Jay-Z Quotes
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But this is one of the things that makes rap at its best so human. It doesn't force you to pretend to be only one thing or another, to be a saint or a sinner. It recognizes that you can be true to yourself and still have unexpected dimensions and opposing ideas. Having a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other is the most common thing in the world. The real bullshit is when you act like you don't have contradictions inside you, that you're so dull and unimaginative that your mind never changes or wanders into strange, unexpected places.
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When people say stuff like, "Oh, that's soft rock. I don't listen to that," I find that elitist. It's music-racist.
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Life is for living, not living uptight, see ya somewhere up in the sky.
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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.
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As sure as this Earth is turnin, souls burnin / In search of higher learnin, turnin in every direction seeking direction / My moms cryin cause her insides are dyin / Her son tryin her patience, keep her heart racin / A million beats a minute, I know I push you to your limit / But it's this game, love—I'm caught up all in it / They make it so you can't prevent it, never give it / You gotta take it, can't fake it, I keep it authentic
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I get my by any means on, whenever there's a drought get your umbrellas out because that's when I brainstorm.
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Treat my first like my last and the last like my first and my thirst is the same as- when I came.
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If the beat is time, flow is what we do with that time, how we live through it. The beat is everywhere, but every life has to find its own flow.
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Jay Hov about to change my name to Jay Pesobut in a meantime called me William H thoughon a platinum Yamaha got the engine gunningthrowing it up like liquor on an empty stomach.
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Driving Benzes with no benefits, not bad huh, for some immigrants?
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Don't ever go with the flow. Be the flow.
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Males shouldnt be jealous. Thats a female trait.
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I ain't lookin' at you dudes -I'm lookin' past you.
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Electing a black man named Barack Obama President in the same country that elected George W. Bush - twice! - is as far-fetched as a hustler from Marcy performing at that President's inauguration. But it happened.
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People who don't know you, you don't know their motives. They smile at you all day, "Oh, that's great. You've done it again! You're the greatest!" And that's not good for an artist.
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You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip. You can’t sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.
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Hip-hop is a perfect mix between poetry and boxing.
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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.
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Hip-hop gave a generation a common ground that didn't require either race to lose anything; everyone gained.
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I think Lil Wayne is extremely talented. I think he's one of the most talented ones out there.
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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.
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Ex-D-boy, used to park my Beamer Now look at me, I can park in my own arena
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Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be And so I put this on my life Nobody or nothing will ever come between us And I promise I'll give my life
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My thing is related to who I am as a person. The clothes are an extension of me. The music is an extension of me. 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. And hopefully, everyone follows.