I think that’s what happened to the record business when ‘Napster’ came around. The industry rejected what was happening instead of accepting it as change. Jay-Z Read Quote
Growing up where I grew up, we looked to athletes. They were our first heroes. They came from the same places we came from. I mean, you can’t watch TV and see someone who is successful that you can really relate to. That person isn’t real; he doesn’t exist. But athletes traveled the world, had these big houses and gave their families a better life. Jay-Z Read Quote
When you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again. Jay-Z Read Quote
If your dad died before you were born, yeah, it hurts – but it’s not like you had a connection with something that was real. Not to say it’s any better – but to have that connection and then have it ripped away was, like, the worst. My dad was such a good dad that when he left, he left a huge scar. He was my superhero. Jay-Z Read Quote
The experiences that I’ve had growing up with music, you know, I couldn’t trade them for any money in the world. Dancing in the living room to enjoy myself. ‘Enjoy Yourself,’ Michael Jackson. Jay-Z Read Quote
I don’t profess to be a political rapper, like groups such as ‘Dead Prez’ or ‘Public Enemy’, but I think social commentary should make its way into your music. Speaking on your neighbourhood is social commentary – what happens, what’s going on. Jay-Z Read Quote
Wherever I go, I bring the culture with me, so that they can understand that it’s attainable. I didn’t do it any other way than through hip-hop. Jay-Z Read Quote
I was a really good student. In the sixth grade, I was reading at a twelfth grade reading level. But I got bored. Jay-Z Read Quote
I’ll make a song with Rick Rubin, a song with Beyonce, a song with Lenny Kravitz. I just believe in making good music. I’m not trying to section myself off into just making hard-core rap music. Jay-Z Read Quote
One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That’s the American ideal. Poor people don’t like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank they don’t like to think of themselves as poor. Jay-Z Read Quote
