SHAWN"JAY-Z"CARTER
Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969),better known as his stage name, Jay-Z, is an American hip hop artist and businessman. He is the former CEO of Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. He co-owns The 40/40 Club and the New Jersey Nets. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having sold over 26 million units in the United States and receiving several Grammy Awards for his musical work. Along with his financial and musical success, Jay-Z is known for being involved in many quarrels with other artist in the rap industry, the most well known being between him and fellow New York rapper Nas, which was eventually settled in 2005.
Jay-Z's debut album, Reasonable Doubt, is ranked by Rolling Stone as #248 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". His critically acclaimed album, The Blueprint, was written in only two days. After announcing his retirement from recording music in 2003, he returned in late 2006 with the album Kingdom Come, which sold 680,000 copies in its first week, Jay-Z's highest-selling album in a one-week period.MTV named him number one on their list of the greatest MCs of all time.[3] In April 2008, Jay-Z was reportedly on the verge of a partnership with Live Nation for $150 million—among the most expensive contracts ever awarded to a musician.
this is jay-z and his rap partner, jaz-o in their duo...
jay-z wasn't always alone...
Johnathan Burks, now known as Jaz-O, Big Jaz and Jaz is an East Coast MC, active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, best known for being the mentor of Jay-Z. Jaz is also known as the Originator and had a song called "The Originators" that featured a young Jay-Z in 1989. As simply the Jaz, he had success with his 1990 single "Hawaiian Sophie," from his debut album Word to the Jaz. He has been featured on some of Jay-Z's songs, such as "Bring it On" (from Reasonable Doubt) and the single "Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99)" (from Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life) as Big Jaz and produced the single "Ain't No Nigga" from Reasonable Doubt and the song "Rap Game/Crack Game" from In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. Jaz-O is known to have discovered Jay-Z. Jaz-O claims that Jay-Z got his name from Jaz, something Jay-Z denies.
Jaz was an important figure in the Nas vs. Jay-Z feud. It is also speculated that Jaz-O supplied Nas with some of the information he used in his Jay-Z diss track "Ether." After the situation with Nas cooled down, Jay-Z went on to diss Jaz first on a track released by DJ Kay Slay featuring Freeway, Geda K, Young Chris, and Memphis Bleek and later on his album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse. Jay-Z said on the title track, "I'ma let karma catch up to Jaz-O." Jaz responded with a record on a DJ Kay Slay mixtape called "It's Ova."
