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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.

-Jay-Z

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I Would Run Into

Jay-Z

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Day Obama Got Elected, The Gangsta Became Less Relevant.

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Put Me Anywhere On God's Green Earth, I'll Triple My Worth. Motherf--. I, Will, Not, Lose.

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Screamin' 'carpe Diem!' Until I'm A Dead Poet.

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I Believe Excellence Is Being Able To Perform At A High Level Over And Over.

I Couldn't Even Think About Wanting To Be Something Else; I Wouldn't Let Myself Visualize Another Life. But I Wrote Because I Couldn't Stop. It Was A Release, A Mental Exercise, A Way Of Keeping Sane.

I Really Just Like Breaking Down The Barriers, Whether It Means Doing An Album With Linkin Park, An Album With R. Kelly, Or Playing At The Brandenburg Gate With Bono.

Males Shouldnt Be Jealous. Thats A Female Trait.

And Now We're Lethal, Infected With D'evils

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Hip-hop Is A Perfect Mix Between Poetry And Boxing.

I Came, I Saw, I Conquered From Record Sales To Sold Out Concerts.

You Can't Turn A Bad Girl Good, But Once A Good Girls' Gone Bad, She's Gone Forever.

Your Future Is Ahead Of You. Imagine The Notion Of The Past Fifteen Years Of Your Life Being A Blip In Your Story.

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.

Life Is A Gift, Love Opens It Up.

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Only God Can Judge Me So I'm Gone, Either Love Me Or Leave Me Alone.

I Got 99 Problems But Mitt Ain't One.

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.

My Life After Childhood Has Two Main Stories: The Story Of The Hustler And The Story Of The Rapper, And The Two Overlap As Much As They Diverge. I Was On The Streets For More Than Half Of My Life From The Time I Was Thirteen Years Old. People Sometimes Say That Now I'm So Far Away From That Life - Now That I've Got Businesses And Grammys And Magazine Covers - That I Have No Right To Rap About It. But How Distant Is The Story Of Your Own Life Ever Going To Be? The Feelings I Had During That Part Of My Life Were Burned Into Me Like A Brand. It Was Life During Wartime.

Rap Has Been A Path Between Cultures In The Best Tradition Of Popular Music.

Be True To Yourself- And Keep Things Simple. People Complicate Things

Be True To Yourself

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Difficult Takes A Day Impossible Takes A Week I Do This In My Sleep

You Could Name Practically Any Problem In The Hood And There'd Be A Rap Song For You.

One Of The Reasons Inequality Gets So Deep In This Country Is That Everyone Wants To Be Rich. That's The American Ideal. Poor People Don't Like Talking About Poverty Because Even Though They Might Live In The Projects Surrounded By Other Poor People And Have, Like, Ten Dollars In The Bank, They Don't Like To Think Of Themselves As Poor.

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.

Far From A Harvard Student, Just Had The Balls To Do It

Hip-hop Gave A Generation A Common Ground That Didn't Require Either Race To Lose Anything; Everyone Gained.

Life Is For Living, Not Living Uptight, See Ya Somewhere Up In The Sky.

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.

Don't Tell Me What Was Said About Me. Tell Me Why They Were So Comfortable To Say It To You.

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?

I Grew Up In Marcy Projects In Brooklyn, And My Mom And Pop Had An Extensive Record Collection, So Michael Jackson And Stevie Wonder And All Of Those Sounds And Souls Of Motown Filled The House.

I'm A Hustler, Baby; I Sell Water To A Well!

Used To Rock A Throwback Ballin On The Corner, Now I Rock Tailored Suit Lookin' Like A Owner.

You Learn More In Failure Than You Ever Do In Success

I Think Lil Wayne Is Extremely Talented. I Think He's One Of The Most Talented Ones Out There.

I'm Hungry For Knowledge. The Whole Thing Is To Learn Every Day, To Get Brighter And Brighter.

Hungry For Success

Hungry For Knowledge

You Know The Type: Loud As A Motorbike But Wouldn't Bust A Grape In A Fruit Fight.

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.

Kurt Cobain Od'd On Heroin Before Committing Suicide, But He Also Od'd On Fame. Cobain Was Like Basquiat: They Both Wanted To Be Famous, And Were Brilliant Enough To Make It Happen. But Then What? Drug Addicts Kill Themselves Trying To Get That Feeling They Got From Their First High, Looking For An Experience They'll Never Get Again. In His Suicide Note, Cobain Asked Himself, "why Don't You Just Enjoy It?" And Then Answered, "i Don't Know!" It's Amazing How Much Of A Mindfuck Success Can Be.

No Matter Where You Go, You Are What You Are Playa.

I Am Not A Businessman. I Am A Business, Man.

You Ain't Gotta Go To Church To Find Your God.

Remind Yourself. Nobody Built Like You, You Design Yourself.

Personal Growth

Just When I Thought I Had Everything, I Lost It All

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

You Shared One Of The Most Intimate Things That Ever Happened To You - Falling In Love With Someone Who Wasn't Brave Enough To Love You Back. Your Relieving Yourself Of Your 'secret' Is As Much About Wanting To Honestly Connect As It Is About Exhibition. We Are All Made Better By Your Decision To Share Publicly.

