Jay-Z, the world's most successful rap star, has spoken publicly for the first time about one of the darkest episodes of his tough upbringing: when, aged 12, he shot his brother.
The rapper, real name Shawn Carter, has a business empire spanning fashion to Broadway and a fortune estimated at $450m, but he grew up in a Brooklyn housing project ravaged by violence.
In the Weekend magazine, he describes shooting his brother, who had stolen his ring, and tells how he felt after pulling the trigger: "I thought my life was over. I thought I'd go to jail for ever."
In fact his brother, addicted to crack at the time of the shooting, did not press charges and apologised to his little brother for his addiction when the future star visited him in hospital. "It was terrible. I was a boy, a child. I was terrified," he said.
The shooting is explored in the lyrics of You Must Love Me. "Saw the devil in your eyes, high off more than weed, confused, I just closed my young eyes and squeezed."
In the interview he also describes his surroundings. "Guns were everywhere. You didn't have to go far to get one. Just everywhere," he said. In a housing project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn, shootouts were commonplace: "Guns were around every day. There were shootouts, but I never shot anyone else. Most people in shootouts don't get shot."
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