- 2 months ago
“It’s been a minute,” says Jay-Z as he sits across from GQ’s Frazier Tharpe.Thirty years on from his debut album—a milestone that will hit with the Reasonable Doubt anniversary in June—Jay-Z, now 56, is more influential than ever before. But the journey hasn’t been without controversy, criticism, and challenges—most recently in the form of a civil lawsuit brought against him at the tail end of 2024.The self-made billionaire (touching three times over) reflects on the tidal wave of turmoil that rippled through 2025, which was punctuated by the unwavering support of his wife, Beyoncé, alongside their tight-knit family. The pair also cover the evolution of hip-hop and Jay’s thoughts on the Kendrick vs. Drake beef, alongside him quarterbacking the Super Bowl’s halftime show within the kaleidoscopic nature of the zeitgeist.Three decades into the game, Shawn Carter reintroduces himself. This is the GQ Video Cover Story with Jay-Z.Credits:Director: Nick CollettDirector of Photography: Carter Ross; AJ YoungEditor: Brady JacksonTalent: Jay-Z; Frazier TharpeProducer: Sam DennisSenior Producer: Michael BeckertCreative Producer: Kristen DeVoreLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: Evie RoopTalent Booker: Dana MathewsCamera Operator: AJ Young; Taylor Frontier; Jenna Huskisson; Brooke Mueller; Mike MaliwanagAssistant Camera: Adam Lee; Ethan Smith; Molly WhiteGaffer: Shay Eberle-GunstGrip: Dominik CzaczykDIT: Lauren WoronaSound Mixer: Glo HernandezProduction Assistant: Fernando Barajas; Hollie Ortiz; Hope MillnerGroomer: Hee Soo KwonHairstylist: Nakia RachonVideo Interview Looks: June AmbroseCover Shoot (BTS) Looks: June Ambrose & Mobolaji DawoduPost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds
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LifestyleTranscript
00:02it's been a long time since you sat down for one of these yeah it's been a minute what have
00:07you
00:07been up to wow everything a lot most people go through their things you know very privately
00:16you took it on tour live every night it was it was so healing don't fucking jay-z respectfully
00:26word like for what oh to what end
00:40how would you rate your 2025 like looking back on the last year it was hard really hard i was
00:46like
00:46heartbroken really yeah i'm glad we got right to that you know so we could just get that out the
00:52way okay like i was really heartbroken by like everything that occurred you know with all like
00:58you know we're in the space now where it's just like almost like consequence is not thought about
01:06enough so everything is so instant you know what i'm saying yeah like that whole busby
01:13this civil lawsuit that was dropped dismissed that took a lot out of it i was angry
01:19i haven't been that angry in a long time uncontrollable anger like you don't put that on
01:25someone like that's a that's the thing that you better be super sure it used to be like that like
01:30you have to be super sure before you put those kind of things on a person let's say a person
01:36like me
01:37like even when we were doing the worst things we were doing bad we had those kind of rules
01:42there was a line no women no kids you know you you hear those sayings but those are things that
01:47i took
01:47from the street you know morals integrity code code those things i took because because we we lived and
01:55died by that so it's strict for me like it meant a lot to me i took that really hard
02:01and i and i knew
02:02that we was gonna walk through that we was gonna walk through that because you know first of all it's
02:08not true and the truth is you know at the end of the day still it still reigns supreme when
02:15you're
02:15feeling these feelings how do you then bounce back and get back to being jay-z i don't know
02:22i'm just we just i'm just this is this is the first thing i'm doing yeah actually it was just
02:27like
02:27all right man we played enough defense 2026 is all offense
02:37when we first dropped reasonable doubt we sold 34 000 rankings we went like at mtv like give us a
02:43performance in the last slot yeah and they were like what you didn't have a video that we played
02:49they ain't say these words but you know i'm saying the energy was like you're new yeah like you you
02:54haven't proven yourself but in our mind the fact that we released an album was proof enough of concept
03:01we did it that was hard then we remember we we're not in control of distribution marketing anything
03:08we're going like a street level street team approach to this and so when we put the album
03:14out that was the win yeah and we had some success and remember on the streets we were platinum
03:18anywhere you was going to go you was going to have reasonable doubt did you feel that way at the
03:22time
03:22though no no at the time i wanted to deal did every single label huh did you feel like dejected
03:28or
03:28i wasn't yes i was i was rejected not dejected okay and you know what i mean like every door
03:36was
03:36but i i i always believed in myself yeah it wasn't a moment that i thought i'm not good enough
03:42for this
03:42industry at every rejection i thought why do they have this guy in place he doesn't know what's going
03:49on like they're slacking they're not seeing the vision when you look back at that time are there
