Plate 0 · Cologne, June 2000 · sun print
Marcy Houses, Brooklyn · 1969–2023
He called two albums The Blueprint, and the first blueprints were sun prints: iron-salt paper, a negative, light, then water. So his places are printed here the same way. Lay the plates out and expose them.
Prints: Mikamote, June 2000 and March 2003, CC BY-SA 3.0; Daniele Dalledonne, June 2012, CC BY-SA 2.0. Toned blue on this page.
Sun prints · 4 plates · 10 places
Pick a plate, lay its negative, give it the sun, then rinse it. The plates and their order are ours; every place on them, and what is said about it, comes from the sources one click away.
Plate I · Marcy · 1969–1995
Plate I. Lay the negative on the paper.
Rinse a plate and its places open here, with photographs and how to visit.
Bedford–Stuyvesant · Downtown Brooklyn · 1969–1980s
Shawn Corey Carter was born on 4 December 1969 in Brooklyn and raised in Marcy Houses, a public housing development in Bedford–Stuyvesant.
Marcy was completed on 19 January 1949: 27 six-storey buildings on 28.49 acres, bordered by Flushing, Marcy, Nostrand and Myrtle avenues. It has 1,705 apartments and about 4,286 residents.
Jaz-O, Memphis Bleek and Sauce Money are also listed among the people who grew up there. On 19 January 2009 Mayor Michael Bloomberg proclaimed Marcy Houses Day.
He has said in interviews that he sold crack cocaine as a young man; he was shot at three times in those years.
Public housing where some 4,000 people live: see it from Marcy or Flushing Avenue and let residents be. His family’s apartment is not identified here.
Brooklyn, New York
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105 Tech Place, Downtown Brooklyn
He, The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes were at Westinghouse at around the same time.
He has said he and Busta Rhymes had a rap battle in the lunchroom. He went to George Westinghouse in Brooklyn but did not graduate; he left school in his sophomore year at Trenton Central High School.
A working school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
The same school is in The Notorious B.I.G. World.
Garment District · West 26th Street · 1995–2009
With no major label offering him a deal, he sold CDs out of his car, then set up Roc-A-Fella Records as an independent label with Damon Dash and Kareem “Biggs” Burke in 1995.
25 June 1996 · 320 West 37th Street, Garment District, Manhattan
Reasonable Doubt was recorded at D&D Studios and mixed at Platinum Island. Reasonable Doubt came out on Roc-A-Fella on 25 June 1996, distributed by Priority Records.
Its producers include DJ Premier, Ski, Knobody and Clark Kent. The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Big L and Gang Starr recorded at D&D too.
In 2003 DJ Premier bought the studio and renamed it HeadQCourterz; it closed on 31 December 2014.
The studio closed in 2014: a working building now, seen from the street. The photograph is the neighbouring block, 336–342 West 37th.
2000 · West 26th Street · not mapped
Baseline Studios opened in 2000 in a second-floor space on West 26th Street. Young Guru says he ended up living at Baseline, and that he prefers to mix in its Studio A because it has more outboard gear.
The Blueprint came out on 11 September 2001. It was written in two days and went in at number one on the Billboard 200.
Young Guru calls it one of his central rooms for The Blueprint 3. After he started working again in 2006 he built a new studio, Roc The Mic, where he overdubbed his Run This Town vocals with Young Guru.
Sound On Sound says he sold Baseline when he retired in 2003; Art & Object says the studio closed in 2010.
Gone, and its building is not named: walk West 26th Street if you like, but there is nothing to find. The photograph is the street.
6 West 25th Street · Flatiron District · 2003–2023
Batter up. Run to first base.
Closed since July 2023: see the building from West 25th Street. The photograph is Broadway a few steps away.
Eighth Avenue · Honolulu · Paris · 2003–2018
25 November 2003 · 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Eighth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan
On 25 November 2003 he held a concert billed as a “retirement party” at Madison Square Garden. The night is the centre of the 2004 documentary Fade to Black.
He did not stay away: Sound On Sound dates his return to work to 2006.
A working arena: see it from Eighth Avenue, or go to a show.
Midtown Manhattan
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2009 · Honolulu · not mapped
All the basic tracks for the Kanye West and No ID songs on The Blueprint 3 began at Avex Honolulu Studios. Young Guru says the Hawaii sessions lasted ten days.
Run This Town is built on a sample Kanye West took from Some Day in Athens, by the Greek band The Four Levels of Existence.
A private studio, not open to visitors, and not mapped here. The photograph is Honolulu.
2018 · Rue de Rivoli, 1st arrondissement, Paris
The Carters filmed Apeshit in the Louvre; the video shows the Mona Lisa and Jacques-Louis David’s Coronation of Napoleon among the works.
Apeshit was the lead single from Everything Is Love, and its video came out on Beyoncé’s YouTube channel. The mix engineer Stu White names Motorbass, a Paris studio, as the room where he heard the final mix.
A public museum: book a timed ticket on its own site.
More on the video in Apeshit at the Louvre.
Paris · See the site
The museum where Apeshit was filmed. Timed tickets on its own site.
Plan a visitAtlantic Avenue · Grand Army Plaza · 2012–2023
28 September – 6 October 2012 · 620 Atlantic Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
He opened the Barclays Center on Friday 28 September 2012, the first of eight shows. It was his first major show of that size in his home borough, in front of 18,000 people.
As a part-owner of the Nets, he helped get the arena built, not far from his old neighbourhood. He wore a custom Nets jersey, worked two Notorious B.I.G. songs into the set and poured a drink for him on stage.
