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The World is Crazy for Jay-Z
Freestyle Entrepreneur
Like all East Coast rappers worth his words, Jaz-Z got his start in the streets. Not just by having his father run out of their family in Brooklyn, or the fact that he claims he never graduated high school because he was slinging drugs. No, his best training came from freestyle rapping in his neighborhood, and in taking on fellow hip hop wannabes in the New York area, the likes of Busta Rhymes, DMX and Bizzy Bone of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Did I say “wannabes?”
But back to that entrepreneurial spirit I was talking about earlier. When nobody would sign Jay-z to a record label, what did he go and do? He created his own, called Roc-A-Fella Records. There, he released the first Jay-z album, called “Reasonable Doubt.” “Reasonable Doubt” resounded with the critics in 1996, and Jay-Z had made enough a name for himself to get a new deal to distribute his material with Def Jam, a biggie in the business. (Speaking of Biggie, the Notorious B.I.G. guest-rapped on that first album, which definitely helped out.)The Volumes of His Life
The second Jay-Z effort, “In My Lifetime, Vol. 1,” came out in 1997 to much anticipation. Mega producer Puff Daddy was behind it, and the Jay-Z record went all the way to platinum. Sell out, you say? Some do say that songs on this album show how Jay-Z started going commercial, but some of the Jay-Z lyrics on the album also have a hard edge. As the rapper would reveal later, he was having a hard time with life in general, following the murder of his close friend Biggie.
The success from his third album, “Vol. 2, Hard Knock Life,” released in 1998, had to help out with his problems. Jay-Z songs like “Hard Knock Life” and “Can I Get A” were smashes, helping the album to go quintiple platinum. Is quintiple a word? I don’t know. But what I do know is that the Jay-z record has sold more than 8 million copies since it came out.Can This Man Fail?
Success seemed destined to arrive at Jay-Z’s door each and every time he released an album. There was “Vol. 3, Life and Times of S. Carter,” which cleared about 5.6 million copies around the world, and then “The Dynasty,” which was bought to the tune of 2 million copies. The next Jay-z record, “The Blueprint,” is considered perhaps his best ever, followed by “The Blueprint: The Gift and a Curse.” How about “The Black Album”? Or “Collision Course”? All sold millions.
What’s a man with such success to do next? Retire. After “Collision Course” in 2004, Jay-Z was supposedly retired. Of course, like all great musicians and sports stars, retirement was only temporary for Jay-Z. He came back with the 2006 Jay-Z record “Kingdom Come,” followed by the 2007 “American Gangster.”
Want more proof that Jay-Z is the best ever? One word: Beyonce.
