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You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter.

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

Album First Listen Memory Need Paper Pen Record Song Time Trained Twentymsix
I grew up in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, and my mom and pop had an extensive record collection, so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.
JAY-Z

Celebrity Collection Country Extensive Grew Mom People Person Pop Project Record
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
Everyone’s supposed to stay in their lines and be neat. ‘You’re a rapper. You’re supposed to rap, carry a boom box, wear chains, and go to the club – that’s all you do. What are you doing collecting art?
JAY-Z

Bottom Box Chain Everyone Line Neat Rapper Stay Suppose Wear
I remember the first time I saw the ‘Sugarhill Gang’ on Soul Train. I was 11 or 12. I was like, ‘What’s going on? How did those guys get on national TV?’ And then, when I was a little older, a rapper from the neighborhood got a record deal. I was shocked.
JAY-Z

First Gang Remember Show Soul Sugarhill Time Train
One of the reasons inequality gets so deep in this country is that everyone wants to be rich. That’s the American ideal.
JAY-Z

Country Deep Everyone Get Ideal Inequality One Reason Rich Want
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
My dad was such a good dad that when he left, he left a huge scar. He was my superhero.
JAY-Z

Dad Good Huge Just Left Scare Superhero
I’m just saying the producers and people who work on music are getting left out – that’s when it starts getting criminal. It’s like you’re working hard, and you’re not receiving. In any other business, people would be standing before Congress. They have antitrust laws against this kind of behavior.
JAY-Z

Accomplish Criminal Get Left Lost Out People Produce Say Start Transition When Work
I was an artist, I was executive producer on my first album, so I’ve always had to manage both. I couldn’t get a record deal. It wasn’t by choice – I couldn’t get a record deal, so I had to figure it out.
JAY-Z

Album Always Artistic Both Executive First Manage Producer
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
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
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
Rap for me is like making movies, telling stories, and getting the emotions of the songs through in just as deep a way.
JAY-Z

Dep Emotion Get Make Movie Rap Song Story Way
I was forced to be an artist and a CEO from the beginning, so I was forced to be like a businessman because when I was trying to get a record deal, it was so hard to get a record deal on my own that it was either give up or create my own company.
JAY-Z

Artist Beginning Businessman CEO Force Record Try
I’m just going to make the music I love to make, and I’m going to mature with my music.
JAY-Z

Just Love Make Mature Music

You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter.

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You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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