Top 5 Dangerous black people in America #4

And now we move on to number four. Imgaine if you will a militant Jay-Z.



Origin: Shawn Carey Carter was born on December 4, 1969 in Brooklyn, raised in Marcy Housing Development, Jay-Z underwent some tough times after his father left his mother before the young rapper was even a teen. Without a man in the house, he became a self-supportive youth, turning to the streets, where he soon made a name for himself as a fledging rapper. Known as "Jazzy" in his neighborhood, he soon shortened his nickname to Jay-Z and did all he could to break into the rap game. Of course, as he vividly discusses in his lyrics, Jay-Z also became a street hustler at this time, doing what needed to be done to make money. For a while, he ran around with Jaz-O, aka Big Jaz, a small-time New York rapper with a record deal but few sales. From Jaz he learned how to navigate through the rap industry and what moves to make. He also participated in a forgotten group called Original Flavor for a short time. Jay-Z subsequently decided to make an untraditional decision and start his own label rather than sign with an established label like Jaz had done. Together with friends Damon Dash and Kareem "Biggs" Burke, he created Roc-a-Fella Records, a risky strategy for cutting out the middleman and making money for himself. Of course, he needed a quality distributor, and when he scored a deal with Priority Records (and then later Def Jam), Jay-Z finally had everything in place, including a debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996).

First Appearance: This Is How It Is by Original Flavor (1992)

Powers: Incredible rhyming skills, great business sense, owns his own clothing line.

Potential for Danger: Jay-Z's potential for danger is very great. He has the power to make young suburban white kids to dress like thugs and get stopped by the cops. He has the business sense of a wall street mogul and a street hustler. If militant he would be able to use his rhyming skills and business sense to uplift the community and promote education instead of vodka and cars.

Weaknesses: Baby mama drama, and I got two letters for ya Jigga DL (we all know Beyonce has a dick.)

Group Affiliations: Island Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella records