Rapper Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. “He was the last of my four children,” Jay-Z’s mother later recalled, “the only one who didn’t give me any pain when I gave birth to him, and that’s how I knew he was a special child.” Jay-Z’s father, Adnes Reeves, left the family when Jay-Z was only 11 years old. The young rapper was raised by his mother, Gloria Carter, in Brooklyn’s drug-infested Marcy Projects.

During a rough adolescence, detailed in many of his autobiographical songs, Shawn Carter dealt drugs and flirted with gun violence. He attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn, where he was a classmate of the soon-to-be-martyred rap legend Notorious B.I.G. As Jay-Z later remembered his childhood in one of his songs (“December 4th”), “I went to school, got good grades, could behave when I wanted/ But I had demons deep inside that would raise when confronted.”

December 4th

From what I can remember, the story to the following video goes like this: Sometime between 2003-2005, Beyonce, along with Jay Z’s friends and family, shot a secret music video for the Jigga man’s “December 4th” song, a track found on The Black Album. The mogul was then surprised with the video at a get together celebrating his birthday.

The end.

Take it all in, folks. I don’t think we’re ever going to see a Jay-Z-ified Beyonce in the middle of Marcy with a NY Yankees tilted brim ever again. But then again, the “B” does stand for Bout Dat Lyfe so who knows.