03:55things that you're glad that you didn't know yeah of course it's almost like if you're in the room
04:01and you go through this room and you get to the end and you open the door and you're like
04:05wow and
04:05then you turn back and he turned the lights off and it was like pits and snakes you know your
04:11naive
04:12nature just naturally navigated you through the dark and that's made up for the things that we didn't
04:18know and it helps because you can learn something so much that you just tap out i think that happens
04:24a
04:24lot in the music business like people get in the music business for the right reasons and they're
04:27very passionate about it but then it becomes monday it reminds me of a old kanye quote of something he
04:33said about you when he said with jay you always see the wind what do you think he meant by
04:39that
04:40i think that showed
04:43the entire picture from you must love me to regrets to you know soon you understand but the winds are
04:53so big that i can see where that can dominate a person's memory you forget the losses yeah
05:00or the perception yeah or that becomes the perception that it's only wins and then i do say i will
05:05not
05:05lose so i'm going to add to the perception as well i was going to say you also are really
05:10good at kind
05:10of like you have a discipline of almost like shrugging off any kind of perception of a loss like yeah
05:16what's the nests go 0 for 82 i'll look at you like it's gravy like you know yeah because it's
05:20all wins
05:21if i had zero zero zero point point point point point one of the nest i won or
05:29it's like i had ownership in a basketball team in brooklyn is that something you continue to apply
05:37like yeah when god forbid something goes wrong yeah don't freak out we can we can not even god
05:43forbid when something goes wrong something goes wrong everything in life happens for your greatest
05:48good everything i had to not get a deal in order to become who i am today it didn't feel
05:54like the
05:54greatest blessing of all it was the greatest blessing that i didn't get a deal right so again
06:00everything in your life it's not happening to you it's happening for you when you don't skip over that
06:06yeah that's not happening to you it's happening for you so you just got to know the distinction
06:13everything is just how you relate to it there's no good or bad
06:16shit happens it's life when did you reach that acceptance of that concept then i read a lot of
06:24books earlier seed of the soul celestine prophecies and you know all these different books and i was
06:28picking up all these gems and jews on the way but i was also 26 when i came in and
06:34i lived a lot
06:35of life yeah for those 26 years marcy to trenton new jersey to cambridge maryland to newport news
06:43virginia i met all sorts of people been in all sorts of situations and i came out without a scratch
06:50never been to jail three shots never touched me three shots never touched me i've never been
06:56i came out unscathed it was very rare and i was always curious after that once you've reached that
07:03part like i've had the living and now i'm like man why did that happen i'm always questioning like
07:09why did that happen why did it happen that way
07:16i want to ask you just a little bit about a written testimony uh specifically just because
07:20that was the most recent release i think it came out like right before the pandemic started so yeah
07:24like the day the day yeah my favorite verse is off that just dream jumbled track you know i love
07:32that
07:32track it's so noisy and just so unorthodox uh flux capacitor flux capacitor you know what's funny
07:41about that so i don't know if you remember this you and i were emailing about that because i wrote
07:46about that album and i said this verse is crazy even if it's offbeat yeah and you said that being
07:51offbeat was the point champ and i was like well can i say to that yeah yeah sometimes you need
07:57to
07:57sit in the in the in the pocket because my pocket is always it's like with a foot over the
08:03over the
08:04thing anyway it's always hanging to the last moment and it's like because sometimes i try to fit a lot
08:11of words into like a small space then that last word just like just like get in the door sticking
08:17with
08:17a written testimony you have a couple of verses on there that i really like because they kind of speak
08:24to what's going on with you in a broader sense in the culture like on universal soldier i think it
08:30is when you said that you don't keep the same energy for the duponts and the carnegies yeah so i
08:35wanted
08:35you to talk a little bit about this idea of like like you said earlier like the things that you
08:39do for
08:39the culture the ways that you put on the ways that you try to protect and move forward but kind
08:44of the
08:44pushback that you get sometimes about like uh people throw uh capitalists at you in a derogatory sense
08:50yeah i think in that verse specifically the only thing i heard coming up was the american dream
08:56until we started being successful and it was like wait a minute you're selling out because you're
