Jay-Z Quotes & Sayings

I am not a businessman. I am a business, man. — Jay-Z

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

I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars — Jay-Z

Everyone who makes music is a good collaborator at their foundation because in order to make music, you have to connect to it in a way that other people can't. — Jay-Z

I pimp hard on a trick, look / Fuck if ya leg broke, bitch - hop up on ya good foot — Jay-Z

I love that because that's what I'm supposed to be doing - whether it's accepted b everybody or not. I'm supposed to be pushing that envelope and trying new things. And people are supposed to say, Hov, you might have went too far. — Jay-Z

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 — Jay-Z

Boxing is a glorious sport to watch and boxers are incredible, heroic athletes, but it's also, to be honest, a stupid game to play. Even the winners can end up with crippling brain damage. In a lot of ways, hustling is the same. But you learn something special from playing the most difficult games, the games where winning is close to impossible and losing is catastrophic: You learn how to compete as if your life depended on it. That's the lesson I brought with me to the so-called "legitimate" world. — Jay-Z

If your dad died before you were born, yeah, it hurts - but it's not like you had a connection with something that was real. Not to say it's any better - but to have that connection and then have it ripped away was, like, the worst. My dad was such a good dad that when he left, he left a huge scar. He was my superhero. — Jay-Z

We give violent movies a pass but come down hard on a rapper like Scarface, who is ultimately a storyteller just like Brian de Palma. And neither of them is responsible for the poverty and violence that really do shape people's lives
not to mention their individual choices. — Jay-Z

You can pay for school, but you can't buy class — Jay-Z

We create music to express ourselves and when the world relates, that's a beautiful thing. We're all trading off each other's culture, so no matter what lines you put-country indie rock, rap, we're all somehow gonna find a way to come together. — Jay-Z

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. — Jay-Z

I look in the mirror, my only opponent — Jay-Z

I keep my enemies close/ I give 'em enough rope/ They put themselves in the air/ I just kick away the chair. — Jay-Z

Remind your self. Nobody constructed like you, you style your self. — Jay-Z

May the best of your today's be the worst of your tomorrow's — Jay-Z

A wise man told me don't argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can't tell who is who. — Jay-Z

The art of rap is deceptive. It seems so straightforward and personal and real that people read it completely literally, as raw testimony or autobiography. And sometimes the words we use, nigga, bitch, motherfucker, and the violence of the images overwhelms some listeners. It's all white noise to them till they hear a bitch or a nigga and then they run off yelling "See!" and feel vindicated in their narrow conception of what the music is about. — Jay-Z

All these ways we classify things as R&B and hip-hop and rock ... It's bullshit. It's all music. If you put yourself in that box, then you won't be able to hear that it's all music at its soul. — Jay-Z

I collect art, and I drink wine ... things that I like that I had never been exposed to. But I never said, 'I'm going to buy art to impress this crowd.' That's just ridiculous to me. I don't live my life like that, because how could you be happy with yourself? — Jay-Z

Don't make decisions based on the fear. — Jay-Z

Can I hit it in the morning with out giving you have of my dough? — Jay-Z

I never ask for nothin' I don't demand of myself. Honesty, loyalty, friends and then wealth — Jay-Z

And now we're lethal, infected with D'Evils — Jay-Z

Don't ever go with the flow. Be the flow. — Jay-Z

Got some, dirt on my shoulder, could you brush it off for me? — Jay-Z

Nine to five is how ya survive, I ain't trying to survive
I'm trying to live it to the limit and love it alive — Jay-Z

Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow. — Jay-Z

I believe you can speak things into existence. — Jay-Z

You could name practically any problem in the hood and there'd be a rap song for you. — Jay-Z

I'm here to tell niggas it ain't all swell.
There's Heaven then there's Hell niggas
One day your cruisin' in your seven,
Next day your sweatin', forgettin' your lies,
Alibis ain't matchin' up, bullshit catchin' up
Hit with the RICO, they repoed your vehicle
Everything was all good just a week ago
'Bout to start bitchin' ain't you?
Ready to start snitchin' ain't you?
I forgive you. Weak ass, hustlin' just ain't you
Aside from the fast cars
Honeys that shake they ass in bars
You know you wouldn't be involved
With the Underworld dealers, carriers of mac-millers
East coast bodiers, West coast cap-peelers
Little monkey niggas turned gorillas. — Jay-Z

