Jay-Z is the luckiest man in the world, since he’s married with Beyoncé Knowles, the Crazy In Love singer. Not only about his marriage that’s categorize him to be luckiest man in the world, next to Mr. President Barack Obama, I think. He has success in his career as an American Hip Hop artisrt and businessman.
He won many awards from Grammy to MTV awards, founder of Roc-A-Fella Records and the Rocawear clothing brand, and he’s the former CEO of Def Jam records. Not only that he is also part owner of the New Jersey Nets.
Wow, this is a man with achievements. do you think he has the happy childhood that has made him today? His childhood was not as happy as mine. His childhood had bad memories and wounds, that has taught him a lot. He speaks out about it on Oprah.
Growing up in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and abandoned by father and found his role models in the neighborhood dealers, and selling drugs at 13, and the young Shawn Carter learned a lesson about intergrity and loyal. From there, the 40/40 Club owner start his singing and became known as Jazzy.
Moved to the Marcy projects at 5, did not make him feel poor for because he still can eat, a lot of chickens “cause chicken’s cheap.”
“Probably the first time was in school when I couldn’t get the newest sneakers. We didn’t have elaborate meals, but we didn’t go without.”
The pain inside him after his dad walk out on him, made him “felt anger at the whole situationm”
“Because when you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again. So I remember just being really quiet and really cold. Never wanting to let myself get close to someone like that again. I carried that feeling throughout my life, until my father and I met up before he died.”
The divorce’s cause of his parents, he “summed it up that they weren’t getting along” and “a lot of arguing.” He felt anger and “protective of” his mom,
“I remember telling her, “Don’t worry, when I get big, I’m going to take care of this.” I felt like I had to step up. I was 11 years old, right? But I felt I had to make the situation better.”
The experiences had brought him to instantly adulthood.
“Made me not express my feelings as much. I was already a shy kid, and it made me a little reclusive. But it also made me independent. And stronger. It was a weird juxtaposition.”
Little Jay-Z had to dealing with his brother who “was doing in a lot of drugs.” He was shot his own brother “to protect everybody.”
Drugs always around the neighborhood, the little Jay-Z has became a drug dealer, he can make fortune from it and at the point he realized that the life of drug dealer has no good ending. No regret and not even tried to defend himself, that what he did only to survive. Jay-Z admits,
“To be honest, I can’t even say that. At that point it was beyond survival. I was successful. It wasn’t like I was doing it to feed my family anymore. I was buying cars and jewelry and things like that. I had become addicted to the lifestyle.”
At the age of 20, he has been “trying to transition from the street to music business.” But it was not that easy, the feeling also go up and down, and he easily to gave up after six months of trying.
“But I would make demos and then quit for six months. And I started to realize that I couldn’t be successful until I let the street life go. My mom always taught me—you know, little boys listen to their moms too much—that whatever you put into something is what you’re going to get out of it. I had to fully let go of what I was doing before for the music to be successful. That was a leap of faith for me. I said, “I have to give this everything.”
Then Jay-Z first album, Reasonable Doubt launched at the age 26, it’s his favorite album,
“Because all the emotions and experiences of 26 years came out in it. That was the record I had 26 years to make.”
Married with Beyoncé Knowles, on April 4, 2008, with a small party in New York city and only few people knew.
“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.”
Has the marriage changed him? Well, no, he said reconnecting of his relationship with his dad more than anything.
“Reconnecting with my father changed me more than anything. Because it allowed me to let people in.” Jay-Z continues, “I always had that wall up. And whenever someone got close to me, I would shut down.”
And the story about the reconnecting matters was beginning…he tells,
“My mom set up a meeting. And now I realize why—it makes all the sense in the world. I remember very distinctly that I had a conversation with her in my kitchen. I was saying, “You know, Ma, I’ve really been trying to look inward, and maybe I’m just not meant to fall in love like other people do.” She just looked at me like, “Hush up, boy.”” He continues, “And I guess from that point, she figured out what was wrong with me, and she planned a meeting between me and my father. I was like, “Ma, I’m a grown man. I don’t need a dad now.”
“I guess I still had too much resentment and anger. When my mom set up this meeting, I told her he wouldn’t come — and the first time, he didn’t. At that point, I was really done, but mom pushed for another meeting because she’s just a beautiful soul. The second time, 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.”
The hip hop star continued to say: “When I was nine, my dad’s brother got stabbed, and my dad went looking for the guy who did it. People would call in the middle of the night and tell him, ‘So-and-so is out here.’ So my dad would get up, get his gun, and go outside to look for the guy. After a while, my mom was
like, ‘Hey, this is your family now. You can’t do that.’ But this was my dad’s baby brother. And my dad was in so much pain that he started using drugs and became a different person. So I understand that the trauma of the event, coupled with the drugs, caused him to lose his soul. When we met up, he was broken. He had a bad liver, and he knew that if he continued drinking, it would kill him. But he didn’t stop.’”
The stories about bitter memories make him wiser and stronger, He is a man with principe and strong will. He has learnt from his past and won’t continue the same path again, neither him nor families.
The most make him proud ever is to “taking care his family. And buy Mom a house, he’s questioning back, “That’s every little boy’s dream, right?” His mother, Gloria Carter, is the positive black role model for him, the boy had grew up seeing his mom worked two jobs and did whatever she had to do for her child.
“There’s the gift, there’s the spirit, and there’s the work—all three have to come together. If one of those things is off, it can stop you from becoming who you were meant to be.”
Rapper who is belief in karma and loved by his friends is an example of a smart boy from rorey poor, who has fight for his family and himself from the poor, and grew up by learning the mistakes he made. He turns to be a brilliant businessman and still holds up the principe he has learnt from life,love and family.
Keep make us surprise with your works, Jay-Z.