09:01making money that was the first thing that was put on musicians people had this a law for the
09:06struggling artist that's a mind game what we would call back in the day for trigonology it was like
09:11no i'm not going for that like no no i make art first and then i make sure that i'm
09:18compensated for
09:18my art i'm i didn't take advantage i didn't i didn't get here by taking advantage of people i
09:23didn't take no one no one that's not my reputation that's not what i do i didn't get here by
09:30taking
09:30advantage of people or taking advantage of you know the loopholes in the system or some wrinkle in
09:36a like a capitalist structure that structure exists you know and i just see the world for what it is
09:42not for what i wanted to be i'm a realist not not ideal it's not idealistic people speak about the
09:49world how they want to see it you're never going to win like that you said something just now though
09:59about um you pushing independence right kind of like in the spirit of prince when you embody that
10:04do you feel like you are kind of setting a mold or leading a charge for like
10:09what the successful black man is allowed to do and like breaking breaking these spaces breaking
10:14these confines yeah i even want you to take that out of your your vocabulary take what allowed you
10:20know what i'm saying we're not allowed to do anything you know in order for someone to allow
10:26you they have to have authority over you no one has authority over us we we exist like everyone else
10:33here no one can allow us to do anything and but that question comes that word comes from a real
10:41space and i want to eliminate all those type of words for us yes so the answer to that is
10:47yes when
10:47you're on a mission to eliminate words like allow like you said do you feel like that makes you a
10:53target
10:53sometimes from oh yeah for sure for sure a hundred percent what's the what's the nipsy thing pray for
11:01me y'all one day i'm gonna have to pay for these thoughts real niggas is extinct it ain't safe
11:05for
11:05me my dog that's i think they're real fucking lyrics you've come back to that a lot in the last
11:10few
11:10years like yeah the more reveal me the more they will kill me stuff like that who when you say
11:15they
11:15like who is that whatever the threat to however the system is set up to to keep things at status
11:23quo
11:24mm-hmm and keep us in a position of using words like allow mm-hmm so anyone that that's culpable
11:33in
11:34creating the system that we operate under that's they yeah that's they and it actually goes beyond
11:41color yeah because i've encountered that a lot i've encountered that a lot where it was just like
11:45okay this successful black man make it let me go to him yeah and for help and they're like we
11:52don't
11:52fuck with no rap shit oh wow not like out like that but yeah you know that's the energy like
11:57the
11:57energy it's like you you you see the energy yeah you know i was thinking about how you described last
12:03year as as being angry and for the first time in a while yeah i wondered what it felt like
12:10to be
12:10pulled back into that feeling and how you pulled yourself out or how you leaned on the people around
12:15you yeah i've been saying to play yeah i needed the people around me more than ever because usually
12:19when i have that feeling i would just make music and just be therapeutic i'll be able to i blow
12:25it
12:25out yeah and that would be like you know i'll move on i had to sit in that yeah for
12:31a long time and
12:32luckily i had that and right again i built this uh this circle that's really safe for me of people
12:42that really love me not using me and like you know really care for my best interests so i was
12:49able to
12:50have that in the time you know the most crucial time for me yeah especially people that were close
12:56to me and i'll explain so like you know when those type of things happen people run they don't care
13:02what happened they don't care they just like save yourself yeah you know so i have partners you know
13:08i've had big deals with i called my guy from lbmage hey man this is coming and i can't get
13:15rid of it
13:15i can't take a settlement yeah it ain't in my dna first of all first i had to tell my
13:21wife let's just
13:22back up yeah like it ain't even in me i can't i couldn't do i know what this is going
13:28to the weight
13:28that this is going to bring on our family i can't do it the makeup my my i would i
13:36would die it would
13:37have been cheaper yes cheaper quicker move on with your life it was like a testament because people
13:44know me like i know you are and that's impossible and not only not only we standing by you but
13:53what
13:54do you need yeah what did you kind of do to to come back from that personally or emotionally i
14:02guess
14:02i'm still working with that that's a great question i'm still dealing with that
14:09what was it like watching blue um coming to her own even more in this on this most recent tour
14:15that was amazing you know because on the first tour um you know there was like a lot of like
14:21you know conversation around her first performance and she worked really hard to get to that point
14:27but she still wasn't going for it she still was like going through the motions and then after that
