Jay-Z started to rap at a very young age. He thought it was a way to escape from violence, drugs and poverty. At the age of 20, Shawn met Jaz-O, who was an old performer. He was a sort of mentor for Jay-Z. He recorded a song with him called “The Originator”. This song gave them the opportunity to go on the MTV raps show and this was the first step to glory for him. After this show he needed to find a stage name. He chose Jay Z, to thank his mentor Jaz-O, but also at his high school he used to be called “Jazzy”. Jay-Z had a good start, but he wasn’t mainstream enough to be a famous star of hip-hop, so he decided to create his own label record with two of his friends called the Roc-A-Fella Records. His career took a step higher, in 1998, when he won his first Grammy with his song Hard-Knock-Life. From 1998 to 2003, Jay-Z produced a lot of good songs and albums, but his most famous album was "The Blueprint". It was claimed by critics to be one of the albums of the decade. He was now considered as one of the biggest in the game.