Both DeHaven and Jaz-O, Jay’s then-musical and street guides, recall the event.
Jay-Z would have likely been murdered during a 1994 shooting – if the assailants gun did not jam. Jay and Sauce would appear together on Big Daddy Kane’s Daddy’s Home album, a time in Jay’s career that Empire State of Mind sheds new light on.ģ. Additionally, Sauce was managed by then-NBA star Dennis Scott. Sauce Money, often mistakenly considered a Roc-A-Fella Records artist, was a collaborator suggested by DJ Clark Kent to try and get demo recognition. Jay-Z maintains that his name comes from a childhood family nickname of “jazzy,” not the popular belief that it was taken to match mentor Jaz-O’s name, or the J and Z train lines that stop at the Marcy station in Brooklyn.Ģ. The staff of HipHopDX thought we knew a lot about Jay-Z, but in the interest of supporting Hip Hop literacy, we thought we would share 10 things about Jay-Z from Empire State of Mind.ġ. The biography of Shawn Carter looks at Jay’s personal and business relationships, through comprehsive archival interviews and new and rare insights from the likes of mentor Jaz-O, paternal hustler DeHaven, Dame Dash, MC Serch, DJ Clark Kent, Branson and others. This month, Forbes’ Zack O’Malley Greenburg released his book Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner To Corner Office.