Born Shawn Corey Carter, the man today known as Jay-Z probably didn’t realise at the time that he would become one of the most financially successful rap artists in the history of the genre, win ten Grammys or marry Beyonce.
Jay-Z was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn, in New York City. His was a large family, but his musical talent showed itself early and his mother made sure to encourage him. By the time he was 19, he was well on his way, working with rapper Jaz-O. Twenty years later, he’d be working with Barack Obama to help the latter get elected.
