Jay z who is

Although the record only reached No. Blige, and "Brooklyn's Finest," a collaboration with Notorious B. Reasonable Doubt established Jay-Z as an emerging star in hip-hop. Two years later, Jay-Z achieved even broader success with the album Vol. Hard Knock Life. The title track, which famously sampled its chorus from the Broadway musical Annie, became Jay-Z's most popular single to date and won him his first Grammy nomination.

The album helped to introduce newcomer producers The Neptunes, Just Blaze, Kanye West , and Bink, which have all gone on to achieve notable success. This is also the first album where Jay-Z utilizes a more soulful sound than his previous albums. The Dynasty sold over two million units in the U. Over the span of those years, the rapper released a slew of No.

His most popular songs from this period include "Can I Get A Jay-Z's most acclaimed album of this period was The Blueprint , which would later land on many music critics' lists of the best albums of the decade. Its release was set a week earlier than initially planned in order to combat bootlegging. Contrasting the radio-friendly sound of Jay-Z's previous work, The Blueprint features soul-based sampling and production handled primarily by Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Bink, as well as Timbaland, Trackmasters, and Eminem, who also contributes the album's sole guest feature.

At the time of the album's recording, Jay-Z was awaiting two criminal trials, one for gun possession and another for assault, and had become one of hip hop's most dissed artists, receiving insults from rappers such as Nas , Prodigy, and Jadakiss.

The album is also famous for both its producers Kanye West and Just Blaze's breakouts as major producers. West produced four of the thirteen tracks on the album, including the songs "Izzo H.

The Blueprint received universal acclaim from music critics, with praise being directed at Jay-Z's lyricism and the production. It is considered one of his best albums and has also been labeled as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.

Despite its release coinciding with the September 11 attacks, it sold over , copies in its opening week and debuted at number one in the US, holding the spot for three weeks. In , the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In , Jay-Z shocked the hip-hop world by releasing The Black Album and announcing that it would be his last solo record before retirement.

Asked to explain his sudden exit from rap, Jay-Z said that he once derived inspiration from trying to outshine other great MCs, but had simply gotten bored due to a lack of competition.

I love that. But it ain't hot. During his hiatus from rapping, Jay-Z turned his attention to the business side of music, becoming president of Def Jam Recordings. But his reign at the venerable hip-hop label wasn't all smooth sailing; Jay-Z resigned as Def Jam's president in , complaining about the company's resistance to change from ineffectual business models.

Of course, he was always going to embrace capitalism, how else could he effect change? He entertains. Spike Lee, he entertains. Oprah Winfrey, she entertains. From the position he now occupies, doesn't it become harder to rap about the bad old days?

Shouldn't he be writing songs about the trials and tribulations of a corporate whiz-kid? He smiles. Songs like Corporate Takeover. As I get further removed, I draw off different inspirations. It was about the paranoia of being successful. Does that worry him? Perhaps his best-known song now is Empire State Of Mind , a collaboration with Alicia Keys that charts his past and present.

While it has become an anthem of the American dream "New York, concrete jungles where dreams are made, oh, There's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York" , it also charts the nightmare that the city is for many "Welcome to the melting pot, corners where we selling rock". Today, he says, he's not as likely to write about "hos" or "bitches". If he called her a bitch or ho, would she give him a good slapping? He gives me a no-nonsense look. Of course not.

What I'm saying is that these relationships are taking place at a young age, so there is no real relationship there. Guys need to take responsibility, but they aren't mature enough at 16 or They are closed, shut off, emotionally crippled. They don't know how to express themselves. One of the most enjoyable elements of his memoir is the deconstruction of his own lyrics. He explains the scan and rhyming structure, and uses footnotes to clarify obscure street slang.

Again, it's classic Jay-Z — the more accessible he makes himself to people, the bigger the potential audience. Early on, he used to rap much faster. Why did he slow down? I was like a trickster, dribbling behind my back, just really trying to impress people. But as I started to get life experiences, I had to tell a story, so the technique had to slow down a bit. It had to make way for the story and the emotion. Wasn't it also partly because by slowing down he broadened his crossover appeal?

I think people connected to a real truth. You might not have lived that experience, but you've lived part of it or you connect to the ambition of it or to the resilience of that person. He laughs loud and long, and says no chance, but he likes the idea. You should creep in and sit at the back, I say. Such a senseless waste of life, he says. In , Jay-Z was reminded how easy it would be to lose everything.

He got involved in a fight at a nightclub. Nobody was seriously hurt, but two years later he was sentenced to three years' probation for stabbing record producer Lance Rivera.

What actually happened? I'm not going to blame it only on success, but there's a bar fight every night and it's not on the front page of the paper and nobody's being offered seven years.

The guy wasn't hurt — he took an aspirin and went home. Forty people fighting It was just like the things I used to do every Friday night are now on the front page of the New York papers, I'm a hunted man. But it was a wake-up call for me.

I've got to move more careful, I've got to watch my temper, everything has to change. I offer my congratulations, and he says the whole thing is nonsense. It's crazy, they've done it five times already.

As two of the world's biggest recording artists, are they competitive with each other? Do they sit at home comparing record sales? When you're working, you want to be the best or the best you can be, but as far as competing with each other, no, not at all. I ask about his heroes and he takes me on a guided tour of the photos in his office.

We stop at a magnificent larger-than-life picture of Ali's arm and fist wrapped for work. Like he was saying, 'I'm pretty' at a time when black people were told you're ugly and monkeys — he was like, 'I'm beautiful and gorgeous.

They have a certain glow about them. That for me is what your heroes are — unattainable. Jay-Z recently endorsed another man who attained the unattainable — Barack Obama. For black America, he says, Obama represented hope rather than politics. Pre-Obama, all the stuff about the land of the free, the place of opportunity, was just verbiage, he says. Now he's disappointed that America seems determined to thwart Obama.

Who could do that? Would he ever go into politics? He laughs. I have zero interest. I have interest in hope and people.

Politics — I still think it's a bunch of liars and a bunch of self-interest. It's not about the people, it's about themselves and their rise to power. They are voting on things based on whether they will have the support of the people when they vote next time. They don't have the balls to say, 'I believe in this, I don't care what happens.

If America became a truly egalitarian society, would rap would become less relevant — after all, it has traditionally been a music of the marginalised? By Bill Springer Senior Contributor. Aug 23, By Nadja Sayej Contributor. Aug 16, Fanatics is trying to get into the sports betting business. And it's added Jay-Z as a partner. The music mogul and Rock Nation adds to his ventures with Fanatics Sportsbook hoping to gain entry into the lucrative New York mobile sports betting market.

Sports betting news and information. By Jay Ginsbach Contributor. Aug 13, Since it acquired the company, LVMH has updated its brand image to appeal to younger customer. By Walter Loeb Senior Contributor. Aug 10, By Isabelle Bousquette Contributor. Toronto-based designer and founder of Futurezona Ranbir Sidhu creates ultra-bespoke pieces for A-list rappers, including Drake and Jay-Z.

Forbes caught up with the forward-thinking designer and innovator on his work.