Born in 1969 and raised in the rough Marcy Projects of
Brooklyn, NY, Jay-Z underwent some tough times after his father left his mother
before the young rapper was even a teen. Without a man in the house, he became
a self-supportive youth, turning to the streets, where he soon made a name for
himself as a fledging rapper. Known as "Jazzy" in his neighborhood,
he soon shortened his nickname to Jay-Z and did all he could to break into the
rap game. As he vividly discusses in his lyrics, Jay-Z also became a street
hustler around this time, doing what needed to be done to make money. For a
while, he ran around with Jaz-O, aka Big Jaz, a small-time New York rapper with
a record deal but few sales. From Jaz he learned how to navigate through the
rap industry and what moves to make. He also participated in the group Original
Flavor for a short time. Jay-Z subsequently decided to make an untraditional
decision and start his own label rather than sign with an established label
like Jaz had done. Together with friends Damon Dash and Kareem
"Biggs" Burke, he created Roc-a-Fella Records, a risky strategy for
cutting out the middleman and making money for himself. Once he found a
reputable distributor, Priority Records (and then later Def Jam), Jay-Z finally
had everything in place, including a debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996).Listen song here:YouTube
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