Jay-Z

American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur was born on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. He used rap as an escape, and appeared on Yo! MTV Raps in 1989. Three of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001), and The Black Album (2003), are considered landmarks in the genre with all of them featured in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Jay z is receiving 17 Grammy Awards for his musical work, and numerous additional nominations. He is one of the most financially successful hip-hop artists and entrepreneurs in America. Jay-Z was ranked as the tenth-most successful artist of the 2000s by Billboard as well as the fifth top solo male artist and fourth top rapper. In December 2013, it was announced that Jay-Z had received nine nominations at the 2014 Grammy Awards, more than any other artist.