Edited by Yujin Tchun
Shawn Corey Carter or more widely professionally known as Jay-Z, born on December 4th 1969, is a rapper, songwriter, record executive, businessman, and media proprietor from America. He was also known for being the previous CEO of Def Jam Recordings, where many major industry artists like Kanye West, Rihanna and J. Cole honed their craft. (Semon, 2021)
Growing up on the streets of Brooklyn New York, he and his co-founders Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke co-founded their first record label, Roc-A-Fella Records, where they sold CDs out of his car. But after forming a distribution deal with Priority, his next album released, Reasonable Doubt, reached 23rd on the Billboard 200 and would later be included in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time as number 248 and eventually reach platinum status. (Wikipedia, n.d.)
With such a great success in his debut album, Jay-Z only continued to grow his music career and snowballed his career to even greater heights, from hits like 4:44 to TIDAL or even his latest the Blueprint 3. (RocNation, 2021) Jay-Z is widely viewed as one of the most influential hip-hop artists in history. Since 1996, he has been the first hip-hop artist to be in the Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, and as of currently a world record breaking 83 grammy nominations as of 2022, in the previous years being tied in nominations at 79 with his wife Beyonce. (Newsdesk, 2021)
Not only has he been seeing exponential growth and reaching the top of the music industry, but he also is active in giving back to the community, starting the Shawn Carter Foundation alongside his mother back in 2003, which has helped eligible students facing socio economic issues in college. He has also used one of his tours to raise awareness of the global water shortage. In March of 2020, he also donated USD$ 1 million for relief during the Covid-19 pandemic in New York, and in April of 2020, Jay-Z and Meek Mill donated over 100,000 masks to U.S. prisons to protect inmates from Covid-19. (Wikipedia, n.d.)
References
JAY-Z. (n.d.). ROCNATION. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from
https://www.rocnation.com/music/jay-z/
Jay-Z. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Z#Music_career
Jay-Z becomes most-nominated artist in Grammys history. (n.d.). Music News. Retrieved
November 25, 2021, from https://www.music-news.com/news/UK/144944/Jay-Z-
becomes-most-nominated-artist-in-Grammys-history
Rashad. (2021, November 23). JAY-Z is Now the Most GRAMMY-Nominated Act in History
[Photograph]. That Grape Juice. https://thatgrapejuice.net/2021/11/jay-now-the-most-
grammy-nominated-act-history/
Semon, S. J. (2021, November 24). Jay-Z becomes the most Grammy-nominated musical
artist in history after being put up for three awards at the upcoming 64th ceremony.
Daily Mail. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10236217/Jay-Z-Grammy-nominated-
artist-history-three-awards.html
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