NFL
Jay-Z’s Grandma Celebrates 100th Birthday With Beyoncé, Tina Knowles and More at Star-Studded Bash
Jay-Z and Beyoncé held a star-studded birthday party in honor of his grandmother Hattie White with a guest list that included Tina Knowles, Stevie Wonder, Megan Thee Stallion and more.
Jay-Z and Beyoncé like to party especially when it’s a milestone occasion.
The Carters hosted a star-studded bash in New York City on Sept. 27 in honor of Jay-Z’s grandmother Hattie White’s 100th birthday.
And while the black-tie event was a private affair for friends and family, Tina Knowles gave her followers a look inside the celebration, which included a performance by Stevie Wonder and a guest list that featured Megan Thee Stallion, her boyfriend Klay Thompson, Nas, Chris Martin and more.
“Stevie said ‘Happy Birthday to Ms Hattie White,’” Tina wrote in a Sept. 29 Instagram post that featured Stevie performing while she sings along into the camera. “The mayor of Brooklyn declared Sunday Ms. Hattie White Day! The elegant, classy, beautiful lady turned 100 and was celebrated by her family and friends at a party, fit for the Queen she is!!!”
“Stevie Wonder, one of her favorite artist [sic] paid tribute to her with her own private concert!!!,” she added. “Stevie reminded us of the many hits that he’s made!!! We danced the night away Those Carters know how to party!!!!!!!!!”
read
Beyoncé and Jay-Z Share Rare PDA Moment During Cowboy Carter Show in Atlanta
In another post, the 71-year-old shared a video of Stevie serenading the crowd as they danced along.
“What a glorious human being she is,” Tina wrote. “I can hear her famous quote ‘life gave me lemons and I made lemonade!’ Jay you showed out for your grandma and she deserved every moment of it!”
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
TRENDING STORIES
Dream Kardashian Reveals Luxury Gift From North West and Kim Kardashian
D4vd Investigation: Authorities Reveal If Celeste Rivas Hernandez Was Pregnant When She Died
Tom Holland Corrects Reporter Who Calls Zendaya His Girlfriend
Cardizoom|Sponsored
Eat This to Normalise Blood Pressure and Clean Blood Vessels!
In a video shared on TikTok from the celebration, Jay-Z, 55, holds the microphone while his grandmother—who donned a blue dress suit—stood beside him and her massive gold cake and addressed her guests.
“I want to thank you for coming out and celebrating my 100th birthday,” the Carter family matriarch told the crowd. “May God bless all of ya’ll who traveled the road that I have traveled.”
Jay-Z has previously honored his grandmother through songs and in speeches. Indeed, the Grammy winner paid tribute to a then 93-year-old Hattie while accepting the NAACP President’s Award.
“Abraham Lincoln had a quote that said, ‘It’s not the amount of years in your life, it’s the amount of life in your years that count in the end,” Jay-Z said during the ceremony in 2019. “She is so full of life and she among other accomplishments, being super great and very tough, she raised seven kids, one little walk up in Brooklyn. 615 Lexington, started my life.”
“On top of that, her kids had kids and we all were raised in the same house,” he said. “One household.”
Praising his grandmother and his mother Gloria Carter, he added, “I grew up knowing that I could accomplish anything because of those strong women in my house. I would like to dedicate this award to those beautiful women.”
For more on Jay-Z’s life, family and career, keep reading…
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
1. Born in New York City’s Brooklyn, Shawn Corey Carter grew up in the notorious Marcy housing projects in the borough’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
2. “It was a very intense and stressful situation,” he recalled during a 2010 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. “There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we’d play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day. It was a weird mix of emotions. One day, your best friend could be killed. The day before, you could be celebrating him getting a brand-new bike.”
3. But he remembers some highlights. “My mom and pop had an extensive record collection,” he shared of his earliest inspirations, “so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.”
4. He was 9 when he “started messing” around with music, he told British GQ in 2005. “I guess like all kids that got into hip-hop. And there was this guy who used to freestyle around the way. He used to rap about anything, You know, ‘My clothes is damp / And I like that lamp / And I am the champ,’ and I was like, that’s f–king cool. So I started trying it. It was a gift. I guess in the beginning I really took it for granted, it came so easy.”
James Devaney/GC Images
5. When father Adnis Reeves split when Jay was roughly 10, his mom, Gloria Carter was left to raise him and his older siblings: brother Eric Carter and sisters Andrea Carter and Michelle Carter.
6. He told David Letterman during a 2018 appearance on his Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, that, for years, he “had a bunch of anger towards him.” They later reunited at his mom’s urging.
7. The first meeting she set up, he was a no-show. “I was really done, but Mom pushed for another meeting, because she’s just a beautiful soul,” he recalled to Oprah Winfrey in 2009. At the next, “He showed up. And I gave him the real conversation. I told him how I felt the day he left. He was saying stuff like ‘Man, you knew where I was.’ I’m like, ‘I was a kid! Do you realize how wrong you were? It was your responsibility to see me.’ He finally accepted that.”
