Jay-Z Age, Net Worth And Personal Life

Shawn Corey Carter was born December 4, 1969, known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, songwriter, record executive , entrepreneur and record producer. 

Jay-Z Biography

Shawn Corey Carter was born in the New York City borough of Brooklyn on December 4, 1969.  He was raised in the Marcy Houses, a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. 

After his father, Adnis Reeves,  left the family, Jay-Z and his three siblings were raised by his mother, Gloria Carter. Reeves would later meet and reconcile with Jay-Z shortly before he died in 2003. Jay-Z states in his lyrics that in 1982, at age 12, he shot his older brother in the shoulder for steal the jewels from him.

Along with rapper AZ, he attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn until they closed. He then attended nearby George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School with rappers The Notorious BIG and Busta Rhymes, followed by a stint at Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey, though he did not graduate.  According to his interviews and lyrics, he sold crack and was shot three times during this period. 

According to his mother, Jay-Z used to wake his siblings up at night by playing drum patterns at the kitchen table. She bought him a boombox for his birthday, which piqued his interest in music, and he began freestyleing and writing lyrics.

Known as “Jazzy” in the neighborhood, he later adopted the stage name “Jay-Z” in tribute to his mentor Jaz-O.  Jay-Z can be heard briefly on several early Jaz-O recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including “HP Gets Busy“, “The Originators” and “Hawaiian Sophie” . 

Jay-Z Discography

Studio Albums

• Reasonable Doubt (1996)
• In my life, vol. 1 (1997)
• Vol. 2  Hard Knock Life (1998)
• Vol. 3  Life and Times of S. Carter (1999)
• The Dynasty: Roc The Family (2000)
• The Plane (2001)
• The Blueprint 2 : The Gift & the Curse (2002)
• The Black Album (2003)
• Kingdom Come (2006)
• American Gangster (2007)
• The Plan 3 (2009)
• Carta Magna Santo Grial (2013)
• 4:44 (2017)

Collaborative Albums

Jay-Z Filmography

• Streets is Watching (1998)
• Behind the scenes (2000)
• State Property (2002)
• Paper Soldiers (2002)
• Fade to Black (2004)
• The Great Gatsby (2013, executive producer)
• Made in America (2013, documental)
• Annie (2014, producer)
• Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (2018, Executive Producer)

Jay-Z Net Worth

Currently, Jay-Z’s net worth is estimated to be over $1 billion. However, it seems reasonable to say that this figure will continue to grow and grow in the times to come. 

In part, this is because Jay-Z is still making music, as well as touring, which means he’s by no means a forgotten figure in the music world even though he’s been immersed in it for more than a decade. of a year time of two decades. 

However, it should also be noted that Jay-Z is still heavily involved in running his business empire, which means there’s still plenty of opportunity for him to see further expansion. 

Something that is particularly true because Jay-Z is not limited to a single industry or even a small number of related industries, rather, he is perfectly willing to cast a much wider metaphorical net for possible investments. 

Combined with the fact that Jay-Z hasn’t even hit 50, this means he has decades and decades to make more and more money, particularly if he continues to keep up the pace he’s been up to now.

Jay-Z Net Worth In 2021

He is one of the most financially successful hip-hop artists in the United States and globally, with a net worth of over $1.4 billion as of 2021.

Jay-Z Age

He is 52 years old.

Jay-Z Career

Without a major label to give him a record deal, Jay-Z sold CDs from his car  and, with Damon “Dame” Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke, created Roc-A-Fella Records as an independent label in 1995.

After striking a distribution deal with Priority, Jay-Z released his 1996 debut album Reasonable Doubt featuring beats from acclaimed producers such as DJ Premier and Super DJ Clark Kent and an appearance by The Notorious BIG. 

The album was reaching number 23 on the Billboard 200, and was generally favored by critics. This album would later be included in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time as No. 248 and eventually go platinum. 