Lyor Cohen, who I consider my mentor, once told me something that he was told by a rabbi about the eight degrees of giving in Judaism. The seventh degree is giving anonymously, so you don't know who you're giving to, and the person on the receiving end doesn't know who gave. The value of that is that the person receiving doesn't have to feel some kind of obligation to the giver and the person giving isn't doing it with an ulterior motive. It's a way of putting the giver and receiver on the same level. It's a tough ideal to reach out for, but it does take away some of the patronizing and showboating that can go on with philanthropy in a capitalist system. The highest level of giving, the eight, is giving in a way that makes the receiver self-sufficient. — Jay-Z

You put the right artist on the right track in the studio and leave the door open to let God in. — Jay-Z

When I come back like Jordan, wearing the 4-5
It ain't to play games with you, it's to aim at you, probably maim you
If I owe you I'm blowin' you to smithereens. — Jay-Z

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. — Jay-Z

I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man! — Jay-Z

Everyone needs a chance to evolve. — Jay-Z

Hip-hop gave a generation a common ground that didn't require either race to lose anything; everyone gained. — Jay-Z

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 — Jay-Z

Everybody can tell you how to do it but they never done it — Jay-Z

I'm not saying I'm God. But as far as lyrics, I'm God MC. — Jay-Z

I got this black chick, she don't know how to act
Always talkin' out her neck, makin' her fingers snap
She like, Listen Jigga Man, I don't care if you rap
You better - R-E-S-P-E-C-T me — Jay-Z

Rappers, as a class, are not engaged in anything criminal. They're musicians. Some rappers and friends of rappers commit crimes. Some bus drivers commit crimes. Some accountants commit crimes. But there aren't task forces devoted to bus drivers or accountants. Bus drivers don't have to work under the preemptive suspicion of law enforcement. The difference is obvious, of course: Rappers are young black men telling stories that the police, among others, don't want to hear. Rappers tend to come from places where police are accustomed to treating everybody like a suspect. The general style of rappers is offensive to a lot of people. But being offensive is not acrime, at least not one that's on the books. The fact that law enforcement treats rap like organized crime tells you a lot about just how deeply rap offends some people
they'd love for rap itself to be a crime, but until they get that law passed, they come after us however they can. — Jay-Z

Little brothers ring fingers get cut up to show mothers they really got em. — Jay-Z

That's why this generation is the least racist generation ever. You see it all the time. Go to any club. People are intermingling, hanging out, having fun, enjoying the same music. Hip-hop is not just in the Bronx anymore. It's worldwide. Everywhere you go, people are listening to hip-hop and partying together. Hip-hop has done that. — Jay-Z

I thought I would be more inspired to have all these new feelings to talk about, but I really just want to hang out with my daughter. — Jay-Z

Their gunnin' for me, want to see me fall, you know my story, been through it all, times I felt like dyin', but I ain't cryin', what didn't kill me, makes me strong as iron. — Jay-Z

No matter where you go you are what you are player and you can try to change but that's just the top layer man you was who you was before you got here — Jay-Z

Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth. People respect success. They respect big. They don't even have to like your music. If you're big enough, people are drawn to you. — Jay-Z

I'm gonna fight, and I'm gonna make something out of nothing. That's pretty much the American dream. So, for me, the realization that I could speak to people like that came first on a small scale. Then it just started happening. I started having this vibration. — Jay-Z

Everything evens up, you just wait, Even a garbage can gets a steak, You ain't even a garbage can, you have faith! — Jay-Z

If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be
Lyrically, Talib Kweli
Truthfully, I wanna rhyme like Common Sense
But I did 5 mill' - I ain't been rhyming like Common since. — Jay-Z

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

People really feel like music is free, but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap and it's good water. But they're okay paying for it. It's just the mindset right now. — Jay-Z

The Nets' a stone throw from where I used to throw bricks
... So it's only right I'm still tossing 'round Knicks. — Jay-Z

Difficult takes a day
Impossible takes a week
I do this in my sleep — Jay-Z

Be true to yourself- and keep things simple. People complicate things — Jay-Z

On the night he died - he was twenty-seven - Basquiat had been planning to see a Run-DMC show. When people asked him what his art was about, he'd hit them with the same three words: Royalty, heroism, and the streets. — Jay-Z