Neil Lupin/Redferns via Getty Images
8. Reflecting back on the situation brought him some understanding. “His brother had gotten killed in the projects,” he explained to Letterman. “Someone would call him and say, ‘I’ve just seen the guy who killed your brother.’ He would get up from his bed with his children, take his gun and leave the house. At some point, my mother was like, ‘you have a family here.’ But she didn’t have the language she needed to say, ‘we love you, we don’t want to lose you as well.’ So her fear came out like an ultimatum to him….That splintered their relationship. From there he was in deep pain, started using heroin and things like that.”
9. After they reunited, Jay bought him an apartment and furniture, but he passed away months later.
10. At age 12, he shot Eric in the shoulder following an argument, an incident they were able to move on from. “We were able to get past it,” he told GQ. “He was able to get past his addiction and I was able to get past my stupidity. Now we’re a family.”
by TaboolaPromoted Links
IC Markets
This Could Be the Best Time to Trade Gold in 5 Years
E! News
Ciara Shares Heartfelt Message to Husband Russell Wilson After He’s Benched by Giants
IC Markets
Gold Is Surging in 2025 — Smart Traders Are Already In
E! News
Why Selena Gomez’s Romance With Benny Blanco Isn’t the Same Old Love
Cleverst
40 Dated Décor Trends That Scream ‘Senior’
Johnny Nunez/WireImage
11. Crack was so prevalent in his neighborhood that he was recruited by a bodega owner to deal drugs in Trenton, N.J., some 70 miles away. “No one survives that,” he noted to Letterman. “You were either going to jail or you were gonna get killed.”
12. He narrowly missed the former thanks to a trip to London to record with onetime mentor Jaz-O. “During that time, there was a secret indictment, and they swept up and grabbed 30 of my friends, everyone,” he continued. “One of my closest friends, he went to jail for 11 years.”
13. In a way, he escaped death as well. “Like everyone else,” he told GQ, he carried a gun. “But I never used it. Never. Ever.” He was, however, shot at “from very close range,” at one point: “A friend of mine, we had a misunderstanding. And at the time, all misunderstandings ended with someone getting shot. Luckily, I’m still here.”
Randy Holmes/ABC
14. At the time, he shared on NPR, he was in complete survival mode. “At 14, 15 years old, you’re thinking about sneakers or you’re thinking about some sort of relief from all of the pain you’re feeling,” he said. “You’re thinking about buying some food for the house. You’re thinking about paying the extra light bill. So at that young age, you’re not thinking about the destruction you’re causing your own community.”
15. He was, however, pondering a future, writing rhymes down in a green notebook or whatever he could find. “I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice—anything just to get a paper bag,” he continued. “And I’d write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.”
16. The system had an unintended benefit: “As I got further and further away from home and my notebook, I had to memorize these rhymes—longer and longer and longer….By the time I got to record my first album, I was 26, I didn’t need pen or paper—my memory had been trained just to listen to a song, think of the words, and lay them to tape.”
Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NARAS
17. To this day, he doesn’t write down any of his lyrics, instead committing them to memory.
18. Still, he wouldn’t recommend his method to everyone. “I’ve lost a couple albums’ worth of great material,” he admitted. “Think about when you can’t remember a word and it drives you crazy. So imagine forgetting an entire rhyme. ‘What’s that? I said I was the greatest something?'”
19. His stage name was lifted from a myriad of inspirations: Jaz-O, who collaborated on his 1990 track “The Originators”, his childhood nickname of Jazzy, and the J/Z subway line near his childhood home.
20. The hyphen placement has been varied as well. Circa 2010, he ditched it, he revealed on L.A. radio show Big Boy’s Neighborhood, saying, “It’s not useful anymore. I had umlauts over one of the letters; I removed that too.” But with the 2017 release of 4:44, he brought it back, his rep confirming he’d be going by JAY-Z.
Raven Varona/Parkwood/PictureGroup
21. Among the other well-known faces at his George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School? Busta Rhymes and The Notorious B.I.G.
22. In fact, he and Busta “actually had a rap battle in the lunch room,” Jay shared with Jimmy Kimmel in 2016.
And to hear the “Break Ya Neck” rapper tell it, he might want a rematch.
“I knew Jay Z was rhyming ’cause me and Jay Z battled in school, speed rapping,” Busta said on Fuse’s Skee TV that same year. “He had finessed the speed rapping phenomenally at that time and I was new with the speed rapping, but losing that battle to Jay in speed rapping is what made me one of the most dangerous speed rappers today…Jay know he can’t see me in no speed rapping today.”
Larry Busacca/PW18/Getty Images for Parkwood Entertainment
23. Really, he just has a way with words. His sixth grade teacher Renee Rosenblum-Lowden gushed to The Washington Post, “The thing I remember about Shawn is he took the reading test and he scored 12th grade in the sixth grade.”
24. The admiration was mutual. Speaking with Letterman, the musician said, “I had a sixth-grade teacher. Her name was Ms. Lowden, and I just loved the class so much. Like reading the dictionary, and my love of words—I just connected with her. She took us to her house on a field trip. She had ice in her refrigerator way back when no one had it. I thought, ‘Oh man. I might be an English teacher.'”
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
25. Aside from the dictionary, his favorite reads include Homer’s The Odyssey, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Seth Godin’s Purple Cow and Gary Zukav’s The Seat of the Soul, one of two books he told Oprah.com “that I absolutely live my life by.”
