife Beyonce.
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One of the world's best-selling music artists with 140 million records sold, Jay-Z has won 25 Grammy Awards, the tenth-most of all time and the most awarded for any hip hop artist.
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Jay-Z is the recipient of the NAACP's President's Award and three Emmy Awards, in addition to being nominated for a Tony Award.
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Jay-Z attended Eli Whitney High School and George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, both in Brooklyn, and then Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey.
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Jay-Z did not graduate, dropping out during his sophomore year at Trenton Central High School.
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Jay-Z became embroiled in several battles with rapper LL Cool J in the early 1990s.
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Jay-Z first became known to a wide audience on the posse cut "Show and Prove" on the 1994 Big Daddy Kane album Daddy's Home.
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Jay-Z has been referred to as Big Daddy Kane's hype man during this period, although Kane explains that he did not fill the traditional hype man role, and was instead basically making cameo appearances on stage.
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Detection dogs were called, but another police car had passed; Jay-Z was let go soon after.
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Jay-Z appeared on a popular song by Big L, "Da Graveyard", and on Mic Geronimo's "Time to Build", which featured early appearances by his former Murder Inc colleagues Ja Rule and DMX in 1995.
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Jay-Z relied more on flow and wordplay, and he continued with his penchant for mining beats from the popular producers of the day such as Swizz Beatz, an upstart in-house producer for Ruff Ryders, and Timbaland.
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The album went on to win a Grammy Award, although Jay-Z boycotted the ceremony protesting DMX's failure to garner a Grammy nomination and the academy's decision to not broadcast urban music categories.
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In 1999, Jay-Z collaborated with Mariah Carey on "Heartbreaker", a song from her seventh album, Rainbow.
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In 2000, Jay-Z released The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, which was originally intended to become a compilation album for Roc-A-Fella artists but Def Jam turned into a Jay-Z album.
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In 2001, Jay-Z spoke out against Prodigy after he took an issue with a Jay-Z line from "Money, Cash, Hoes" that he felt alluded disparagingly to Mobb Deep and Prodigy's dispute with Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, and Death Row Records.
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Jay-Z later performed the song "Takeover", at Summer Jam 2001, which initially attacked Prodigy and revealed photos of Prodigy dressed like Michael Jackson.
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Nas responded with a diss of his own, and Jay-Z straightaway added a verse to "Takeover" which dissed Nas and would start a feud between the two rappers.
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The feud had ended by 2005; Jay-Z stated that record producer Mark Pitts had helped them settle their differences.
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On September 11,2001, Jay-Z released his sixth studio album, The Blueprint, which received a five-mic review from hip-hop magazine The Source.
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In October 2001, Jay-Z pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for stabbing record producer Lance Rivera at the Kit Kat Klub in New York City in 1999.
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Jay-Z then collaborated with Chicago singer R Kelly to release collaborative studio album, The Best of Both Worlds in March 2002.
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Jay-Z worked with several producers including Just Blaze, The Neptunes, Kanye West, Timbaland, Eminem, DJ Quik, 9th Wonder, The Buchanans, and Rick Rubin.
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In 2004, Jay-Z collaborated with rock group Linkin Park, in which they released their collaborative remix EP Collision Course, which featured mashups of both artists' songs, as well as a concert DVD.
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On October 27,2005, Jay-Z headlined New York's Power 105.1 annual concert, Powerhouse.
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The concert was entitled the "I Declare War" concert leading to intense speculation in the weeks preceding the event on whom exactly Jay-Z would declare war.
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Jay-Z returned with his comeback album on November 21,2006, titled Kingdom Come.
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Jay-Z worked with video director Hype Williams, and the single's video was directed by F Gary Gray.
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Jay-Z released his tenth album entitled American Gangster on November 6,2007.
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In winter 2008, it was announced that Jay-Z would become the first major hip hop artist to headline Britain's Glastonbury Festival.
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Jay-Z headlined many other summer festivals in 2008, including Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Hove Festival in Norway and O2 Wireless Festival in London.
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On October 9,2009, Jay-Z kicked off his tour for The Blueprint 3, during which he supported his new album in North America.
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Jay-Z said he was inspired by the power of Kuti's work and his life story, which resulted in his interest to help produce the musical.
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On January 23,2010, Jay-Z released a track, "Stranded ", with Rihanna, and U2's Bono and The Edge, as well as performing it at the Hope For Haiti Now telethon.
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In June 2010, Eminem and Jay-Z announced they would perform together in a pair of concerts in Detroit and New York.
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Jay-Z appeared on stage during U2 performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and in Auckland on a five-track EP entitled Watch the Throne, although it was later revealed by West that the project had become a full-length LP.
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The album was first released on the iTunes Store, five days prior to its being released in physical format, a strategy Jay-Z later said was used to block an internet leak.
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Jay-Z opened his set with an appearance from Rihanna, they performed "Run this Town".
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Jay-Z took the subway to his sold-out show at The Barclays Center on October 6,2012.
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Jay-Z picked a couple of my joints that he's working on.
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Jay-Z hit me right back like, 'Yo, I'ma go in on this,' or, 'I like this.
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Timberlake and Jay-Z embarked on the co-headlining Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour.
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Not long after, Jay-Z confirmed that the hyphen in his stage name would be left out and officially stylized in all capital letters.
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In December 2013, it was announced that Jay-Z had received nine nominations at the 2014 Grammy Awards, more than any other artist.
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Jay-Z appeared on his wife Beyonce's self-titled fifth studio album, Beyonce, with a feature on the song "Drunk in Love".
