Rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur, Jay-Z is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America. In 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth at nearly $550 million and growing.
Born in New York in 1969, Jay-Z began his musical career after founding the record label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995. He subsequently released his debut studio album Reasonable Doubt in 1996 – to widespread critical success. Jay-Z is now one of the world’s best-selling music artists with over 50 million albums and 75 million singles sold worldwide. He has won a total of 22 Grammy Awards, the most by a rapper, and holds the record for the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200.
Jay-Z has also attained significant success and media attention for his career as a businessman. Arguably one of the smartest investors, he has created his own clothing line and invested in and founded several other businesses including entertainment company Roc Nation.
The musician also hit the jackpot in his personal life, putting a ring on female singing sensation Beyoncé in 2008.
With all these accomplishments, there’s no doubt Jay-Z has built himself into one of the wealthiest and most influential musicians in the last 15 years. Connecting with a broad audience through his flows and his storytelling ability, his words will inspire anyone around the globe to get up, and hustle harder in life.
1. I’m a hustler baby; I sell water to a well.
2. All I got is dreams. Nobody else believes. Nobody else can see, nobody else but me.
3. I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man.
4. You can pay for school but you can’t buy class.
5. By far for me the most important thing is inspiration.
6. 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.
7. We change people through conversation, not through censorship.
8. I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not trying.
9. 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.
10. Whenever inspiration won’t find you, you have to find it.
11. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
12. I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me.
13. The responsibility is to keep pushing it forward, and not relying on the same old gimmicks. You have to push it forward.
14. 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.
15. They say a midget standing on a giant’s shoulders can see much further than the giant. So I got the whole rap world on my shoulders, they trying to see further than I am.
16. Don’t tell me what was said about me… Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it to you.
17. 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?
18. I come from a place where you had to keep your word, where people would stick with you no matter what…I just tried to be a man of my word.
19. Wherever I go, I bring the culture with me, so that they can understand that it’s attainable. I didn’t do it any other way than through hip-hop.
20. You have to realize what’s behind it (criticism), because I don’t know these guys (critics), but I know it’s more of a competitive thing, and it just comes with the job.
21. They talk. We live. Who cares what they say?
22. Only thing that’s on my mind, is who’s gonna run this town tonight.
23. 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.
24. I’m inspired by life, and all sorts of things. You could say something right now and it would inspire me to write a song.
25. My brands are an extension of me. They’re close to me. It’s not like running GM, where there’s no emotional attachment.
26. Rap for me is like making movies, telling stories, and getting the emotions of the songs through in just as deep a way. And I grew up in rap and movies the same way.
27. I have a lot of happiness, but that doesn’t mean that the two (money and happiness) equate to each other…they’re not tied to each other…
28. Life is for living, not living uptight. See ya somewhere up in the sky.
29. I try to work with brands that have some sort of partnerships there. I don’t do one off deals, but try to work on partnerships as opposed to one off endorsement deals.
30. Remind yourself, nobody’s built like you. You design yourself.
31. The genius thing that we did, was we didn’t give up, we didn’t say ‘Because these guys…’ we used that ‘What do they know’ approach, and didn’t give up.
32. I went through hell, I’m expecting heaven.
33. Life is about balance, you have to have time for work, and time for play. If you don’t allow these two things to co-exist you have an imbalance.
34. 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.
35. I believe that the energy you put out in the world, you get back.
36. I’ve never looked at myself and said that I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people. I’ve always wanted to stay true to myself, and I’ve managed to do that. People have to accept that.
37. Instincts are really important in business. I didn’t go to any business school 101 or anything like that, I pretty much just followed my instincts.
38. Either love me or leave me alone.
39. You learn more in failure than you ever do in success.
40. Those who are successful overcome their fears and take action. Those who aren’t submit to their fears and live with regrets.
41. Only two things can get you through this: that’s patience and persistence.
42. I think relationships are broken up because of the media.
43. If people don’t hate you, you’re probably not doing very big things.
44. 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?
45. A wise man told me don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who.
46. I believe everyone in the world is born with genius-level talent. Apply yourself to whatever you’re genius at, and you can do anything in the world.
47. I’d rather live enormous than live dormant.
48. I’m far from being god, but I work god damn hard.
49. They say you put the right artist with the right track in the studio, leave the door cracked, and let G-d in.
50. I’m a mirror. If you’re cool with me, I’m cool with you, and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don’t like what you see, then you’ve done something. If I’m standoffish, that’s because you are.
51. Leave a mark they can’t erase, neither space nor time.
52. 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.
53. Everything evens up, you just wait. Even a garage can gets a steak. You are not even a garbage can, you have faith!
54. You have to find your genius level talent, and then to apply it in a way that supports that genius level talent.
55. It’s a brand new world. Let me show you.
56. Money and power don’t change you; they just further expose your true self.
57. 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.
58. People look at you strange, say you changed. Like you worked that hard to stay the same.
59. I see I said, jealousy I said, got the whole world mad at me, I said to my one of a kind self.
60. Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.
61. A wise man once told me don’t argue with fools, because from a distance you can’t tell who is who.
62. The average rap life is two or three albums. You’re lucky to get to your second album in rap!
63. 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.
64. 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.
65. 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.
66. 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.
67. As kids we didn’t complain about being poor; we talked about how rich we were going to be and made moves to get the lifestyle we aspired to by any means we could. And as soon as we had a little money, we were eager to show it.
68. I believe excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over.
69. I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. Reid and Universal Music Group have given me the opportunity to manage the companies I have contributed to my whole career. I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community.
70. I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about.
71. Belief in oneself and knowing who you are, I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great.
72. 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.