26. As for movies, his picks include True Romance and The Godfather Part II. “Cliché, but really great,” he tweeted in 2013.
27. His tastes are quite refined all around, with his art collection including Basquiat’s “Mecca”, perhaps the “Basquiat in my kitchen corner” mentioned in 2013’s “Picasso Baby”.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
28. He’s called his first album, Reasonable Doubt “my favorite, because all the emotions and experiences of 26 years came out in it. That was the record I had 26 years to make.”
29. Getting his first hit—1998’s “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”—required him to do some trickery.
When his request to sample the iconic Annie track was rejected, “I made up this story about how when I was a seventh grader in Bed-Stuy, our teacher held an essay contest and the three best papers won a trip to the city to see Annie,” he wrote in his 2011 memoir, Decoded. “A lie. I wrote that as kids in Brooklyn we hardly ever came into the city. True. I wrote that from the moment the curtain came up I felt like I understood honey’s story. Of course, I’d never been to see Annie on Broadway. But I had seen the movie on TV. Anyway, they bought it, cleared it, and I had one of my biggest hits.”
30. And it was based in reality. When that televised version came out, “I was drawn to it,” he’s said. “It was the struggle of this poor kid in this environment and how her life changed…It immediately resonated.”
Prince Williams/FilmMagic
31. He tricked his mom into lending her voice to “December 4th” off 2003’s The Black Album. “I told her to meet me down at the studio and we were going to go to lunch,” he wrote in Decoded. “She came down to the studio, and I just brought the track up and I said, ‘I just want you to talk on it.’ Because I knew if I told her [she was going to be on the song], she’d get really nervous. [She said], ‘What do you want me to say?’ And the rest is history.”
32. He announced his (ultimately temporary) retirement with a 2003 concert at Madison Square Garden, featuring the Roots, Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams. All proceeds went to charity.
33. His next act began with the sale of Roc-A-Fella and being named the president of Def Jam Records.
34. His far-reaching empire has included clothing (retailer Rocawear), liquor brands (Armand de Brignac champagne and D’Ussé cognac), a stake in the Brooklyn Nets, streaming service Tidal and Roc Nation, which represents top names in entertainment (read: Rihanna) and sports (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley).
35. The musician has also inked lucrative endorsement deals with Reebok, Budweiser and watchmaker Audemars-Piguet.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Clara Lionel Foundation
36. In addition, Roc Nation signed deal to provide entertainment for Super Bowl halftime shows and help assist their Inspire Change initiative
37. No less than billionaire Warren Buffett has been shilling for him since 2010, when he told Forbes, “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.”
38. Becoming a billionaire hasn’t changed his core beliefs. “I don’t have that sort of thing, like, I want to vote Republican just to save more money,” he said in his 2017 New York Times interview with journalist Dean Baquet. “That’s not the endgame. It’s not about who got more money and who got more houses. Yes, you know, you’ve earned it, buy what you want….But don’t forget what’s important. Without people, being rich would be very boring.”
Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images
39. He’s been influenced by “so many great people,” he told Letterman, “Biggie Smalls of course, Tupac [Shakur] of course…Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick.”
40. But he’s not about to call out those he finds lacking. Asked by the legendary TV host, “Are there guys who are successful that are not good?”, he answered, “Of course. All the time—it’s like everything else.” Prodded to elaborate, he shrewdly responded, “How ’bout this? Who’s on TV in late night, right now, that’s not even remotely funny?”
41. “Very few” people knew about his 2008 wedding, he revealed to Oprah of the New York-based nuptials attended by roughly 30 guests. “The sad part is that we offended some. But people who love you understand. Because at the end of the day, it’s your day.”
Kevin Mazur/WireImage
42. Especially attuned, he realized his mother was gay early on, “Let’s call it teenage years,” he said in the New York Times. “We never spoke about it. We—it just exist. It was there. Everyone knew.”
43. He sobbed when his mother finally came out to him. “Imagine having to live your life as someone else and you think you’re protecting your kids,” he shared with Letterman.
“For my mother to have to live as someone she wasn’t, hide and protect her kids…for all this time, for her to sit in front of me and tell me, ‘I think I love someone,’ I really cried…I was so happy for her that she was free…I knew [that that she was gay], but this was the first time we had the conversation, the first time I heard her say she loved her partner. She said, ‘I feel like I love somebody.’ She held that little bit back still—she didn’t say, ‘I’m in love’…And I just started crying.”
Beyonce.com
44. Now, he said in the Times, he feels their relationship has vastly improved: “We were always good friends but now we’re really great friends. You know. And we were just talking as friends.”
45. He credits Beyoncé with keeping their marriage together after his infidelity (depicted in detail on 4:44). “I have a beautiful wife who’s understanding and knew that I’m not the worst of what I’ve done. And we did the hard work of going to therapy. We love each other. We put in the work,” he told Letterman. “This music that I’m making now is a result of things that have happened earlier. Like you, I like to believe that we’re in a better place today, but still working, still communicating and growing. I’m proud of the father and the husband I am today because of all of the work that I’ve done.”
Beyonce.com
46. His takeaway from his time in therapy: “I grew so much from the experience,” he shared in the New York Times. “But I think the most important thing I got is that everything is connected. Every emotion is connected and it comes from somewhere. And just being aware of it. Being aware of it in everyday life puts you at such a…you’re at such an advantage.
