 A rapper named Jay-Z. From a barely selling platinum artist, which is still an accomplishment, to a multi-platinum selling artist with a record called Hard Knock Life. The ghetto anthem. It's a hard knock life. Y'all know that song. So that was, Wikipedia says, the song was a hit and featured a looped chorus from the original cast album from the Broadway musical Annie. In an interview, Jay-Z spoke on Mark's importance to hip-hop and called him a pioneer in the business.