Jay-Z

Jay-Z, stylised JAŸ-Z, real name Shawn Corey Carter (born 4 December 1969 in New York), is an American rapper and businessman. He is one of the highest-paid hip-hop artists in America. Forbes magazine estimates Jay-Z's fortune at $2.5 billion. He is also one of the most prolific artists, having sold more than a hundred million albums; he has won twenty-four Grammy Awards but has only won the « Best Rap Album » category once, in 1999 with Vol. 2... Hard Knock Life. However, the rapper has triumphed twice in the « Best R&B Song » category, both times with his wife Beyoncé: the winning songs were Crazy in Love (2004) and Drunk in Love (2015). He reached first place on MTV's 2006 list of the « greatest MCs of all time ». Three of his albums, Reasonable Doubt (1996), The Blueprint (2001) and The Black Album (2003), are regarded as classics of the genre, all featuring on Rolling Stone's list of the « 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ».

As an entrepreneur and businessman, Jay-Z is a shareholder in the 40/40 Club and one of the creators of the Rocawear clothing brand. He has also owned the champagne house Armand de Brignac since 2014. A former chairman of the Def Jam Recordings label, he is the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records and founder of Roc Nation. He is also certified by the NBA and MLB. As a musician, he holds the record for the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200, with 13. On 11 December 2009, Jay-Z became the tenth most successful artist of the 2000s according to Billboard magazine, as well as the fifteenth best solo artist and fourteenth best rapper, behind Eminem, Nelly and 50 Cent. Rolling Stone ranks him as the 88th greatest artist of all time. He has been married to Beyoncé since 2008 and the couple have three children.