Jay Z: The Rolling Stone Interview

How did that affect you?
Sadly, it didn’t do anything to me. I’d heard shootings before. When I was growing up in the Eighties, crack was everywhere – there were Uzis in the projects. I heard shootings my whole life. It was not a big deal.

When you left the hustle, did you leave on a high note?
Of course. I was doing great. If you listen to my first album, the song “Can’t Knock the Hustle,” I was really having struggles. When I first came into the rap game, rappers weren’t very successful, so people on the street were like, “Why do you want to be a rapper when you’re so successful doing this?” That’s why I was saying that you can’t knock my hustle. Rap was the hustle.

But now you’re a multimillionaire. You’re in a financial position to collect fine art. Whatcha got?
I’ve got a nice collection of paintings – a Basquiat, a black-and-white Warhol that’s like a Rorschach test, and I com­missioned Takashi Murakami to do a ten-foot joint for me. It’s almost like the explosion in Hiroshima with his famous skeleton head. There’s a wall above my fireplace reserved for it.

Before his death in 2003, you reunit­ed with your estranged father. How did that reunion change your life?
Big moment for me, allowed me to let go of a lot of the anger and open up. When I was young, the person I looked up to the most was my father, and once I ex­perienced that hurt, the separation from the guy you thought was Superman, you never want to feel that hurt again. So no matter what relationships you have later on, I protected myself and my feelings. When we had that conversation, it came full circle, and I was able to release all of that anger. It freed me up tremendously. He passed away two months later. If it had never happened, I don’t know how I’d be. But I’ve been able to open up to people. I was just really closed. I was a cool person, but I wouldn’t let people get too close to me.

Do people close to you describe you as closed-off?
Not my family, because they’re all like that. Every single one of them.

What about your girlfriend?
I’m sure she thinks I’m closed-off. But I’m workin’ on it. Just trying to deal with emotional issues, taking them on proactively. Before, I wouldn’t even ad­dress it.

You’re coming up on your three-year anniversary as the president of Def Jam. How do you rate your performance?
I’ve done a phenomenal job, especially for a guy who’d never sat in that seat. I could point to four artists that we’ve broken in three years –— Ne-Yo, Rick Ross, Jeezy and Rihanna. If you can break one artist a year, you are a Clive Davis. That’s pretty much what I did.
But I don’t want to put records out us­ing the same model that’s been here for years and years and expect better results by doing the same thing. We have to de­fine “What is the new music business?”

So what is the new music business?
It’s all about brands. It ain’t just about music anymore. Music is a great founda­tion for so many other things. We have to make money in different ways.

In our most recent fortieth-anniversary issue, Chris Rock said, “Stevie Wonder’s records would have been shitty if he had to run a clothing company and cologne line.”
That comes after. You’ve got to allow artists to be artists. You’ve got to build a career. Only people with careers can es­tablish a brand. So the music, absolutely, comes first. You can’t make a deal while you’re making the album. Make the al­bum, then do other things. Everything gets shut down when you’re making the music. On this album, I didn’t go to work one day. It was my primary focus. I’m glad it took three weeks. If it took six months, people would be sayin’, “You haven’t been to work in six months.”

A sticker on your new CD reads, “Conceptual body of genius work.” How do you define genius?
For me, it’s coming up with something so different and so full of emotion and truth. Kanye – I think I was the first to brand him a genius. Andre 3000 does genius work. Bono, absolutely. Chris Martin’s a genius. Dr. Dre, genius. Rick Rubin, supergenius.

You’re buddies with Chris Martin.
We met at a Robin Hood Foundation dinner three years ago. We hit it off right away. The guy’s humble, and he has a lovely family. It’s rare to meet such a gen­uinely good person. I’m drawn to his energy. I don’t go to people’s houses and hang out, but I go to his house and hang out.

Do you ever think that Kanye’s just cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?
All the time, yeah! He has extra pas­sion – an extra-passion switch!

What goes through your head when he’s crashing awards-show podiums around the world?
Some of the things he says, it’s un­necessary because of the level of suc­cess he’s attained. But I know where he’s coming from. He’s fought all his life to tell people, “I’m great,” so in his mind he’s still in that fight. He wants to be the best in the world.