47. The most vital lesson he feels he need to impart on kids Blue, Sir and Rumi, is to “have compassion for others,” he told Baquet, “and to identify with everyone’s struggle and to know these people made these sacrifices for us to be where we are and to push that forward—for us. I believe that’s the most important thing to show them, because they don’t have to know things that I knew growing up. Like being tough.”
Christopher Polk/Getty Images
48. To him, longtime friend and collaborator Kanye West is family. “He’s my brother. I love Kanye. I do,” he said to Baquet. “It’s a complicated relationship with us.”
With West entering the business on his label, “I’ve always been like his big brother. And we’re both entertainers. It’s always been like a little underlying competition with your big brother. And we both love and respect each other’s art, too. So it’s like, we both—everyone wants to be the greatest in the world. You know what I’m saying? And then there’s like a lot of other factors that play in it. But it’s gonna, we gonna always be good.”
49. As for their brief 2016 dispute, mostly forgotten. “Hopefully when we’re 89 we look at this six months or whatever time and we laugh at that. You know what I’m saying?”
Brian Ach/Getty Images for Something in the Water
50. He truly is just getting started.
Calling rap “the gift of discovery” with audiences getting excited over every hot new artist, he said in the Times, “That white-hot space—people think it’s the biggest thing, but it’s really small. It’s almost like a trend. Would you rather be a trend, or you rather be Ralph Lauren? You know what I mean; like, you rather be a trend, or you rather be forever? I’m the person that looked at the Mona Lisa and be like, Man, that’s gonna be cool in 40 years. I play forever. And so my whole thing is to identify with the truth. Not to be the youngest, hottest, new, trendy thing.”
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
Continue Reading
Jay-Z and Beyoncé like to party especially when it’s a milestone occasion.
The Carters hosted a star-studded bash in New York City on Sept. 27 in honor of Jay-Z’s grandmother Hattie White’s 100th birthday.
And while the black-tie event was a private affair for friends and family, Tina Knowles gave her followers a look inside the celebration, which included a performance by Stevie Wonder and a guest list that featured Megan Thee Stallion, her boyfriend Klay Thompson, Nas, Chris Martin and more.
“Stevie said ‘Happy Birthday to Ms Hattie White,’” Tina wrote in a Sept. 29 Instagram post that featured Stevie performing while she sings along into the camera. “The mayor of Brooklyn declared Sunday Ms. Hattie White Day! The elegant, classy, beautiful lady turned 100 and was celebrated by her family and friends at a party, fit for the Queen she is!!!”
“Stevie Wonder, one of her favorite artist [sic] paid tribute to her with her own private concert!!!,” she added. “Stevie reminded us of the many hits that he’s made!!! We danced the night away Those Carters know how to party!!!!!!!!!”
In another post, the 71-year-old shared a video of Stevie serenading the crowd as they danced along.
“What a glorious human being she is,” Tina wrote. “I can hear her famous quote ‘life gave me lemons and I made lemonade!’ Jay you showed out for your grandma and she deserved every moment of it!”
In a video shared on TikTok from the celebration, Jay-Z, 55, holds the microphone while his grandmother—who donned a blue dress suit—stood beside him and her massive gold cake and addressed her guests.
“I want to thank you for coming out and celebrating my 100th birthday,” the Carter family matriarch told the crowd. “May God bless all of ya’ll who traveled the road that I have traveled.”
Jay-Z has previously honored his grandmother through songs and in speeches. Indeed, the Grammy winner paid tribute to a then 93-year-old Hattie while accepting the NAACP President’s Award.
“Abraham Lincoln had a quote that said, ‘It’s not the amount of years in your life, it’s the amount of life in your years that count in the end,” Jay-Z said during the ceremony in 2019. “She is so full of life and she among other accomplishments, being super great and very tough, she raised seven kids, one little walk up in Brooklyn. 615 Lexington, started my life.”
“On top of that, her kids had kids and we all were raised in the same house,” he said. “One household.”
Praising his grandmother and his mother Gloria Carter, he added, “I grew up knowing that I could accomplish anything because of those strong women in my house. I would like to dedicate this award to those beautiful women.”
For more on Jay-Z’s life, family and career, keep reading…
1. Born in New York City’s Brooklyn, Shawn Corey Carter grew up in the notorious Marcy housing projects in the borough’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.
2. “It was a very intense and stressful situation,” he recalled during a 2010 interview on NPR’s Fresh Air. “There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we’d play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day. It was a weird mix of emotions. One day, your best friend could be killed. The day before, you could be celebrating him getting a brand-new bike.”
3. But he remembers some highlights. “My mom and pop had an extensive record collection,” he shared of his earliest inspirations, “so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.”
4. He was 9 when he “started messing” around with music, he told British GQ in 2005. “I guess like all kids that got into hip-hop. And there was this guy who used to freestyle around the way. He used to rap about anything, You know, ‘My clothes is damp / And I like that lamp / And I am the champ,’ and I was like, that’s f–king cool. So I started trying it. It was a gift. I guess in the beginning I really took it for granted, it came so easy.”