14:33she just started going for like she started fighting back i saw her fight maybe for the first time in
14:39her life like fighting back you know like not everything is just given to her and everything is easy
14:45she had to fight for that and she fought for it then to see her do the amount of work
14:51she's almost
14:51on every number yeah i had to take her off physically or some number like man you can't be on
14:56that stage
14:56where she's singing you know six inch heels you crazy that's never gonna happen you know like it was
15:03like that it wasn't it was like a fight or she wanted to dance every single number and that's a
15:10lot of um
15:10you know choreography to remember she was 13 at the time that's a lot and she was nailing it she
15:17was
15:18going crazy that's what's up yeah yeah jack blue is a crazy pianist but she won't let us get her
15:25like
15:25a teacher she don't want to be mentored in that way because she wants it to feel just like fun
15:30she
15:30don't want it to be a job but when she she she has a perfect perfect pitch anything if she
15:37hears a song
15:38she'd be like play it again play it again and then she'll play it oh wow like she'll teach herself
15:43she'll find the notes and then she she's off playing it that's just talent because we tell her like you
15:48know that's not normal right she's just like no i just don't want i just want to play i enjoy
15:53playing
15:54let me just play so she doesn't work at that this was she worked at this you know and uh
16:01you know it
16:03makes me proud that she fought for something that she really wanted to do i don't think we're gonna be
16:07able to get off that stage now you pop out like when you want to you record when you want
16:12to like
16:13you're not in that like that that stricture yeah i think 404 released a lot although it's the hardest
16:19album for me to make it's still hard i can't even listen to 444 because it's so it's the album
16:29that
16:29was always afraid to make you know i mean like you think about like now i want to make an
16:35album like
16:35it's just like pure and just like vulnerable and just like the real interior thoughts you know not
16:42not like you know superman like this mythical uh figure so it's interesting for you to like pinpoint
16:50that because like we were saying earlier the last time you did one of these like kind of real sit
16:54downs
16:55was around 444 when that had like just happened and just come out so i'm curious now like what it's
17:01like
17:01that it's been some time since that and how you've kind of evolved with those changes and going through
17:07that door like you said i'm super proud of the work that i've done and put in and and to
17:12be able to do
17:12that in front of the whole world yeah like most people you know they they get to you know go
17:18through
17:18their things you know very privately you took it on tour live every night it was it was it was
17:26so
17:26healing 444 to like everything is love that's a real chapter in life that that uh that uh you know
17:37it got recorded everything is love you're rapping like really like there's some some crazy verses
17:43on there where you're just like flowing nuts like yeah friends and um nice you know like yeah thank you
17:50and i'm a fan of uh my wife's creativity she's a monster in the studio she can hear like a
17:56sound off of like a drum eight months prior and be like what happened to that drum that was
18:03remember that song i'm like no and she'll pull out the a drum sound that's like needed for that moment
18:11you know i mean she's a great producer so when you around that type of talent it's just like again
18:17you know you're in that type of energy you know people bringing music and you know you just it's
18:23survive so those verses were just crafted because we were just having a good time it feels like you
18:28and her are in a real creative zone too right now like correct me if i'm wrong but i think
18:32like the
18:32last couple albums she's put out i've noticed your name in the liner notes a lot too like i can
18:36kind
18:36of picture you like in the studio flowing like unicorn is the uniform you put on you know yeah yeah
18:43but
18:43you know again it's that it's that energy like i know she's trying to accomplish and anything that i can
18:50contribute i mean my family first of all you know i thought it was super important and a challenge
18:57and and fun to be in this in the room does that give you some of your own creative spark
19:03to to get back to your your own zone and and get the pen out it actually does the opposite
19:08really i'm
19:09actually fulfilled in that space you know i mean just just to be like you know a small cog in
19:16that wheel
19:16i'm getting out that creativity but again i was just so like heavy and i don't know how to make
19:25music
19:27that's not reflective of how i'm feeling at the moment it would have been fiery
19:33that would have been but i don't know i don't know if it's done more harm than good
19:37you know what i'm saying like i don't know because you know i have a lot of like scratch ideas
19:43and they
19:43like all bad i gotta be honest they're bad it's just like all bad the streets really wanted you