After striking a new distribution deal with Def Jam in 1997, he released his follow-up In My Lifetime, Vol. 1. Produced by Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, it outsold his previous version.  Jay-Z later explained that the album was made during one of the worst periods of his life when he was recovering from the death of his close friend, The Notorious BIG. 

The album was a personal revelation for Jay-Z as it told the stories of his difficult upbringing. The album’s brilliant production was a contrast to its first release, with some dedicated fans feeling that it had “sold out”. 

However, the album featured some beats from producers who had worked with him on Reasonable Doubt , namely DJ Premier and Ski. Like its predecessor, In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 achieved platinum status in the United States.

In 1998, he was releasing Vol. 2. Hard Knock Life which spawned the biggest hit of his career at the time, “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)“. 

He relied more on flow and wordplay, continuing his penchant for extracting beats from popular producers of the day, such as Swizz Beatz, an upstart in-house producer for Ruff Ryders and Timbaland.

Other producers included DJ Premier, Erick Sermon, The 45 King, and Kid Capri. Hits from this album included “Can I Get A…”, featuring Ja Rule and Amil, and “Nigga What, Nigga Who”, featuring Amil and Jaz-O. Vol. 2 would eventually become Jay-Z’s most commercially successful album; The album won a Grammy Award, although Jay-Z boycotted the ceremony in protest of DMX’s failure to earn a Grammy nomination. 

In 1999, he was collaborating with Mariah Carey on “Heartbreaker”, a song from her seventh album, Rainbow . The song was becoming his first chart topper in the US, spending two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. 

In that same year, he was releasing Vol. 3…The Life and Times of S. Carter . The album was successful and sold over 3 million copies.  Vol. 3 ‘s most successful single was “Big Pimpin“, featuring UGK.

In 2000, he was releasing The Dynasty: Roc La Familia , which was originally intended to become a compilation album for Roc-A-Fella artists, but Def Jam became a Jay-Z album instead.

The album helped introduce newcomer producers The Neptunes, Just Blaze, Kanye West, and Bink, who have achieved notable success. 

This is also the first album where Jay-Z uses a more soulful sound than his previous albums. The Dynasty sold over two million units in the US alone.

Jay-Z Personal Life

In 2002, Jay-Z and singer Beyoncé collaborated on the song “‘03 Bonnie & Clyde“. He was also featured on Beyoncé’s hit single “Crazy in Love” as well as “That’s How You Like It” from her debut album De Ella Dangerously in Love . On his second album, B’Day , he made appearances on the hits “Déjà Vu” and “Upgrade U”.

In the video for the last song, she comically mimics her appearance.  They kept a low profile while dating and were married on April 4, 2008. 

Their relationship was becoming a matter of public record on April 22, 2008, but Beyoncé did not publicly debut her $5 million Lorraine Schwartz – designed wedding ring until the Fashion Rocks concert on September 5, 2008.

They live in an $88 million house in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.  They generally avoid talking about their relationship,  and Beyoncé has stated that she thinks this has helped them, while Jay-Z agreed in a People article that they don’t “play with their relationship”. 

Them two were listed as the most powerful couple in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2006 . 

In January 2009, Forbes ranked them as the highest-earning couple in Hollywood, with a combined $162 million. They topped the list the following year, with a combined total of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009. 

At the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé revealed that she was pregnant with her first child.  Their daughter, Blue Ivy, was born at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York on January 7, 2012.

Jay-Z released “Glory“, a song dedicated to his son, through his website on January 9. , 2012. The song detailed the couple’s struggles during pregnancy, including a miscarriage Beyoncé had suffered.

Because Blue’s screams were included at the end of the song and he was officially credited on the song as “BIC”, he became the youngest person (at two days old) to appear on a list of Billboard when “Glory” debuted at number 74 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. 

On June 18, 2017, Beyoncé’s father, Mathew Knowles, was confirming that she and Jay-Z had welcomed twins: a daughter named Rumi and a son named Sir.