Jay Z Musician

"SEE, that's Fort Greene right there, the projects, and I went to school right here -- this is George Westinghouse," says Jay-Z, looking through the window of his gray Rolls-Royce as it chauffeurs him into his past. "Marcy Projects is about five minutes straight down," he says, pointing east toward the housing development where he lived as a youth. "See that? That's one thing I liked about going to school here," he adds with a smile, indicating a road sign that reads "Jay St."

Universal Music Group said Monday that Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter was stepping down as president of its Def Jam Records unit, effective by the end of the year. Carter, 38, has been president of the rap label since 2005, and has signed acts including R&B singers Rihanna and Ne-Yo. Universal said Carter, who is also a top-selling rap artist known as Jay-Z, will continue recording for its Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam label. But the company did not give a reason for his decision to quit the executive suite.

Jay-Z, president of Def Jam Records, teamed up with the United Nations and MTV on Wednesday to get children involved in the fight against the worldwide water crisis. He cited statistics that 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack proper sanitation. MTV crews will follow the rapper on his world tour, which begins Sept. 9.

China's Culture Ministry has canceled rapper Jay-Z's planned debut in the country, citing his "vulgar" lyrics, a state-run newspaper reported Wednesday. The rap icon, whose real name is Shawn Carter, was scheduled to perform Oct. 23 at Shanghai's Hongkou Stadium. "Some of Jay-Z's songs contain too much vulgar language," Sun Yun, of promoter KS Production Co., was quoted as saying in the Shanghai Daily.

The struggle for global pop supremacy is fought on many fronts. On Saturday, rapper Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter took the Taipei Arena stage here in Taiwan, halfheartedly trying to forge a sense of solidarity with some of his fans overseas. "We relate to struggle -- we relate to y'all," he declared, only to be met with confused indifference. It was a constant motif: Throughout Jay's 90-minute set, the star and his island fans seemed unable to surmount certain cultural barriers.

If that "new Michael Jordan" thing doesn't work out for LeBron James, maybe he should consider becoming the new Memphis Bleek. Memphis Bleek is one of Jay-Z's longtime associates, and he's serving as the hip-hop star's wingman on his few live appearances (none in the Southland) this summer. But Friday, during the first of two nights at the Pearl Concert Theater in the Palms Casino Resort, Bleek had to share his spotlight with the NBA's most valuable player. Jay-Z invited James onstage about two-thirds of the way through his set. At first it seemed that the athlete, who sported casual clothes, Elvis Costello-style spectacles and some tasteful bling, would simply take a bow and gracefully exit.

Jay-Z will make his U.S. festival debut when he replaces the Beastie Boys at the All Points West Music and Arts Festival in New Jersey. The Grammy winner stepped in after the Beastie Boys were forced to cancel their opening-night appearance July 31. The trio scrapped its current schedule because member Adam Yauch must undergo surgery and treatment for a cancerous tumor in his salivary gland.

Rapper Jay-Z has answered R&B singer R. Kelly's $75-million lawsuit over their aborted joint tour last fall with a countersuit claiming that the tour came unhinged because of "R. Kelly's financial woes, insecurities, and unsafe and unpredictable behavior." "In Chicago and Baltimore, R. Kelly was not 'ready,' " the countersuit states. "In Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Hartford, R. Kelly was not 'willing.' In St. Louis and New York, R. Kelly was not 'able.'

A judge in New York has thrown out the countersuit that rap star Jay-Z filed against R&B singer R. Kelly in the wake of their ill-fated tour last year, MTV.com reported Tuesday. The pairing of the two had been one of the most anticipated tours of the fall concert season, but it dissolved after Kelly walked off stage during a show at Madison Square Garden in New York. He subsequently filed a $75-million breach-of-contract suit against Jay-Z.

AS a rapper, Jay-Z has been one of the most bankable names in pop over the last decade. Thanks to such irresistible hit singles as "99 Problems," the New Yorker has sold more than 20 million albums. But as the fine print in stock portfolios always notes, past success is no guarantee of future performance, especially when someone with success in one arena steps into another, as Jay-Z did in January, when he was named president and chief executive of Def Jam Recordings.