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In 2021, Jay-Z was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with fellow rapper LL Cool J He appeared on the song "Jail" on Kanye West's 2021 album Donda, which went on to win Grammy Award for Best Rap Song at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards and on the song "Love All" from Drake's 2021 album Certified Lover Boy.
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Jay-Z's feature was succeeded by a four-minute guest appearance on DJ Khaled's album title track, "God Did".
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Jay-Z was awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special, as a producer for the Super Bowl LVI halftime show.
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Jay-Z says his earliest exposure to music was through his parents' record collection, which was mostly of soul artists such as Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway.
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The book describes how Jay-Z uses 'rests' to provide structure to a verse and how he uses 'partial linking' to add more rhymes to a verse.
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Jay-Z's fast rapping technique, known as the "triplet time", was developed during his early years of creating music with former mentor Jaz-O.
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Jay-Z has established himself as a successful entrepreneur with a business empire spanning a variety of industries from clothing lines, beverages, real estate, sport teams, and record labels.
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Jay-Z retains his stake in the company and continues to oversee the marketing, licensing and product development.
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Jay-Z became the first rapper in Reebok's history to endorse the company's footwear, signing a three-year endorsement deal.
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Jay-Z later appeared in a 2003 Reebok collection advertising his S Carter Collection.
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Jay-Z serves as co-brand director for Budweiser Select and collaborates with the company on strategic marketing programs and creative ad development.
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Jay-Z provides direction on brand programs and ads that appear on TV, radio, print, and high-profile events.
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From 2005 to 2007, Jay-Z was inaugurated as the president of Def Jam Recordings.
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ESPN mentioned that Jay-Z himself was planning to be a certified sports agent, first in baseball and eventually in basketball and football.
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Jay-Z became interested in the project after New York Governor David Paterson who awarded the contract said there had to be an affirmative action component to the ownership.
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Jay-Z was initially approached by casino mogul Steve Wynn, who was bidding on the contract.
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Jay-Z addressed racial profiling and police brutality in a conscious manner.
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In 2005, Jay-Z became an investor in Carol's Daughter, a line of beauty products, including products for hair, skin, and hands.
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On November 16,2010, Jay-Z published a memoir entitled Decoded.
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In November 2020, it was announced that Jay-Z would be join TPCO Holding Corp.
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Jay-Z appeared on Beyonce's hit single, "Crazy in Love" the following year, as well as the song "That's How You Like It" from her debut album Dangerously in Love.
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Since their marriage, they generally avoid discussing their relationship, and Beyonce has stated her belief that this has helped them, while Jay-Z agreed in a People article that they do not "play with [their] relationship".
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In 2006, Beyonce and Jay-Z were listed as the most powerful couple for Time magazine's 100 most influential people.
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Jay-Z released "Glory", a song dedicated to Blue Ivy, through his Life+Times website on January 9,2012.
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On December 2,1999, Jay-Z, who had come to believe that record executive Lance "Un" Rivera was behind the bootlegging of Vol.
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Jay-Z surrendered to police the following evening and was placed under arrest, although he was released on $50,000 bail.
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Jay-Z later addressed the case in his 2010 book Decoded:.
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Jay-Z let people know like, 'Yo, your man stabbed Un and you took the blame for it.
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Jay-Z denied the allegations and described it as a blackmail attempt.
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Buzbee filed an amended complaint to the court, where he alleged that Jay-Z conducted a "conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation against Plaintiff's lawyers" to prevent the Plaintiff from publicly naming him.
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Jay-Z claimed the band members of Good Charlotte witnessed the event, but they had actually been on tour in the Midwest at the time, not at the 2000 MTV VMAs, after which the accuser claims the alleged incident took place.
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In February 2025 Jay-Z dropped his request to have Tony Buzbee sanctioned by the court.
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On February 10,2025, Jay-Z filed a lawsuit against Tony Buzbee, stating he lost $20 million in contracts due to the allegations.
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On February 14,2025, the lawsuit against Jay-Z was officially dropped by Tony Buzbee and the accuser.
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In 2003, along with his mother, Jay-Z founded the Shawn Carter Foundation, which assists eligible students facing socio-economic hardships attend and get through college.
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Jay-Z supported Kanye West after West's outburst against President George W Bush during a live Katrina charity telethon.
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Jay-Z addressed the Katrina disaster and the federal government's response in his one-verse song "Minority Report".
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Jay-Z has said that "the greatest form of giving is anonymous to anonymous".
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In 2013, author dream hampton, who co-wrote Jay-Z's book Decoded, revealed that Jay-Z had established a trust fund for Sean Bell's children.
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Jay-Z donated to bail out protestors arrested during 2015 activism against police brutality.
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In March 2020, Jay-Z donated $1 million through the Shawn Carter Foundation to aid in relief during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York.
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In 2006, Jay-Z appeared with Russell Simmons in a public service announcement denouncing racism and anti-Semitism, sponsored by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.
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In 2008, Jay-Z was involved in the 2008 United States presidential election, supporting enhanced voter participation.
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Jay-Z supported the 2008 presidential candidacy of Barack Obama and performed voter-drive concerts financed by the Democrats' campaign.
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In May 2012, Jay-Z endorsed President Obama's support of same-sex marriage and participated in his re-election campaign.
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Clinton praised Jay-Z for addressing racism, oppression, and the criminal justice system.
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Jay-Z described Donald Trump as a "superbug" and condemned remarks he perceived as racist, but later said that Trump's rhetoric forced people to come together and address difficult issues such as white privilege.