Shawn Carter

Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay-Z, was born on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in the Marcy Projects by his mother after his father left the family. He began rapping in the late 1980s, drawing from his experiences with drug dealing, and founded Roc-A-Fella Records to release his debut album Reasonable Doubt in 1996, which went on to sell over a million copies. A pioneering figure in hip-hop, Jay-Z is recognized as one of the greatest rappers, a billionaire entrepreneur, and co-founder of the Shawn Carter Foundation focused on education and criminal justice reform.[1][2][3]