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I love what I do, and when you love what you do, you want to be the best at it.

Jay-Z

No one came to our neighborhoods with stand-up jobs and showed us there’s a different way. Maybe, had I seen different role models, maybe I’d’ve turned on to that.
JAY-Z

Came Different Job Neighbourhood Our Show Stand Way
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

Bore Good Grade Raed Really Six Student Twentieth
It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we’d play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.
JAY-Z

Come Country Cream Fire Hydrant Ice Intense Man Open People Play Pump Situation Stressful Very
New York – I’m connected. This is my core. I feel like if I’m not connected to New York, then I don’t even know what to do with myself.
JAY-Z

Connect Core Country Even Feel Know Like Myself
Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I’m a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?
JAY-Z

Best Compare Man Poetry Shakespeare Write Wrote Yourself
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

Around Been Business Demos Make Month Music Quit Six Street Transition Twenty
The average rap life is two or three albums. You’re lucky to get to your second album in rap!
JAY-Z

Album Average Life Luck Rap Second Thre Two
I came into this music business at 26 years old. I was a fully developed man at that point. At that age, I didn’t have anything to prove.
JAY-Z

Age Anything Busines Develop Fully Man Music Old Point Prove Six Twenty Year
We were living in a tough situation, but my mother managed; she juggled. Sometimes we’d pay the light bill, sometimes we paid the phone, sometimes the gas went off.
JAY-Z

Juggled Live Manage Mother She Situation Tough
Hip-hop has done more for race relations than most cultural icons; and I say save Martin Luther King, because his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech was realized when Obama was elected into office.
JAY-Z

Culture Done Dream Hip Hop Icon More Most President Relation Say Speech
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

Album First Listen Memory Need Paper Pen Record Song Time Trained Twentymsix
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

might People Poor Project Surround Talk Themselves Think
Primarily I see myself as so much more than a rapper. I really believe I am the voice for a lot of people who don’t have that microphone or who can’t rap.
JAY-Z

Believe Lot Microphone More Much Myself People Primarily Rapper Really Voice
Companies that pretend to care about music and really care about other things – whether it be hardware, whether it be advertising – and now they look at music as a loss leader. And we know music isn’t a loss leader; music is an important part of our lives.
JAY-Z

Advertise Care Company Hardware Music Other Pretend Relly Thing
When I came into the music, I was forced to be a CEO. I was forced to be an entrepreneur; I was forced to… because I was looking for a deal. I didn’t have this grand scheme of starting a record company and then morphing into a clothing empire.
JAY-Z

CEO Clothing Company Empire Entrepreneur Force Grand Look Morphing Music Record Scheme Starting
My passion is music, you know, and music influences culture, influences lifestyle, which leads me to ‘Roc-A-Wear’. I was forced to be an entrepreneur, so that led me to be CEO of ‘Roc-A-Fella’ records, which lead to Def Jam.
JAY-Z

Influence Know Lead Lifestyle Music Passion Wear

I love what I do, and when you love what you do, you want to be the best at it.

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I love what I do, and when you love what you do, you want to be the best at it.

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