Jay-Z reveals his rags to riches story

NEW YORK - Rapper Jay-Z has opened up about his rise from a crack dealer to a superstar in his autobiography, ‘Decoded’.

The internationally acclaimed rapstar says that he was first inspired by a boy, who was rhyming couplets on the street amongst the group of friends, and instantly thought he could do it too, reports the New York Post.

Jay-Z a.k.a Shawn Carter also credits his career as a rapper to his mother, Gloria, who bought him a three-ring binder, which he began to carry everywhere, scribbling down rhymes about the things he saw and heard.

Every night, he’d hide the notebook under his bed - to make sure no one ripped off his words and read dictionaries in his spare time to increase his vocabulary, and before he was high school age he was taking part in rap battles hoping to become known as “the best poet on the block.”

When Jay-Z was 11, his father left home for good. Soon after, the young boy - who was a good student at he various high schools he attended in Brooklyn, despite rarely studying - would drop out and start dealing crack.

Now, at 41, the rapper has a fortune of 450 million dollars and holds more No. 1 albums than Elvis with 10 Grammy awards.

In ‘Decoded’, he also wrote how his training as a crack dealer and hustler helped him understand business and turned him into an artist telling the story of the street in rhyme. (ANI)