5. When father Adnis Reeves split when Jay was roughly 10, his mom, Gloria Carter was left to raise him and his older siblings: brother Eric Carter and sisters Andrea Carter and Michelle Carter.
6. He told David Letterman during a 2018 appearance on his Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, that, for years, he “had a bunch of anger towards him.” They later reunited at his mom’s urging.
7. The first meeting she set up, he was a no-show. “I was really done, but Mom pushed for another meeting, because she’s just a beautiful soul,” he recalled to Oprah Winfrey in 2009. At the next, “He showed up. And I gave him the real conversation. I told him how I felt the day he left. He was saying stuff like ‘Man, you knew where I was.’ I’m like, ‘I was a kid! Do you realize how wrong you were? It was your responsibility to see me.’ He finally accepted that.”
8. Reflecting back on the situation brought him some understanding. “His brother had gotten killed in the projects,” he explained to Letterman. “Someone would call him and say, ‘I’ve just seen the guy who killed your brother.’ He would get up from his bed with his children, take his gun and leave the house. At some point, my mother was like, ‘you have a family here.’ But she didn’t have the language she needed to say, ‘we love you, we don’t want to lose you as well.’ So her fear came out like an ultimatum to him….That splintered their relationship. From there he was in deep pain, started using heroin and things like that.”
9. After they reunited, Jay bought him an apartment and furniture, but he passed away months later.
10. At age 12, he shot Eric in the shoulder following an argument, an incident they were able to move on from. “We were able to get past it,” he told GQ. “He was able to get past his addiction and I was able to get past my stupidity. Now we’re a family.”
11. Crack was so prevalent in his neighborhood that he was recruited by a bodega owner to deal drugs in Trenton, N.J., some 70 miles away. “No one survives that,” he noted to Letterman. “You were either going to jail or you were gonna get killed.”
12. He narrowly missed the former thanks to a trip to London to record with onetime mentor Jaz-O. “During that time, there was a secret indictment, and they swept up and grabbed 30 of my friends, everyone,” he continued. “One of my closest friends, he went to jail for 11 years.”
13. In a way, he escaped death as well. “Like everyone else,” he told GQ, he carried a gun. “But I never used it. Never. Ever.” He was, however, shot at “from very close range,” at one point: “A friend of mine, we had a misunderstanding. And at the time, all misunderstandings ended with someone getting shot. Luckily, I’m still here.”
14. At the time, he shared on NPR, he was in complete survival mode. “At 14, 15 years old, you’re thinking about sneakers or you’re thinking about some sort of relief from all of the pain you’re feeling,” he said. “You’re thinking about buying some food for the house. You’re thinking about paying the extra light bill. So at that young age, you’re not thinking about the destruction you’re causing your own community.”
15. He was, however, pondering a future, writing rhymes down in a green notebook or whatever he could find. “I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice—anything just to get a paper bag,” he continued. “And I’d write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.”
16. The system had an unintended benefit: “As I got further and further away from home and my notebook, I had to memorize these rhymes—longer and longer and longer….By the time I got to record my first album, I was 26, I didn’t need pen or paper—my memory had been trained just to listen to a song, think of the words, and lay them to tape.”
17. To this day, he doesn’t write down any of his lyrics, instead committing them to memory.
18. Still, he wouldn’t recommend his method to everyone. “I’ve lost a couple albums’ worth of great material,” he admitted. “Think about when you can’t remember a word and it drives you crazy. So imagine forgetting an entire rhyme. ‘What’s that? I said I was the greatest something?'”
19. His stage name was lifted from a myriad of inspirations: Jaz-O, who collaborated on his 1990 track “The Originators”, his childhood nickname of Jazzy, and the J/Z subway line near his childhood home.
20. The hyphen placement has been varied as well. Circa 2010, he ditched it, he revealed on L.A. radio show Big Boy’s Neighborhood, saying, “It’s not useful anymore. I had umlauts over one of the letters; I removed that too.” But with the 2017 release of 4:44, he brought it back, his rep confirming he’d be going by JAY-Z.
21. Among the other well-known faces at his George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School? Busta Rhymes and The Notorious B.I.G.
22. In fact, he and Busta “actually had a rap battle in the lunch room,” Jay shared with Jimmy Kimmel in 2016.
And to hear the “Break Ya Neck” rapper tell it, he might want a rematch.
“I knew Jay Z was rhyming ’cause me and Jay Z battled in school, speed rapping,” Busta said on Fuse’s Skee TV that same year. “He had finessed the speed rapping phenomenally at that time and I was new with the speed rapping, but losing that battle to Jay in speed rapping is what made me one of the most dangerous speed rappers today…Jay know he can’t see me in no speed rapping today.”
23. Really, he just has a way with words. His sixth grade teacher Renee Rosenblum-Lowden gushed to The Washington Post, “The thing I remember about Shawn is he took the reading test and he scored 12th grade in the sixth grade.”
24. The admiration was mutual. Speaking with Letterman, the musician said, “I had a sixth-grade teacher. Her name was Ms. Lowden, and I just loved the class so much. Like reading the dictionary, and my love of words—I just connected with her. She took us to her house on a field trip. She had ice in her refrigerator way back when no one had it. I thought, ‘Oh man. I might be an English teacher.'”
25. Aside from the dictionary, his favorite reads include Homer‘s The Odyssey, Malcolm Gladwell‘s Outliers, Seth Godin‘s Purple Cow and Gary Zukav‘s The Seat of the Soul, one of two books he told Oprah.com “that I absolutely live my life by.”
26. As for movies, his picks include True Romance and The Godfather Part II. “Cliché, but really great,” he tweeted in 2013.
27. His tastes are quite refined all around, with his art collection including Basquiat’s “Mecca”, perhaps the “Basquiat in my kitchen corner” mentioned in 2013’s “Picasso Baby”.
28. He’s called his first album, Reasonable Doubt “my favorite, because all the emotions and experiences of 26 years came out in it. That was the record I had 26 years to make.”
29. Getting his first hit—1998’s “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)”—required him to do some trickery.
When his request to sample the iconic Annie track was rejected, “I made up this story about how when I was a seventh grader in Bed-Stuy, our teacher held an essay contest and the three best papers won a trip to the city to see Annie,” he wrote in his 2011 memoir, Decoded. “A lie. I wrote that as kids in Brooklyn we hardly ever came into the city. True. I wrote that from the moment the curtain came up I felt like I understood honey’s story. Of course, I’d never been to see Annie on Broadway. But I had seen the movie on TV. Anyway, they bought it, cleared it, and I had one of my biggest hits.”
30. And it was based in reality. When that televised version came out, “I was drawn to it,” he’s said. “It was the struggle of this poor kid in this environment and how her life changed…It immediately resonated.”
31. He tricked his mom into lending her voice to “December 4th” off 2003’s The Black Album. “I told her to meet me down at the studio and we were going to go to lunch,” he wrote in Decoded. “She came down to the studio, and I just brought the track up and I said, ‘I just want you to talk on it.’ Because I knew if I told her [she was going to be on the song], she’d get really nervous. [She said], ‘What do you want me to say?’ And the rest is history.”
32. He announced his (ultimately temporary) retirement with a 2003 concert at Madison Square Garden, featuring the Roots, Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige, Beyoncé and Pharrell Williams. All proceeds went to charity.
33. His next act began with the sale of Roc-A-Fella and being named the president of Def Jam Records.
34. His far-reaching empire has included clothing (retailer Rocawear), liquor brands (Armand de Brignac champagne and D’Ussé cognac), a stake in the Brooklyn Nets, streaming service Tidal and Roc Nation, which represents top names in entertainment (read: Rihanna) and sports (Kevin Durant, Todd Gurley).
35. The musician has also inked lucrative endorsement deals with Reebok, Budweiser and watchmaker Audemars-Piguet.
36. In addition, Roc Nation signed deal to provide entertainment for Super Bowl halftime shows and help assist their Inspire Change initiative
37. No less than billionaire Warren Buffett has been shilling for him since 2010, when he told Forbes, “Jay is teaching in a lot bigger classroom than I’ll ever teach in. For a young person growing up, he’s the guy to learn from.”
38. Becoming a billionaire hasn’t changed his core beliefs. “I don’t have that sort of thing, like, I want to vote Republican just to save more money,” he said in his 2017 New York Times interview with journalist Dean Baquet. “That’s not the endgame. It’s not about who got more money and who got more houses. Yes, you know, you’ve earned it, buy what you want….But don’t forget what’s important. Without people, being rich would be very boring.”
39. He’s been influenced by “so many great people,” he told Letterman, “Biggie Smalls of course, Tupac [Shakur] of course…Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick.”
40. But he’s not about to call out those he finds lacking. Asked by the legendary TV host, “Are there guys who are successful that are not good?”, he answered, “Of course. All the time—it’s like everything else.” Prodded to elaborate, he shrewdly responded, “How ’bout this? Who’s on TV in late night, right now, that’s not even remotely funny?”
41. “Very few” people knew about his 2008 wedding, he revealed to Oprah of the New York-based nuptials attended by roughly 30 guests. “The sad part is that we offended some. But people who love you understand. Because at the end of the day, it’s your day.”
42. Especially attuned, he realized his mother was gay early on, “Let’s call it teenage years,” he said in the New York Times. “We never spoke about it. We—it just exist. It was there. Everyone knew.”
43. He sobbed when his mother finally came out to him. “Imagine having to live your life as someone else and you think you’re protecting your kids,” he shared with Letterman.
“For my mother to have to live as someone she wasn’t, hide and protect her kids…for all this time, for her to sit in front of me and tell me, ‘I think I love someone,’ I really cried…I was so happy for her that she was free…I knew [that that she was gay], but this was the first time we had the conversation, the first time I heard her say she loved her partner. She said, ‘I feel like I love somebody.’ She held that little bit back still—she didn’t say, ‘I’m in love’…And I just started crying.”
44. Now, he said in the Times, he feels their relationship has vastly improved: “We were always good friends but now we’re really great friends. You know. And we were just talking as friends.”
45. He credits Beyoncé with keeping their marriage together after his infidelity (depicted in detail on 4:44). “I have a beautiful wife who’s understanding and knew that I’m not the worst of what I’ve done. And we did the hard work of going to therapy. We love each other. We put in the work,” he told Letterman. “This music that I’m making now is a result of things that have happened earlier. Like you, I like to believe that we’re in a better place today, but still working, still communicating and growing. I’m proud of the father and the husband I am today because of all of the work that I’ve done.”
