Formal Booking Requisition

Talent Dossier

Shawn Corey Carter was born on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York City.He was raised in Marcy Houses, a public housing project in Brooklyn's Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood.His father, Adnis Reeves,abandoned the family when Jay-Z was 11 years old, and Jay-Z and his three older siblings were raised by their mother, Gloria Carter. Reeves later met and reconciled with Jay-Z prior to his death in 2003. Jay-Z claims in his lyrics to "You Must Love Me", the closing track on his 1997 album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1, that in 1982, at age 12, he shot his older brother Eric in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry. He attended Eli Whitney High School and George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, both in Brooklyn, and then Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey. He did not graduate, dropping out during his sophomore year at Trenton Central High School.According to his interviews and lyrics, he sold crack cocaine and was shot at three times during this period. His former friend was sentenced to prison for possessing drugs and weapons. Known as "Jazzy" around the neighborhood, he later adopted the stage name "Jay-Z" in homage to his mentor Jaz-O.