Maxy

Shawn Corey Carter was born in the Marcy projects of Brooklyn, the child of Gloria Carter and Adnes Reeves. He is his mother?s fourth child, her baby, and she?s one of his best friends. ?I?m a good friend to her, a very good friend.? He has one brother, Eric, who lives in upstate New York, and two sisters, Michelle, known as Mickey, who works at Rocawear, and Andrea, known as Annie, who?s a corrections officer at Riker?s Island Prison. ?She?s tough,? he says, almost in awe.

When Jay was four years old he got his first taste of fame. ?I rode this ten-speed, it was really high, but I put my foot through the top bar, so I?m ridin the bike sideways and the whole block is like oh God, they couldn?t believe this little boy ridin that bike like that. That was my first feelin of bein famous right there.? He laughed. ?And I liked it. Felt good.?

In the sixth grade Jay discovered he was smart. ?I knew I was witty around the sixth grade,? he said. ?I just had that feeling of being smart. We did some tests in the sixth grade and I was on a twelth grade level. I was crazy happy about that. When the test scores came back that was the first moment I realized I was smart.?

DJ Clark Kent met Jay when they were teenagers. ?When he was 15 he wanted to be the best rapper,? said Kent. ?He was ambitious and he wanted to get better every day. And it?s funny how effortlessly it came to him. He?s just gifted. It wasn?t really a development process with him. He became a rapper and he was just extra good.? Jay?s rise seemed easy, but he was practicing every day. ?For years every morning he?d wake up and be in the mirror rhyming to hisself,? says Beehigh. ?To hear himself and see how he?s pronouncing words and checkin his flow. Every morning. You know how some people get up and do they calisthenics every morning? That was his thing.? ?Yeah,? Jay says with a laugh. ?I used to do that [rhyme to the mirror]. Weirdo sh!t. I haven?t done that in years.?

Kent financed and produced some of Jay?s initial recordings, but it was difficult to get Jay to focus on hiphop because he was spending most of time hustling and that career was going well. ?Jay was enterprising [dealing drugs] and it was so hard for me to get Jay to rap,? Kent said. ?After he started to enterprise he was extremely comfortable. He never really stopped enterprising while we were in the beginnings of making the Jay-Z that you know.? But Jay knew he had to move on. ?My years was goin more and more in that life,? Jay said. ?The longer you go, the higher your odds are that something?s gonna happen to you. I knew the first day I stood on the block the clock was goin backwards. It was a countdown.? But after years of developing his MC skills, when Jay decided to go after a record deal, like Michael Jordan getting cut from the high school varsity basketball team, young Jay-Z couldn?t get record deal. ?One thing that frustrated Jay is the fact that he was way better than everyone who was getting signed,? Kent said. ?He was like, why am I so good and these other niggas is getting deals? They?re clowns.?

In the early 90s Kent introduced Jay to a young manager from Harlem named Damon Dash. Together with a friend named Kareem Burke they formed Rocafella Records and in ?96 released Reasonable Doubt. ?I wish we could take credit for thinkin of that on our own,? Jay said, ?but it was moreso out of, damn, we can?t get no deal? After a year of shoppin I was like, man let?s put it out ourself.? Running a label and being his own boss had an impact on his bank account?he got paid as an artist and as an owner of the label?and on his fan base?many felt that proved his intelligence, savvy, and independence?and also impressed the highest levels of the industry. Sure he?s a great rapper with great taste, but without the entrepreneurial background Jay wouldn?t have been able to ascend to the executive ranks.

The early months of Jay?s first year as President were a bit rocky. ?When I first started it was stale,? Jay says. ?I wanted to quit right away.? He wondered if he could resign without public embarrassment. ?There was nothing fresh, there was no excitement, it was just doin the same sh!t over again. I said where?s the passion? Where?s the ideas? Where?s the new sh!t? I?m used to bein around entrepreneurs and we was passionate about everything. But [in a corporation] whether this artist comes out and does 400 million or 40,000 the first week, their check is the same. So you?re doin everything routine, routine, routine, and you lose the passion for it. You stop comin up with new ideas and you start erasing the name off the marketing plan and fill it in with another name and it?s the same sh!t.? Then he realized that as the President it was his responsibility to inject the energy and passion. So he planned a company retreat.

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