Entrepreneurs Who Changed History

g GLOBALIZATION AND E-COMMERCE g Contents

JAY- Z

1969–

Jay-Z’s childhood and adolescence were marred by poverty, drugs, and exposure to gang violence. However, he succeeded in escaping the ghetto through his talent for rap, becoming a global hip-hop star. Investing profitably in a number of entertainment and clothing ventures, he later became the world’s first billionaire rap artist.

Shawn Corey Carter, or Jay-Z—as he would later be known—grew up in the notoriously violent Marcy Houses housing project in Brooklyn, New York. His father abandoned the family when Jay-Z was 11, leaving his mother, Gloria, to bring up four children. Jay-Z’s adolescence ...