19:50on that clipped album yeah i was close i was close but i think if i if i think the
19:55the first thing that
19:56i say it has to be said from me you can't be like i don't want to be so rigid
20:03with it though i'm i'm
20:04i'm gonna keep that open so i'm gonna take that back but at that moment at that moment i was
20:10like
20:11yeah i want to do something but in order for me to move forward i got to get this out
20:18i gotta get it out when we're talking about putting on for the culture what does it mean to
20:25you to be at the helm of the cultural events so important as the super bowl i think everyone should
20:32should uh experience music in its totality and for a lot of years it was only one side of music
20:39that
20:40was being represented yeah and um we got the opportunity to to to create a more balanced
20:50idea of what popular music is today yeah i'm not going out on a limb most famous people in the
20:58world
20:59statistically supported it's like i'm not like i didn't pick like the indie artist that i really
21:05like from portland the number one streamed artist in the world him it's crazy that i think last year
21:12was still like the first solo rap act which is crazy to say that yeah last year was that was
21:18it a hard
21:18one to get across the board not without conversations that was like dated yeah you know i mean like you
21:25said this the stats show kendrick broke the audience record yeah it's not a rocket science it's like
21:32the this is the music of our time and it should be represented on the biggest stage because these
21:39are some of the i'm not saying they're the only artists right obviously other artists would be
21:43offended yeah yeah yeah but i think that was the right choice as a rapper first and foremost and
21:49being one of the pillars of contemporary rap i would have to imagine that you had a special kick
21:53out of watching that show though in particular yeah for sure yeah um and i thought it was brave i
22:00thought
22:00i thought what he did was brave and it speaks to who he is as a as a performer he
22:06could have made it
22:07a little easy on himself just aesthetically and like what no no no aesthetically it was beautiful
22:11it was flawless the artistic choice to play the new album the new album was was a choice and brave
22:20in front of that big of an audience because even if 10 million people know some of these songs
22:27there's 120 million people that's like what is he doing and as an artist to stand up there and do
22:35it
22:35and and complete your vision was like i had to i had to tip my hat like i have a
22:44high respect for him
22:45already but like even more of my respect was like he really he's really about what he say he's about
22:51yeah yeah i have to ask you this only as a participant and you don't have to uh you don't
22:57have to give a disclaimer for it well i'm just saying as as someone who was part of probably the
23:03genre's biggest rap beef well until now as a spectator yeah what did you think of the 2024
23:10back and forth between him and drake i'm gonna have an answer you're not gonna like okay well i don't
23:15know if you're gonna like that's that's presumptuous um i think that look there was four pillars of hip-hop
23:21there are four pillars of hip-hop right the break dancing yep and it's uh graffiti yep there's dj
23:28and battling yep break dance is not at the forefront of rap anymore it's actually an olympics sport
23:36that's dead um uh graffiti yeah beautiful you know in certain places yeah and even in like you know
23:47major art and like uh key parent yeah yeah and basquiat actually a street artist yeah took it to
23:54a next level it's not part of hip-hop mm-hmm djing the dj was in the forefront it was
23:59jazzy jeff and the
24:01fresh prince right yeah eric b and ra kim yeah you don't even know the dj for half of the
24:08artists
24:08anymore who's drake dj i have no idea okay couldn't tell you up top that no longer exists
24:15and the last pillar is battling we love the excitement and i love the the the sparring and
24:22the music you get but in this day and age it's so much negative stuff that comes with it
24:29they almost wish it didn't happen really yeah because it's it's not it's it's not it's almost
24:34like it's a final thing now people that like kendrick hate drake yeah no matter what he makes
24:41no matter what he says and it goes far too it's like attack on his character and his thing and
24:46it's
24:46and it's like i don't know if i love that yeah i don't know if it's helpful to our growth
24:52where
24:53the fallout lands especially on like you know on social media which takes place every day yeah and
25:00now you have these pods of cult the stan armies yeah and it's like it's too far yeah it's like
25:06bringing people kids in it yeah and it's like i don't i don't like that you know maybe i've grown
25:12in a space that is probably you know i sound like the old guy wagging the thing but i think
25:18we can
25:19achieve the same thing as far as like sparring with music with collaborations more so than
25:27breaking the whole thing apart yeah it could stand it before because there was no social media and
25:33there was no thing and you know you had the battle it was fun and then you moved on right
25:37right now
