His real name is Shawn Corey Carter. The name Jay-Z evolved from the nickname of his childhood, when he was called "Jazzy." Jay-Z is also an homage to his musical mentor, Jaz-O, as well as to the J/Z subway lines that have a stop where he grew up, Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn. He is also known by a variety of stage names including S. Carter, Jigga, Hova, J-Hova, Hov, and Young Hov.
Jay-Z holds the record for most chart-topping albums by a solo artist with his 11 #1 albums on the Billboard 200. The previous record belonged to Elvis Presley with 10 #1s.
He was invited to headline the Glastonbury Festival in 2008. This caused a public furor, mainly fueled by Noel Gallagher from Oasis who slammed organizers for inviting a rap star to a festival "built on a tradition of guitar music." Jay-Z responded by opening his headline set with a cover of Oasis' "Wonderwall."
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