Who Was Alive
Jay-Z
Photo Courtesy of NYS Senate Media Services, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jay-Z

American rapper and record producer

Born 4 December 1969 · living, 56 as of October 2026

Who was alive at the same time as Jay-Z?

  1. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  2. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  3. Charles de Gaulle, 1890 – 1970
  4. Mao Zedong, 1893 – 1976
  5. Salvador Dalí, 1904 – 1989
  6. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  7. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  8. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  9. Pope Francis, 1936 – 2025
  10. Joe Biden, born 1942
  11. Donald Trump, born 1946
  12. George W. Bush, born 1946
  13. Bill Clinton, born 1946
  14. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  15. Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
  16. Bill Gates, born 1955
  17. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009
  18. Barack Obama, born 1961
  19. Jimmy Wales, born 1966
  20. Jay-Z, born 1969
  21. Shakira, born 1977
  22. Basshunter, born 1984
  23. Lionel Messi, born 1987
  24. Corbin Bleu, born 1989

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Jay-Z was born, Barack Obama was 8, Donald Trump was 23, Michael Jackson was 11, Vladimir Putin was 17 and Ronald Reagan was 58.

Born during Jay-Z’s lifetime: Shakira, Lionel Messi, Corbin Bleu, Basshunter, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Elon Musk and Emmanuel Macron.

Not quite contemporaries: Albert Einstein died about 14 years before Jay-Z was born, Winston Churchill died about 4 years before Jay-Z was born, John F. Kennedy died about 6 years before Jay-Z was born and Martin Luther King Jr. died about a year before Jay-Z was born.

What happened in Jay-Z’s lifetime

Where Jay-Z’s contemporaries were born

Jay-Z is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (79 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Jay-Z

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,790 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Jay-Z. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1998.

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  4. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  5. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  6. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  7. George W. Bush born 1946
  8. Joe Biden born 1942
  9. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  10. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  11. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  12. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  13. Bill Gates born 1955
  14. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  15. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  16. Shakira born 1977
  17. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  18. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  19. Lionel Messi born 1987
  20. Corbin Bleu born 1989
  21. Bill Clinton born 1946
  22. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  23. Basshunter born 1984
  24. Angela Merkel born 1954
  25. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  26. François Hollande born 1954
  27. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  28. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  29. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  30. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  31. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  32. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  33. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  34. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  35. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  36. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  37. Elon Musk born 1971
  38. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  39. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  40. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  41. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  42. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  43. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  44. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  45. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  46. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  47. Lady Gaga born 1986
  48. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  49. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  50. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  51. Madonna born 1958
  52. Kamala Harris born 1964
  53. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  54. Xi Jinping born 1953
  55. Naruhito born 1960
  56. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  57. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  58. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  59. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  60. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  61. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  62. Bob Dylan born 1941
  63. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  64. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  65. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  66. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  67. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  68. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  69. Justin Bieber born 1994
  70. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  71. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  72. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  73. Taylor Swift born 1989
  74. Charles III born 1948
  75. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  76. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  77. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  78. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  79. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  80. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  81. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  82. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  83. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  84. Eminem born 1972
  85. Beyoncé born 1981
  86. Selena Gomez born 1992
  87. Narendra Modi born 1950
  88. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  89. Rafael Correa born 1963
  90. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  91. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  92. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  93. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  94. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  95. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  96. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  97. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  98. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  99. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  100. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  101. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  102. Mark Zuckerberg born 1984
  103. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  104. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  105. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  106. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  107. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  108. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  109. Shinzo Abe 1954 – 2022
  110. Isaac Asimov c. 1920 – 1992
  111. Tim Berners-Lee born 1955
  112. Ingmar Bergman 1918 – 2007
  113. Federico Fellini 1920 – 1993
  114. Mahathir Mohamad born 1925
  115. Jackie Chan born 1954
  116. Boris Yeltsin 1931 – 2007
  117. Ali Khamenei 1939 – 2026
  118. Robin Williams 1951 – 2014
  119. Guillermo Lasso born 1955
  120. Celine Dion born 1968
  121. Kim Il Sung 1912 – 1994
  122. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1918 – 2008
  123. Jacques Chirac 1932 – 2019
  124. Roger Federer born 1981
  125. Kwame Nkrumah 1909 – 1972
  126. Stanley Kubrick 1928 – 1999
  127. Lana Del Rey born 1985
  128. Marlon Brando 1924 – 2004
  129. Alexander Lukashenko born 1954
  130. Hirohito 1901 – 1989
  131. Richard Feynman 1918 – 1988
  132. Woody Allen born 1935
  133. Neymar born 1992
  134. Tony Blair born 1953
  135. Rihanna born 1988
  136. Malala Yousafzai born 1997
  137. Scarlett Johansson born 1984
  138. Rafael Nadal born 1986
  139. Yasser Arafat 1929 – 2004
  140. Greta Thunberg born 2003
  141. Ban Ki-moon born 1944
  142. Arnold Schwarzenegger born 1947
  143. David Cameron born 1966
  144. Linus Torvalds born 1969
  145. Novak Djokovic born 1987
  146. Vladimir Nabokov 1899 – 1977
  147. Brigitte Bardot 1934 – 2025
  148. Hebe Camargo 1929 – 2012
  149. Umberto Eco 1932 – 2016
  150. Diana, Princess of Wales 1961 – 1997