25:38i don't know if it could stand it with the technology that we have because it takes up so much
25:43oxygen it
25:43takes up so much oxygen yeah now it's just like every day they're just trying to still talking about
25:48it it's not not just talking about it not like yo this song i like this you know it's like
25:52trying to
25:53tear down the people's life yeah yeah it's like trying to you know wreck this guy's marriage or
25:59this guy's relationship with his child and it's like i don't know man i don't i don't know if i
26:06don't know if it's worth it at this at at this point yeah i don't know that's interesting again i
26:12love
26:12the idea that we got so much music in such a short period of time great music just everything around
26:18it was just like man it's it's like taking us a couple steps back yeah and we we just grown
26:27so
26:28much that i don't know if i guess i'm gonna say it i don't know if battling needs to be
26:33part of the
26:34culture anymore interesting i hate that i had this point of view i do because i know it i know
26:39what it
26:40sounds like i know what it feels like i hate it it's just how i feel about it well it
26:44even kind of
26:45extended to you right because people made it a personal thing that you chose kendrick for the
26:49super bowl it's like oh man he's choosing the side and he's putting and he's not like like i don't
26:53have what do i have to do with that i chose the guy that was having a monster year i
26:58think it was the
26:59right choice word it wasn't in in some sort of alliance to a battle i don't know yeah what i
27:05care
27:05about them two guys battling like what's that got to do with me or have at it have fun um
27:11it's almost
27:12like not just me by the way they drag everybody in there like everyone's part of this conspiracy
27:17to um undermine um um drake i guess but like what like what i'm fucking jay-z or do respect
27:31them i'm
27:32fucking ho do respectfully or like for what folk to what end yeah it couldn't be like these guys just
27:40don't like each other yeah and i think they haven't liked each other for a long time before
27:45you had anything to do with it for a while yeah i think this has been brewing just like me
27:48and nas
27:49was brewing yeah it didn't what it didn't happen at the summer jam that happened the lexin tv sets the
27:54minimum whatever it was it was a whole bunch of stuff leading up to that point the fleek what is
27:59the myth fleek slugs in your hat right it was slugs in your hand it was a bunch of like
28:03little things
28:04that led up to that point and then when it happened it happened i actually regret that because i really
28:08like
28:09not it's a really nice guy but also to your point like i remember i was like 10 or 11
28:15when that
28:16happened i was like the biggest side well i was on your side yeah yeah clearly but my my position
28:23was
28:24i can't go out and buy stillmatic or ask my parents to buy stillmatic yeah but i'm gonna borrow it
28:29and
28:29burn it because i can't deny one might you know like i want to hear it yeah but i ain't
28:34supporting them
28:34work yeah so it's almost kind of like fostering the same independence that you carry versus like
28:46right back to the just being like signed to you're signed to me yeah yeah and we're gonna
28:49cheer rate your career in this sort of sort of way yeah you know i never was comfortable with that
28:55anyway with being an artist expression should be their expression i'm really much fall back that's
29:01i think what happened with cole like just the narrative around cole is that we that we didn't
29:05love cole no we believed in him enough to let him find his journey yeah and he found his path
29:11it took
29:12him a minute yeah yeah but he he he found his way was that something that you had to learn
29:16yourself
29:17though too because he because cole will tell the story about how like you wanted to sit him with
29:21stargate and maybe think about that single yeah i was giving him a chance to
29:27take his talent and show it to the most people possible yeah but his way i didn't i didn't force
29:34honestly here's this record from stargate and you putting it out like i forced bleak to make men
29:39bleak it like nothing i mean i think that worked my little brother he has to listen you know i
29:44mean
29:45but like for j cole he has to find his own direction and i'm going to give him the tools
29:50yeah i mean we made big records with stargate they made humongous records and on rihanna and
29:58blah blah blah and even i think they made the wiz khalifa black and yellow yeah yeah biggest songs
30:03in the world you know you don't want to go see fine all right you know so i'm gonna present
30:09that
30:10but i'm not gonna make them do it yeah what is your relationship with cole like these days
30:14obviously there's things behind the scenes with you know like like uh you know audits and
30:20shit like that that gets complicated but i think um you're giving a chance to prove that you you're
30:29above board is a is an opportunity or so i don't i don't have any i don't have any negative
30:35feelings
30:36for him i'm actually super proud of him and what he's done it sounds like you're still like when you