Falling In Love

Can I Hit It In The Morning With Out Giving You Have Of My Dough?

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.

Be Fluid. Treat Each Project Differently. Be Water, Man. The Best Style Is No Style. Because Styles Can Be Figured Out. And When You Have No Style They Can't Figure You Out.

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.

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.

Little Brothers Ring Fingers Get Cut Up To Show Mothers They Really Got Em.

I Will Not Lose, For Even In Defeat/there's A Valuable Lesson Learned, So It Evens Up For Me

A Wise Man Told Me Don't Argue With Fools. Cause People From A Distance Can't Tell Who Is Who.

If I Don't Show The World Growth, How Are We Going To Grow?

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

I Noticed That Difference Early On, Like If You Were Successful In Rock 'n' Roll, That Was A Really Bad Thing, You Almost Had To Hide It. You Had These Guys Selling 200 Million Records With Dirty T-shirts On. I Was Like, 'come On, Man. Come On. We Know You're Successful.' 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.

When You Listen To An Album, It Shouldn't Feel Like, "that's The Girl Song," "that's The Club Song." I Shouldn't Know What You're Thinking While You're Making The Song. I Don't Want To Know What The Artist Is Thinking.

I Look In The Mirror, My Only Opponent

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.

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.

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.

In Trouble Waters I Had To Learn How To Float

I Love You So, But Why I Love You, I'll Never Know.

Everybody Can Tell You How To Do It But They Never Done It

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.

Which Is The Other Reason Hip-hop Is Controversial: People Don't Bother Trying To Get It. The Problem Isn't In The Rap Or The Rapper Or The Culture. The Problem Is That So Many People Don't Even Know How To Listen To The Music.

What People Do In Their Own Homes Is Their Business, And You Can Choose To Love Whoever You Love. That's Their Business. It's No Different Than Discriminating Against Blacks. It's Discrimination, Plain And Simple.

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.

I Wrote This [most Kings] Before Mj Died, And His Death Only Proves My Point: When He Was Alive, The King Of Pop, People Were Tireless In Taking Him Down, Accepting As Truth Every Accusation People Made Against Him, Assuming The Worst Until They Drove Him Away. When He Died, Suddenly He Was Beloved Again - People Realized That The Charges Against Him Might Really Have Been Bogus, And That The Skin Lightening Was Really Caused By A Disease, And That His Weirdness Was Part Of His Artistry. But When He Was Alive And On Top, They Couldn't Wait To Bring Him Down.

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.

My Tears Is Tatted, My Rag In My Pocket / Im Just Looking For Love, I Know Somebody Got It

I'm Trying To Tell The Story In The Most Clear, Concise, And Truthful Way, Taking Those Everyday Words And Phrases And Capturing Them In A Way That They Become Something Else.

Got Some, Dirt On My Shoulder, Could You Brush It Off For Me?

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.

I Use A Lot Of Double Meanings. I Hide 'em Like Easter Eggs.

You Can Put A New Shirt On Your Back, Slide A Fresh Chain Around Your Neck, And Accumulate All The Money And Power In The World, But At The End Of The Day Those Are Just Layers. Money And Power Don't Change You, They Just Further Expose Your True Self.

The End Of The Day

I Never Ask For Nothin' I Don't Demand Of Myself. Honesty, Loyalty, Friends And Then Wealth

For Me, The Challenge Is Just Making Great Albums, Because Talent - And Writing In General - Is Not Tangible. There's No Expiration Date On It. At The Same Time, You Might Wake Up Tomorrow And Be Unable To Write Music.

Cough Up A Lung Where I'm From Marcy Son, Aint Nothin Nice

I Got Mouths To Feed Til They Put Flowers On Me.

We Change People Through Conversation, Not Through Censorship.

May The Best Of Your Today's Be The Worst Of Your Tomorrow's

Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Dont

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.

Driving Benzes With No Benefits, Not Bad Huh, For Some Immigrants?

I'd Rather Die Enormous Than Live Dormant.

You Put The Right Artist On The Right Track In The Studio And Leave The Door Open To Let God In.

I Jack, I Rob, I Sin. Aw Man, I'm Jackie Robinson 'cept When I Run Base, I Dodge The Pen

Shakespeare Was A Man Who Wrote Poetry. I'm A Man Who Writes Poetry. Why Not Compare Yourself To The Best?

When You Step Outside Of School And Have To Teach Yourself About Life, You Develop A Different Relationship To Information. I've Never Been A Purely Linear Thinker. You Can See It In My Rhymes. My Mind Is Always Jumping Around, Restless, Making Connections, Mixing And Matching Ideas, Rather Than Marching In A Straight Line. That's Why I'm Always Stressing Focus. My Thoughts Chase Each Other From Room To Room In My Head If I Let Them, So Sometimes I Have To Slow Myself Down.

I Dumb Down For My Audience And Double My Dollars...

I'm Not A Businessman, I'm A Business, Man!

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Vladimir Kramnik

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