“I didn’t have it easy growing up. My dad abandoned my family when I was age 11, leaving my mum to raise 4 kids on her own in Brooklyn, New York. Mama held it down as a clerk at an investment firm. Sometimes, she’d take up a part-time job as a security guard just to provide for us.

“Once I became successful as a rapper & entrepreneur, I retired my mama. At some point, mama got bored not working. In 2003, she became the president of my foundation, the Shawn Carter Foundation.” – JAY-Z speaks on his mum’s sacrifice for the family.

A-CHOICES