I got 99 Problems but Mitt ain't one. — Jay-Z

I like a girl who spend a little cash for her shoes. — Jay-Z

So many people that I've seen can't get clean water. It's a crime. — Jay-Z

Only God can judge me so I'm gone, either love me or leave me alone. — Jay-Z

I came, I saw, I conquered
From record sales to sold out concerts. — Jay-Z

It was a weird mix of emotions. One day, your best friend could be killed. The day before, you could be celebrating him getting a brand-new bike. — Jay-Z

[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

New York has a thousand universes in it that don't always connect but we do all walk the same streets, hear the same sirens, ride the same subways, see the same headlines in the Post, read the same writings on the walls. That shared landscape gets inside of all of us and, in some small way, unites us, makes us think we know each other even when we don't. — Jay-Z

When you're growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you've let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again. — Jay-Z

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

In trouble waters I had to learn how to float — Jay-Z

We'll have a baby who stutters repeatedly We'll name him history — Jay-Z

Some people have used this song as evidence that I worship the devil, which is another chapter for the big book of stupid. It's really just laughable. But the sad part is that it's not even remotely a song about devil worship! It's a song about the intersection of some basic human emotions, the place where sadness meets rage, where our need to mourn meets our lust for justice, where our faith meets our inclination to take matters into our own hands, like karmic vigilantes. People who hear the word Lucifer and start making accusations are just robbing themselves of an opportunity to get in touch with something deeper than that, something inside their own souls. — Jay-Z

The average rap life is two or three albums. You're lucky to get to your second album in rap! — Jay-Z

I use a lot of double meanings. I hide 'em like Easter eggs. — Jay-Z

This communist talk is so confusing — Jay-Z

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

You not feeling me, fine. It costs you nothing, pay me no mind.. — Jay-Z

Ex-D-boy, used to park my Beamer
Now look at me, I can park in my own arena — Jay-Z

A poet's mission is to make words do more work than they normally do, to make them work on more than one level. — Jay-Z

For me, being with Obama or having dinner with Bill Clinton ... It's crazy. It's mind-blowing, because where I come from is just another world. We were just ignored by politicians, by America in general. — Jay-Z

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

[T]he truth is that drug addicts have a disease. It only takes a short time in the streets to realize that out-of-control addiction is a medical problem, not a form of recreational or criminal behavior. And the more society treats drug addiction as a crime, the more money drug dealers will make "relieving" the suffering of the addicts. — Jay-Z

You can't turn a bad girl good, but once a good girls' gone bad, she's gone forever. — Jay-Z

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

Life is for living, not living uptight, see ya somewhere up in the sky. — Jay-Z

Used to rock a throwback ballin on the corner, now I rock tailored suit lookin' like a owner. — Jay-Z

I think relationships are broken up because of the media. — Jay-Z

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

Males shouldnt be jealous. Thats a female trait. — Jay-Z

I had success. I had a number one record. I had a number one album. I have to make this kind of record again or else I'm going to lose it all. That's how you end up making the same song over and over. — Jay-Z

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. — Jay-Z

Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing that truth can be a very powerful thing. — Jay-Z

Far from a Harvard student, just had the balls to do it — Jay-Z

Never prayed to God, I prayed to Gotti, that's right it's wicked, that's life I live it. Ain't askin' for forgiveness for my sins. I gotta get my soul right, I gotta get these Devils out my life. Lord forgive him, He got them dark forces in. connected to the high power. 666. I can introduce you to evil. — Jay-Z

In the end, you can't censor the truth, especially when it comes packaged in hot music. — Jay-Z

My tears is tatted, my rag in my pocket / Im just looking for love, I know somebody got it — Jay-Z

[Banning marriage equality is] discrimination, plain and simple. It's really not about votes. It's about people. I think it's the right thing to do as a human being. — Jay-Z

Racism is taught in the home. We agree on that? Well, it's very hard to teach racism to a teenager who's listening to rap music and who idolizes, say, Snoop Dogg. It's hard to say, 'That guy is less than you.' The kid is like, 'I like that guy, he's cool. How is he less than me? — Jay-Z

Don't tell me what was said about me. Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it to you. — Jay-Z

Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I'm a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best? — Jay-Z