Jay-Z

A poet’s mission is to make words do more work than they normally do, to make them work on more than one level.

Jay-Z

All my businesses are part of the culture, so I have to stay true to whatever I’m feeling at the time, whatever direction I’m heading in.

Jay-Z

Around 20. I’d been trying to transition from the streets to the music business, but I would make demos and then quit for six months. And I started to realize that I couldn’t be successful until I let the street life go.

Jay-Z

Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing that truth can be a very powerful thing.

Jay-Z

As kids we didn’t complain about being poor; we talked about how rich we were going to be and made moves to get the lifestyle we aspired to by any means we could. And as soon as we had a little money, we were eager to show it.

Jay-Z

Be fluid. Treat each project differently. Be water, man. The best style is no style. Because styles can be figured out. And when you have no style they can’t figure you out.

Jay-Z

By the time I got to record my first album, I was 26, I didn’t need pen or paper – my memory had been trained just to listen to a song, think of the words, and lay them to tape.

Jay-Z

Do you know how many athletes go broke three years after they stop playing? I want to help them hold on to their money. I mean, I know about budgets.

Jay-Z

Everyone who makes music is a good collaborator at their foundation because in order to make music, you have to connect to it in a way that other people can’t.

Jay-Z

For me, being with Obama or having dinner with Bill Clinton… It’s crazy. It’s mind-blowing, because where I come from is just another world. We were just ignored by politicians, by America in general.

Jay-Z