JAY-Z

From his upbringing in the Marcy projects of Brooklyn to the cover of Forbes Magazine,
Jay-Z has achieved a level of financial and artistic success most people could only dream of.
His achievements in the music industry include four number one songs on the Billboard Hot 100 and he holds the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200 list. He has sold over 50 million albums world wide and has been awarded thirteen grammies. Not to bad for a kid out the Marcy projects of Brooklyn, New York. Billboard Magazine went on to rank him as the 10th most successful artist of this past decade. As the icing on the cake, Jay-Z married Beyonce Knowles in 2008 making him, in the eyes of many, the luckiest man in the world.
His early music career was interesting in the fact that along with Dame Dash and Kareem Biggs, the team of three started Roc-A-Fella Records and began distributing the first album "Reasonable Doubt" and the second album "In My Lifetime, Vol. 1" on their own. Following the success with the first two albums, the Roc-A-Fella label signed a publishing deal with Def Jam Records. On his next album he got production help from Sean Combs (P.Diddy) and as a result his album had upon it the biggest hit of his career up to that point "Hard Knock Life" which used a sample from the broadway play Annie. This really started the image of Jay-Z which was to become the representative for the underdog rising out of the depths of poverty. He found a story so many people could relate to and he keeps this central theme of rags to riches in on all his consecutive albums.
One of the coolest aspects of Jay-Z's artistic ability lies in the fact that he doesn't use a pen and paper for his lyrics. He writes the words in his head and then recites them into the microphone in the studio. He claims to have built up a phenomenal memory as a result of coming up with lyrics while dealing drugs on the corner. Initially he would run to the store and get a brown bag to write the lyrics on, but then realized it was interfering with his business so he learned to memorize the lyrics until he got home and could write them down on a piece of paper. This phenomenal memory and lack of paper and pen is a common thing among rappers and was something that became an coincidental bonding point between Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G.
Jay-Z's album "Collision Course" was a unique blend of the heavy rock music created by Linkin Park and the hip hop lyrics and delivery of Jay-Z's black album. It was both unique and special in creation and really revolutionized the blending of the two styles. Run DMC had done something similar many years before with their collaboration song with Aerosmith.
Jay-Z has inspired me to pursue my artistic abilities whole heartedly and to stay true to the music. He famously said "don't force the music" in his documentary "Fade to Black." Another inspirational aspect of Jay-Z's career is that he didn't release his first album until he was 26 years old. This, he says, is because it wasn't until that age that he had a story worth telling. I feel as though there's a misconception of how young you have to be to release your first album. It's better to wait and release something of quality than to start young and pump out a large quantity of crap. That's just my opinion. The way there is meaning in each sentence and the ease of comprehension that Jay-Z utilizes in his music is also a key element I have gravitated towards. So many times I have to go look up lyrics to find out what an artist was singing or saying, but with Jay-Z's lyrics I don't feel the necessity to do that. He keeps things clear and simple yet deep and meaningful at the same time. The final aspect of Jay-Z I find to be of inspiration is his ability to be artistic and business savvy at the same time. He understands that music is a business as much as it is an art form and as a result of this blended understanding, he has accumulated a wealth of over 500 million dollars. Again, not to shabby for a boy born to the projects of Brooklyn.