How Jay-Z Went From Music Mogul to Sports Agent

Jay-Z. Jay-Hova. Jiggaman. Shawn Carter, known for the better part of two decades by these stage names, first earned fame as a rapper in the mid-1990s and has since built a business empire that has included a record label, a clothing line and a minority stake in the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, on top of his own record sales and concert performances. At 43, he remains one of the premier hip-hop artists in the world. Twelve of his albums have hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 list, more than any other solo artist.
Jay-Z's latest venture is sports agency Roc Nation Sports, a division of his entertainment company Roc Nation. His first client: top New York Yankees player Robinson Cano. Ahead of a contract negotiation that could command as much as $200 million over the next several years, Cano announced on Tuesday he was dropping legendary sports agent Scott Boras to sign with Jay-Z. With friends like baseball star Alex Rodriguez and basketball king LeBron James, Jay-Z is well positioned to enter the world of sports.
Long before he was a diversified entertainment mogul worth an estimated $450 million, Jay-Z was a high-school dropout trying to make a name for himself freestyle rapping. Some highlights from his remarkable rags-to-riches story follow.
1969: Shawn Carter is born in a housing project in the notorious Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. His formative experiences here and in the three high schools he attended -- one of which he shared with future rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes -- would form the autobiographical basis of many future lyrics. He never finishes high school, and for a time he deals drugs while simultaneously trying to break into the rap game.