46. His takeaway from his time in therapy: “I grew so much from the experience,” he shared in the New York Times. “But I think the most important thing I got is that everything is connected. Every emotion is connected and it comes from somewhere. And just being aware of it. Being aware of it in everyday life puts you at such a…you’re at such an advantage.
47. The most vital lesson he feels he need to impart on kids Blue, Sir and Rumi, is to “have compassion for others,” he told Baquet, “and to identify with everyone’s struggle and to know these people made these sacrifices for us to be where we are and to push that forward—for us. I believe that’s the most important thing to show them, because they don’t have to know things that I knew growing up. Like being tough.”
48. To him, longtime friend and collaborator Kanye West is family. “He’s my brother. I love Kanye. I do,” he said to Baquet. “It’s a complicated relationship with us.”
With West entering the business on his label, “I’ve always been like his big brother. And we’re both entertainers. It’s always been like a little underlying competition with your big brother. And we both love and respect each other’s art, too. So it’s like, we both—everyone wants to be the greatest in the world. You know what I’m saying? And then there’s like a lot of other factors that play in it. But it’s gonna, we gonna always be good.”
49. As for their brief 2016 dispute, mostly forgotten. “Hopefully when we’re 89 we look at this six months or whatever time and we laugh at that. You know what I’m saying?”
50. He truly is just getting started.
Calling rap “the gift of discovery” with audiences getting excited over every hot new artist, he said in the Times, “That white-hot space—people think it’s the biggest thing, but it’s really small. It’s almost like a trend. Would you rather be a trend, or you rather be Ralph Lauren? You know what I mean; like, you rather be a trend, or you rather be forever? I’m the person that looked at the Mona Lisa and be like, Man, that’s gonna be cool in 40 years. I play forever. And so my whole thing is to identify with the truth. Not to be the youngest, hottest, new, trendy thing.”
Why Michael Douglas Just Admitted to ‘Project 1995’ and the Drama Behind Rob’s Final Letter! For fifty years, Michael Douglas and Rob Reiner were the untouchable architects of the Hollywood elite. But as the investigation into the brutal December 2025 Brentwood murders intensifies, Douglas has broken his “vow of silence” to reveal a dark, subterranean secret that predates Nick Reiner’s violence by three decades. In a startling admission from a man facing his own “day of reckoning,” Douglas reveals that 24 hours before the tragedy, Rob Reiner sent him a frantic letter containing a terrifying warning: “He’s found the files on Project 1995. If I die, you’re next.” This isn’t just about a family dispute; it’s an autopsy of a high-stakes cover-up involving the death of a political intern named Sarah, a $200 million silence fund, and a “Malibu Ledger” that names the industry’s most powerful icons. Douglas confesses that he helped Rob build a “mental prison” around a 14-year-old Nick, using covert behavioral camps and high-dose sedatives to erase the boy’s memory of a crime he never should have witnessed. Now, as the FBI secures the hard drives and Douglas prepares to surrender to the District Attorney, the truth is finally out: Nick Reiner didn’t just pull a trigger; he performed “brutal surgery” on a system built on lies. Prepare to discover why the most dangerous thing in Hollywood wasn’t the drugs—it was the $200 million price tag on a child’s memory.
The Shocking Truth About Malia Obama’s Love Life Revealed After Years of Silence — Guess Even Presidential Daughters Have Secrets! Malia Obama Pregnancy & Abusive relationship, the eldest daughter of former President Barack Obama, has long been the subject of intense media scrutiny, especially regarding her personal life. For years, rumors and speculation about her romantic relationships have circulated, fueled by her high-profile background and the public’s fascination with the Obama family. Now, at 26, Malia has finally addressed the whispers and confirmed details about her boyfriend, putting an end to much of the speculation. The video explores how Malia has managed to maintain a relatively private life despite growing up in the global spotlight. It also delves into the challenges she faces balancing normalcy with public interest, and how this recent confirmation marks a significant moment of personal agency for her. Fans and observers have reacted with mixed emotions, some celebrating her openness while others continue to pry into her private affairs. The video also touches on the broader context of young celebrities navigating love and identity under the watchful eyes of the media. Ultimately, Malia’s confirmation is seen as a step toward defining her own narrative, separate from the political legacy of her family.
Keanu Reeves Sentence Is Final, Goodbye Forever… At 60, Keanu Reeves made a jaw-dropping decision that stunned Hollywood—and it’s not what you’d expect. After shattering his kneecap during a John Wick film and battling relentless pain, he shocked the world by stepping onto a Broadway stage, despite barely being able to walk. But behind the curtain, the drama didn’t end there. While Keanu wowed audiences with his performance, something darker was happening off-stage—he was being impersonated by scammers, losing millions to AI fraud, and enduring physical pain that most would never dare to endure. A man who once said, “Try not to suck,” is now pushing the limits of what it means to truly fight for your art. But can even Keanu keep going, or is this the final curtain call?
