Artist:Jay-Z f/Alicia Keys
Song:Empire State of Mind
Album:The Hits Collection Vol. 1
For all the success that rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter has had, you might be surprised that the 2009 single Empire State of Mind is his only #1 hit to date. I know I was surprised. Carter has been very successful since the late 90s. He was born Dec. 4, 1969 in New York City. He was raised by his mom in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant area. He got interested in music when his mom bought him a boombox. He was known as Jazzy in the neighborhood. The name Jay-Z was after 80s rapper and mentor Jaz-O. Carter got into rap battles in the early 90s and then he appeared on the 1994 album Show and Prove and he appeared on stage with Kane. Carter recorded an album but he didn't have a label so he sold them out of his car. His 1996 album Reasonable Doubt was on Roc-A-Fella and the 1997 album In My Lifetime Vol. 1 was on DefJam. Carter had his first really big hit when the 1998 single Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) reached #15 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was certified Platinum. He appeared on Mariah Carey's 1999 chart topper Heartbreaker. So now Carter is a consistent seller. The only problem is he can't seem to stay out of trouble. He got three years probation for a 1999 stabbing at a club. He even claimed he was retiring in 2003. It was nonsense. So he was continuing along and BTW, he married Beyonce in 2008. Then in 2009, he left DefJam and started his own company Roc Nation. The Blueprint 3 was his first album. Empire State of Mind was his first and to date only #1 hit. The song was written by Angela Hunte and Janet Sewell-Ullepic who had written it as a tribute to New York City. They were shopping it around but I guess the key was getting Alicia Keys to sing the hook. Carter continues to have success and he was inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. Here's the video for Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys.
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