Rap star, record producer, entrepreneur & father to be Jay-Z turns 42 today and boy does he have a lot to celebrate! Beyonce is pregnant with their first child and his album with Kanye West Watch The Throne just got nominated for a Grammy. While Jay-Z is also known for his multiple business ventures (including his fashion line Rocawear & the 40/40 club) along with his philanthropy, let’s take a look at what made him who he is, his music!
Jay-Z’s first album Reasonable Doubt released in 1996 and went platinum in 2002. The album is featured on Blender’s 500 CDs You Must Own Before You Die & Rolling Stone ranked it at 248 on their list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Jay-Z’s third studio album Vol.2 Hard Knock Life was what made him a household name and put him on par with the superstar rappers of that time including Tupac & Notorious B.I.G.The album won Jay-Z a Grammy Award for best Rap Album in 1999. The song Can I Get A…is one of Jay-Z’s most commercially successful songs of all time while Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) was his first song to become popular outside the U.S.
Jay-Z was unstoppable after his third album and kept churning out one platinum selling album after another from Vol.3 Life and Times of S. Carter to The Dynasty: Roc La Familia and The Blueprint.
Jay-Z is also responsible for the careers of other very succesful artists on the scene including Kanye West who first gained recognition for his work as a producer on the album The Blueprint where he also produced the soulful song, Young Forever.
Beyonce and Jay-Z first collaborated in the 2002 song Bonnie & Clyde which is when they reportedely started dating as well. Since then they have created many hit singles together including Crazy In Love, That’s How You Like It, Deja Vu and others.
In 2004 Jay-Z took his song Dirt off Your Shoulder and combined it with Linkin Park’s song Lying From You creating an epic song which they released in the album Collision Course by both artists.
While Jay-Z was CEO of Def Jam Recordings he was responsible for launching Kanye West, Rihanna & Ne-yo, he has continuously collaborated with these three artists throughout the years.
Jay-Z continues to enthrall audiences with his music and we hope he that if he ever decides to retire again he just comes back. My personal favorite Jay-Z song is Empire State of Mind which gives me goosebumps each time I listen to it. Team MissMalini wishes Jay-Z a very very Happy Birthday!
To watch more Jay-Z videos check out his Vevo Channel on YouTube. I warn you, you may start adding “izzle” to everything you say after watching more.
P.S: My personal story about Jay Z goes like this. My friends and I had signed up to be ushers at a Jay-Z concert in LA to raise funds for an organization in college but when we reached they had of course overbooked volunteers since Jay-Z had announced his retirement. Since we were so desperate to watch him perform we snuck into the auditorium, we did not regret it! 🙂