The Tragic Fate Of Dave Bautista.. Dave Bautista’s journey from the dangerous streets of Washington D.C. to global superstardom is as intense as his wrestling persona. But the story behind the fame is filled with shocking secrets that most fans have no idea about. From witnessing murders as a child to dealing with crippling poverty, Bautista’s early life was a survival game. And let’s not even get started on the personal demons he had to fight—multiple failed marriages, addiction to fame, and the guilt that still haunts him. Yet, here’s the kicker: he managed to rise above it all, defying the odds and becoming a Hollywood powerhouse. But don’t expect any sugar-coated redemption here—this is the raw, untold story of a man who clawed his way from rock bottom and learned the hard way that success comes at a high price.
“CAN YOU BELIEVE SHE’S MINE?” Michael Jordan Caught On 4K Tongue-Out And Totally Staring At His Wife On A Luxury Yacht In Viral Clip That Has Fans Losing It Michael Jordan, the GOAT, got caught on camera like you’ve never seen him before—tongue out, grinning, totally mesmerized by his wife on a yacht. The six-time champ isn’t just winning on the court anymore… but this clip shows he might be even more obsessed off it. You won’t believe what went down. WATCH BELOW 👇👇👇
Shaq HUMILIATES LeBron’s Wife in Front Of Him On Live TV! Shaquille O’Neal took a playful jab that turned into a public spectacle, leaving fans and LeBron James’ wife, Savannah, in an awkward spotlight. During a live event in Arizona, Shaq casually referred to Savannah as “Mama James” and called Bryce, LeBron’s son, his “nephew”—a comment no one expected, but one that left viewers wondering if there was more to it. Was it a harmless joke, or did Shaq intentionally cross a line to make his presence known in the James family dynamic? With years of rivalry and history between Shaq and LeBron, this wasn’t just a friendly shout-out. It was a power move that raised eyebrows and ignited social media. After all, when Shaq steps into the spotlight, things aren’t always what they seem. Was this just Shaq being Shaq, or was it a calculated move to stir the pot?
BREAKING: Trump Reportedly Fell While Boarding Air Force One as Doctor Allegedly Hints at a Hidden Diagnosis “HE HAS FALLEN AGAIN!” – The White House Doctor Breaks Silence on Trump’s Current Condition After Falling Again While Trying to Board Air Force One to Florida to Prepare to Meet Zelensky for Ukraine War Talks, While Russia Launches Thousands of Strikes on Ukraine. The Doctor Also Publicly Exposed ONE PARTICULAR DIAGNOSIS That Trump Has Tried to SHUT EVERYONE From Revealing Aside From the Current Condition, Risking His Career, But When Trump Wakes Up and Finds Out, the Doctor Will Not Go Unscathed… SEE MORE HERE…
SH0CKING NEWS: The sports world is being rocked to its core by the exclusive news that broke early this morning: WNBA superstar Angel Reese is pregnant! But that’s not all. What has the world holding its breath is the identity of the baby’s mysterious father, who is rumored to be none other than the NBA legend, this news violates a certain part of her NBA contract.. READ FULL HERE:
BREAKING: 20 MINS Ago Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election interference case, admitting her role in efforts to overturn the 2020 results. As part of her deal, Ellis has agreed to testify against Donald Trump if called. But the plea didn’t stop there — Ellis reportedly revealed a disturbing instruction Trump personally gave her, a disclosure now intensifying impeachment pressure and sending shockwaves through political circles..the story still unfolding…👇
At age 56, Jennifer Aniston revealed she was pregnant via in-vitro fertilization, but the shocking truth about the child’s father left fans utterly stunned… READ MORE BELOW👇👇👇
JUST IN: OVER 140 DEMS DEMAND TRUMP IMPEACHMENT OR RESIGNATION IMMIDIATELY — CAPITOL IN TOTAL MELTDOWN AS TYRANNY CHARGES EXPLODE AND GOP DESPERATELY BLOCKS AUTHORITARIAN CRISIS. In a jaw-dropping escalation that’s got Washington in absolute chaos, fiery Texas Rep. AL GREEN unleashed his latest impeachment bombshell, slamming President DONALD TRUMP with brutal charges of inciting death threats against lawmakers and judges, abusing power, and dragging America straight into authoritarian hell. The House floor turned into a war zone when 140 LAWMAKERS shockingly voted to push the articles forward—proving a massive chunk of Congress sees TRUMP as a direct danger to democracy itself. Senate powerhouse CHUCK SCHUMER is reportedly fuming behind the scenes, insiders claim he’s rallying Democrats and warning that TRUMP’S “lawless” attacks on the judiciary and threats of violence are plunging the nation into a full-blown constitutional nightmare—fueling whispers he could soon join the explosive calls for resignation or even back a Senate trial if things boil over. TRUMP hit back with fury, blasting it all as a “partisan witch hunt” while his GOP allies frantically tabled the resolution to protect him. But the drama’s exploding online—the viral clips of Green’s scorching speech and threat reports are trending everywhere, with fans and critics freaking out over spiking judge threats allegedly sparked by presidential rhetoric. This scandal is spiraling out of control, dividing the nation and raising insane questions about accountability— the internet can’t stop talking about whether Democrats will force a real showdown or if TRUMP survives yet again. Catch the full viral chaos before it’s silenced…👇👇 FULL DETAILS ⤵️ ⤵️