30:41came in we were talking about the mixtape like you're still engaging with the work as a
30:44fan too yeah clue sent it to me actually oh word cool now magic not cold yeah yeah he said
30:49this to
30:49me uh because he's proud right yeah think about clue like he have like a resurgence behind it yeah
30:55i want to go back to this idea we were talking about about um just doing things the right way
31:02even when that comes to like attaining wealth and continuing to amass wealth we're talking about b-sides
31:08one of your illest lines to me is face to the ceiling race to a billion heaven on earth
31:13well his wings still fit him so yeah like what's the answer to that question is it a constant
31:17struggle to maintain your morality defines who you are right not not what you've attained it's not a
31:25dollar amount that changes you yeah and if so what is that dollar amount when does it start is it
31:30a
31:30hundred thousand is it 150 like at what point if it's if it's a cutoff if it's like all
31:37all the million is a bag yeah okay so at 999 000 i'm good it can't be that way right
31:46it doesn't make
31:47any sense the system is set up against me against us but i'm talking about my specific struggle yeah
31:53everything was against me my talent not taking advantage of people not taking advantage of a
32:00system not creating tax loopholes not taking from other people no no my talent pushed against all the
32:08headwind and with that success i've done things with my reach that i wanted to do that was helpful
32:17for a lot of people yeah and with the system that we have what are you going to do um
32:23because i don't
32:24i don't believe in that that the idea that someone has a certain amount of money if it defines their
32:31personality so when you have like an example like that versus like the kind of i would say commonplace
32:37public perception that someone would say all billionaires are bad or no one should have a billion
32:42dollars like what's the tension in that i gotta give you the honest answer please there's no tension
32:48yeah i don't give a fuck what you can believe what you want to believe word you know and people
32:54behave the way they want to behave you was you was you got here was who you was for you
32:59got here
32:59that's the makeup of your person you're going to believe what you're going to believe and you're
33:04going to behave the way you behave you're looking at a year that you defined to me as as all
33:09offense
33:09and you know you said that you made scratches and they sounded kind of like fiery and maybe not
33:17anything you wanted to put out so maybe you wonder like what are the hallmarks of a great jay-z
33:21album
33:22right now like what are you trying to put out there that you would want to put out there i
33:25don't know
33:25yet i don't know i don't know but i know that it's that we have enough negativity currently i know
33:33that
33:33for sure yeah i don't know what i what i need to create currently that's gonna like fulfill me okay
33:41make me happy because that's what that's most important yeah right and and whatever that feeling is
33:47you know we'll vibrate and like you know touch people in a way with its honesty and maybe i'm
33:53overthinking it maybe i'm stopping myself from just creating trying to create something that people
33:58like yeah is where i think a lot of artists get jammed up right right you know overthinking it yeah
34:04no
34:04they just they just try to make or reverse engineer it yeah yeah or like you know they love the
34:10feeling of
34:10that white hot feeling of when they was uh you know it it felt new yeah and that newness trying
34:17to create that is where to get jammed up because you know you're not you don't know slang and you
34:21don't think it's sad it's like it's cringy like i don't do that yeah you know what i mean make
34:28your
34:28type of music work because you ain't doing what you saying you're doing i'm not doing the same thing i
34:33doing in 96. yeah yeah you need to make that any type of music that approaches that would be
34:38embarrassing because it's not authentic i'm just gonna make something timeless that i really love
34:43and that's really honest and true to yeah who i am
34:49you once said to the russian billionaire that you were doing business with i think with the nets or
34:54barclays mikhail uh-huh and you were saying how um he showed you that like you both stayed at the
35:01same hotel when you were on one floor and you thought you were staying on the highest floor
35:05and then he revealed that there was an even higher floor that he stayed on and that lesson to you
35:10was
35:10that you there's always a higher floor to climb so i wanted to check back in and see if you
35:15still
35:16feel that way like if you feel like you've reached the highest floor there's still floors to climb and
35:21what the next however many years looks for you yeah they'll get one start to give you because i thought
35:26the build the highest floor in the building was the end of it right the next the next step is
35:30like
35:30owning the building no you're staying at my hotel that's hard i think in that way if we just stay
35:38childlike and stay curious um there's always going to be another level
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