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 More Quotes by Jay-Z More Quotes From Jay-Z I wrote this [Most Kings] before MJ died, and his death only proves my point: When he was alive, the King of Pop, people were tireless in taking him down, accepting as truth every accusation people made against him, assuming the worst until they drove him away. When he died, suddenly he was beloved again - people realized that the charges against him might really have been bogus, and that the skin lightening was really caused by a disease, and that his weirdness was part of his artistry. But when he was alive and on top, they couldn't wait to bring him down. Jay-Z kings waiting people Is to have had and lost/Better than not having at all? Jay-Z lost I use a lot of double meanings. I hide 'em like Easter eggs. Jay-Z eggs easter use just when i thought i had everything, i lost it all Jay-Z lost It's always been most important for me to figure out "my space" rather than trying to check out what everyone else is up to, minute by minute. Technology is making it easier to connect to other people, but maybe harder to keep connected to yourself-- and that's essential for any artist, I think. Jay-Z technology artist thinking I'm far from being god, but I work god damn hard. Jay-Z hard damn work Treat my first like my last and the last like my first and my thirst is the same as- when I came. Jay-Z treats lasts firsts Now success was like lust, she's good to the touch, Jay-Z hip-hop moments lust Hip-hop has done so much for racial relations, and I don't think it's given the proper credit. It has changed America immensely. I'm going to make a very bold statement: Hip-hop has done more than any leader, politician, or anyone to improve race relations. Jay-Z music race thinking You ain't gotta go to church to find your God. Jay-Z church [T]he truth is you don't need some external demon to take control of you to turn you into a raging, money-obsessed sociopath, you only need to let loose the demons you already have inside of you. Jay-Z truth-is demon needs Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who've never done anything because if you haven't been successful, then you don't know how it feels to lose it all. Jay-Z done successful people You could name practically any problem in the hood and there'd be a rap song for you. Jay-Z rap names song The burden of poverty isn't just that you don't always have the things you need, it's the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you'd do anything to lift that burden. Jay-Z poverty feelings needs Your future is ahead of you. Imagine the notion of the past fifteen years of your life being a blip in your story. Jay-Z stories past years Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama's running so we all can fly. Jay-Z parks kings running They say a midget standing on a giant's shoulders can see much further than the giant. So I got the whole rap world on my shoulders, they trying to see further than I am. Jay-Z rap hip-hop trying Rap has been a path between cultures in the best tradition of popular music. Jay-Z rap path culture This is why we shouldn't be afraid. There are two possibilities: One is that there's more to life than the physical life, that our souls "will find an even higher place to dwell" when this life is over. If that's true, there's no reason to fear failure or death. The other possibility is that this life is all there is. And if that's true, then we have to really live it - we have to take it for everything it has and "die enormous" instead of "living dormant," as I said way back on "Can I Live." Either way, fear is a waste of time. Jay-Z soul two way My life after childhood has two main stories: the story of the hustler and the story of the rapper, and the two overlap as much as they diverge. I was on the streets for more than half of my life from the time I was thirteen years old. People sometimes say that now I'm so far away from that life - now that I've got businesses and Grammys and magazine covers - that I have no right to rap about it. But how distant is the story of your own life ever going to be? The feelings I had during that part of my life were burned into me like a brand. It was life during wartime. Jay-Z rap two years
