Jay-Z is an American rapper. He was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 4, 1969. He was one of four children. They were raised by their mother Gloria Carter following their father's abandoning of the family. He attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn with future rapper AZ until the high school was closed down. He next attended George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School with future rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes. He also attended Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey. Despite attending three high schools, he did not graduate.
He released his debut album Reasonable Doubt in 1996. Longtime friend The Notorious B.I.G. collaborated with him on the song "Brooklyn's Finest". The next year in 1997, he put out his second album In My Lifetime, Vol. 1.
Personal life
He married Beyoncé in April 2008 and the marriage was made public months later when she was seen wearing a ring. She announced her pregnancy in September 2011 after performing, when she unzipped her blazer and rubbed her stomach. On January 7, 2012, Beyoncé gave birth to their first child, Blue Ivy Carter. Two days after the birth, Jay-Z released the song "Glory", where he spoke of the couple's troubles conceiving and mentioned Aaliyah in a line referring to her death, warning his daughter that after her career starts, "Just make sure the plane you’re on is bigger than your carry-on baggage."
Relation to Aaliyah
Jay-Z met Aaliyah during her career. The two became friends, being photographed together at a party in 2000. She visited his home he shared with her boyfriend Damon Dash two weeks before her death. After her death and the September 11 attacks, he would say her death felt like a precursor to the mass killings from 9/11. He made a remix of her song "Miss You". In the song, he expressed how much her family and friends were missing her, as well as her fans. He also branched out to expressing how much The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur were missed and then going into others that were deceased who were still being mourned.