black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice – anything just to get a paper bag. And I’d write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.
JAY-Z

Anything Bag Come Grab Juice Paper Run Store
I’ve never looked at myself and said that I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people.
JAY-Z

Around Certain Look Myself Need never People Said Sort Way
Blueprint 3′ is made up of songs, but it’s also a commentary on the idea that in order for rap to survive, we have to stretch out the drama.
JAY-Z

Blueprint Commentary Drama Idea Made Order Rap Song Stretch Survive
Just strengthening that theme that America is a place of opportunity and hoping to inspire people to fulfill those opportunities, and to want more, and to want better, and to see the places we can go. So many people identify with me because of the place that I come from.
JAY-Z

Country Fulfill Hope Inspire Just More Opportunity People Place Strengthening Theme Want
Music is everywhere – you consume it every day, everywhere you go. The content creator should be compensated. It’s only fair.
JAY-Z

Compensate Consume Content Creator Day Every Everywhere Fair Music Only
I learned to ride a ten-speed when I was 4 or 5. My uncle gave me the bike, hand-me-down, and everyone used to stare at me riding up and down this block. I was too short to reach the pedals, so I put my legs through the V of the frame. I was famous. The little kid who could ride the ten-speed.
JAY-Z

Bike Down Everyone Five Four Hand Learn Ride Speed Stare Ten Uncle Use
What people have to understand is ‘Billboard’ is a magazine. They’re like elected officials – they work for us.
JAY-Z

Billboard Elected Magazine Official People Understand Work
I’ve talked to Bill Clinton – he’s the ultimate rock star; no one’s more charming than him. People clap in a restaurant when he finishes dinner! I don’t get that treatment. I get it when I walk onstage, but not when I have dinner.
JAY-Z

Charming Fun More Person President Rock Star Talk Ultimate
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
It’s hilarious a lot of times. You have a conversation with someone, and he’s like, ‘You speak so well!’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? Do you understand that’s an insult?
JAY-Z

Conversation Hilarious Like Lot Somehow Speak Time Well
I’ve always believed in good music over bad music. I believe in two sorts of musics. And the lines that separate us, I don’t believe in that. That’s for people who need to easily define what they’re hearing. Me, I’m cool with everything and anything I’m hearing that’s music. It comes under one definition for me.
JAY-Z

Always Bad Believe Good Music Over
When the TV version of Annie came on, I was drawn to it. It was the struggle of this poor kid in this environment and how her life changed. It immediately resonated.
JAY-Z

Change Drawn Environment Kid Life Perosnm Celebrity Poor Show Struggle Televiosnm Version
Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out.
JAY-Z

Inspire Job Neighbourhoodm Out People
I’ve got a nice collection of paintings – a Basquiat, a black-and-white Warhol that’s like a Rorschach test, and I commissioned Takashi Murakami to do a ten-foot joint for me. It’s almost like the explosion in Hiroshima with his famous skeleton head. There’s a wall above my fireplace reserved for it.
JAY-Z

Collection Commission Country Nice Painting Person Test White
Belief in oneself and knowing who you are, I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great.
JAY-Z

Belief Everything Foundation Great Know Mean Oneself
When you have a reputation for making not only good songs but great albums, that in itself creates added artistic pressure. But, at the end of the day, I guess that pressure is something I welcome.
JAY-Z

Album Artistic Create End Good Great Guess Make Only Pressure Reputation Something Song

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Jay-Z Quotes