Shawn Carter was born on December 4, 1969. He was brought up on the mean streets in the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn, New York. During a difficult childhood he was part time rapper and full time hustler. Carter's father abandoned the family before he became a teenager. The fledgling rapper was known as "Jazzy" which he modified into Jay-Z. Other names that he went by later in his career were the Jiggaman, HOV and Hova. After his father's departure Jay-Z took solace in his rap on the streets, he used the money from his hustling ...full biography