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Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), better known by his stage name, Jay-Z, is an American hip hop artist and businessman. He is the former CEO of Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. He co-owns The 40/40 Club and the New Jersey Nets. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having sold over 26 million units in the United States and receiving several Grammy Awards for his musical work. Along with his financial and musical success, Jay-Z is known for being involved in the feud between him and fellow New York rapper Nas, which was eventually settled in 2005. He is also known for his relationship with Beyoncé Knowles, whom he married on April 4, 2008. MTV named him number one on their list of the greatest MCs of all time.

Originally from Marcy Houses housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, Jay-Z was abandoned by his father Adnes Reeves and shot his brother in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry when he was twelve years old. Jay-Z attended Eli Whitney High School in Brooklyn, along with rapper AZ, until it was closed down. After that he attended George Westinghouse Information Technology High School in Downtown Brooklyn, which fellow rappers The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes also attended, and Trenton Central High School in Trenton, New Jersey, but did not graduate. In his music he refers to having been involved in selling crack cocaine.

According to his mother Gloria Carter, a young Jay-Z used to wake his siblings up at night banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table. Eventually, she bought him a boom box for his birthday and thus sparked his interest in music. He began freestyling, writing rhymes, and followed the music of many artists popular at the time.

In his neighborhood, Carter was known as “Jazzy”, a nickname that eventually developed into his stage name, “Jay-Z”. The moniker is also an homage to his musical mentor, Jaz-O, as well as to the J/Z subway lines that have a stop at Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn.

Jay-Z can be heard on several of Jaz-O’s early recordings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including “The Originators” and “Hawaiian Sophie”. His career had a jump start when he battled a rapper by the name of Zai. The battle caught the eye of many record labels, as Jay-Z was able to hold his own against Zai. He first became known to a wide audience by being featured on the posse cut “Show and Prove” on the 1994 Big Daddy Kane album Daddy’s Home He made an appearance on a popular song by Big L, “Da Graveyard”, and on Mic Geronimo’s “Time to Build”, which also featured early appearances by DMX, and Ja Rule in 1995. His first official rap single was called “I Can’t Get With That”, for which he released a music video.

If any political candidate in this year’s elections can be fairly accused of harboring deep-seated prejudice against the Church, it’s Al Franken.

The Minnesota Democrat, who is challenging Republican incumbent Norm Coleman in this year’s U.S. Senate election, has a lengthy history of anti-Catholic diatribes.

For evidence, take a look at this recent article by Katherine Kersten in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, entitled “Vulgar mockery of Christians: Is this what we want in a U.S. senator?” Kersten’s article cites examples of Franken’s anti-Christian and anti-Catholic slurs, most of which are too vulgar to repeat here.

Comments Kersten, “If a 12-year-old kid spouted this stuff in a schoolyard, he’d be hauled to the principal’s office and told to grow up. But in today’s surreal political climate, a guy who lobs insults like these has a shot at one the highest political offices in the land.”

In an Oct. 27 press release, Catholic League president Bill Donohue agreed that “Franken has a long and ugly history of Catholic bashing.”

Said Donohue, “Franken’s diatribes against Catholics are not in jest. As Hillary Clinton said about him last week, he tells ‘truth through jokes.’ And the truth is that when Franken mocks the Body and Blood of Jesus, and jokes about the discovery of ‘the complete skeleton of Jesus Christ still nailed to the cross,’ his mean-spirited digs are designed to be injurious.”

In her Star Tribune column, Kersten suggests that Franken’s hostility toward Christians in general, and Catholics in particular, disqualifies him from holding high political office. That sounds like an accurate assessment to us.