For the last show, on 6 October 2012, he took the subway. He gave up his share of the Nets on 18 April 2013.
A working arena over Atlantic Av–Barclays Center station: see it from Atlantic Avenue, or go to a game or a show.
60 Furman Street, Brooklyn · See the site
A hotel on the Brooklyn waterfront at 60 Furman Street, a short subway ride from Atlantic Avenue and the arena. Its page showed offers but no nightly rates. Pictured: the subway entrance at Barclays Center.
See rooms
14 July 2023 · 10 Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
The Book of HOV opened at the Central Library on 14 July 2023: free, and in eight sections. It held never-seen objects, a full-size replica of the main room at Baseline, playable turntables, the records he sampled, and the art installation from the cover of The Blueprint 3.
Before you went in, words from two of his songs ran across the library’s curved front. The library issued 13 limited-edition cards, each with the art of one of his albums: first at Central and the Marcy branch, then across the borough from 7 August.
Roc Nation gave the Marcy branch a large donation of books, and gave the library every record sampled in his catalogue. The exhibition became a book the following year.
A public library, free to enter: check its hours before you go. The Book of HOV is over.
10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn · Free
The library where the Book of HOV ran in 2023, free to enter. Check opening hours on its site.
Plan a visitWhere it is now
Marcy Houses, the Barclays Center and the Central Library are a short ride apart in Brooklyn; Westinghouse is in Downtown Brooklyn. In Manhattan, West 37th Street and the Garden are a few blocks apart off Eighth Avenue, and West 25th and 26th Streets are just south. Honolulu and Paris are the long trips.
8 places you can visit, from Marcy Houses to the Louvre. Baseline and the Honolulu studio have no known address, so they are named, not mapped.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Public housing where some 4,000 people live: see it from Marcy or Flushing Avenue and let residents be. His family’s apartment is not identified here.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working arena over Atlantic Av–Barclays Center station: see it from Atlantic Avenue, or go to a game or a show.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public library, free to enter: check its hours before you go. The Book of HOV is over.
Flushing, Marcy, Nostrand and Myrtle avenues, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Shawn Corey Carter was born on 4 December 1969 in Brooklyn and raised in Marcy Houses, a public housing development in Bedford–Stuyvesant.
Public housing where some 4,000 people live: see it from Marcy or Flushing Avenue and let residents be. His family’s apartment is not identified here.
105 Tech Place, Downtown Brooklyn
He went to George Westinghouse in Brooklyn but did not graduate; he left school in his sophomore year at Trenton Central High School.
A working school: see it from the street and don’t go in.
620 Atlantic Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
He opened the Barclays Center on Friday 28 September 2012, the first of eight shows.
A working arena over Atlantic Av–Barclays Center station: see it from Atlantic Avenue, or go to a game or a show.
10 Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
The Book of HOV opened at the Central Library on 14 July 2023: free, and in eight sections.
A public library, free to enter: check its hours before you go. The Book of HOV is over.
Stay
A waterfront hotel a short ride from the arena.
60 Furman Street, Brooklyn · See the site
A hotel on the Brooklyn waterfront at 60 Furman Street, a short subway ride from Atlantic Avenue and the arena. Its page showed offers but no nightly rates. Pictured: the subway entrance at Barclays Center.
See roomsGo there
The Central Library, the Louvre, and tours in Brooklyn and at the Garden.
10 Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn · Free
The library where the Book of HOV ran in 2023, free to enter. Check opening hours on its site.
Plan a visitParis · See the site
The museum where Apeshit was filmed. Timed tickets on its own site.
Plan a visitBrooklyn, New York
Live marketplace results for hip-hop tours of Brooklyn. Check each itinerary for the stops it really makes, and remember Marcy is a place where people live.
Live marketplace results · itineraries change
Compare toursMidtown Manhattan
Live marketplace results for tours of the Garden, where he held his 2003 retirement party. Check what each one includes.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
No Jay-Z dates were announced when we checked.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
His own book, Decoded, and the first two albums of this story.
Jay-Z · CD, Roc-A-Fella / Priority, 1996
Released 25 June 1996; recorded at D&D Studios.
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Find a copyJay-Z · CD, Roc-A-Fella, 2001
Released 11 September 2001.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 12 of 12 Moments
Flushing, Marcy, Nostrand and Myrtle avenues, Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
Shawn Carter is born and grows up in Marcy Houses.
105 Tech Place, Downtown Brooklyn
He, The Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes are at Westinghouse at around the same time.
320 West 37th Street, Garment District, Manhattan
With Damon Dash and Kareem Burke he sets up Roc-A-Fella Records, an independent label.
Reasonable Doubt, recorded at D&D Studios, comes out on Roc-A-Fella.
West 26th Street, Manhattan (the building is not identified)
Baseline Studios opens on West 26th Street.
The Blueprint comes out and goes in at number one.
6 West 25th Street, Flatiron District, Manhattan
The 40/40 Club opens its doors under his ownership on West 25th Street.
4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Eighth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan
A concert billed as his retirement party, filmed for Fade to Black.
Honolulu, Hawaii (the studio’s address is not given)
Basic tracks for The Blueprint 3 begin at Avex Honolulu.
620 Atlantic Avenue, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
He opens the Barclays Center with eight shows.
10 Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
The Book of HOV opens at Brooklyn’s Central Library.
Rue de Rivoli, 1st arrondissement, Paris
The Carters film Apeshit in the Louvre.
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