The Book of Jay

His office has great views across the Hudson River, a big chocolate-brown couch, a huge-screen TV bookended by gigantic speakers and, next to his desk, a large monitor for his e-mails. There are peach roses, white calla lilies and a purple orchid scattered around. On the wall there's a picture of Jay sharing a laugh with Prince Charles at a swanky event in London, and behind his desk a picture of Jay with a smiling Mariah Carey, an Island Def Jam artist. On the table sits a two-foot-tall scale model of architect Frank Gehry's plan for the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, where the Nets will move from New Jersey in 2008, with little trees and shrubs planted around the wooden buildings and acrylic skyscrapers shaped in the forms that Gehry will create. Not long after they first met, Gehry sent Jay a stack of James Joyce novels, because listening to tapes of Joyce reading Finnegans Wake reminded Gehry of hip-hop. Jay says he reads only nonfiction.

In a corner of Jay's office, on the floor, there's a street sign that says MARCY AVE., a remnant from his days in the Marcy projects. And on his desk, in the center, is the Best Rap Solo Performance Grammy he won for "99 Problems," the guitar-heavy 2003 single produced by Rick Rubin from the CD that announced Jay's retirement as a recording artist, The Black Album. The Grammy arrived a few days ago, and he decided to let it sit on his desk for a moment before bringing it home. Six years ago, Jay boycotted the Grammy Awards, saying, "Too many major rap artists continue to be overlooked." Not anymore. "I didn't care about Grammys until we won one," he says. This is his fourth. Beyonce has eight. He says she teases him about having so few.

Most of the day the door to Jay's office stays open and people flow in and out as if his were the cool room in the dorm. They come in and plop down on the couch, maybe toss a football around, maybe talk to him, maybe not. Jay sits behind his desk answering e-mails, looking at radio and album charts, listening to songs fresh from the studio, meeting with lawyers and managers, and talking to his artists. "Ludacris calls me every so often," he says. "'I just wanna pick your brain, man. What do you think is my next step?'"

Jay's management style is part old-school hustle, part New Age motivation. He's given to aphorisms like, "I'm not looking to be anybody's boss. I'm just looking to help the process. If they win, I win." One day, he talked about a Bruce Lee documentary he'd seen. "He was talking about 'be water.' I'm gonna write that up and send it to people: Be water. If you pour water in a cup, it takes the shape of a cup. If you pour it in a teapot, it takes the shape of a teapot. Be fluid. Treat each project differently. The best style is no style. Because styles can be figured out. And when you have no style, they can't figure you out."