Good Lifestyle

The story originally appeared in the April 2009 issue ofBetter life.

"With education comes refinement," observes Jay-Z later observes on a Friday afternoon. He plaguing on a sofa in a studio at the Sports and Entertainment complex of Chelsea Piers on the side of the far west of Manhattan and talking between plastic container and a thoroughbolt of a bottle of a bottle. water. In his daily speech, as in his raps, Jay-Z is inclined in the aphorisms, the expression compressed of complicated ideas, delivered with a rhetoric touch. It is a hard wisdom wisdom, graceful by the poet touch.

It relaxes after a typically packaged day that included a photo session, an interview and a meeting on its potential involvement in a future video game. He celebrated his 39th anniversary earlier with the staff of his Rocawear clothing line, so light fatigue has settled. Slender and six feet three inches tall, Jay-Z is an imposing figure, even in relative rest. He carries jeans in distress that loosely hang from the middle of his hips, his black sneakers and a long-sleeved black t-shirt that replaced the black white with short sleeves he wore before changing for his Photo shoot. The look is studiously relaxed ... until you route your left wrist and notice a thick diamond watch, it could go for a weight band.

The winter sky grows gray in the shore of the windows behind him as the sun goes down on the Hudson River. Jay-Z returns to the story of what in the 19th century would have been called his sentimental education, the education of his emotional life. This trip for the refinement began in the projects of Robust Marcy in the Brooklyn Bedford-Stuyvesant district, and now continues in the arenas and confit rooms in Posh Homes and VIP Hideaways around the world.

Jay-Z feels comfortable in all these areas. "I have never looked at myself and I said that I had to be some way to be around a certain kind of people," he explains. "I always wanted to stay true to myself and I managed to do that. People must accept that. I collect art, and I drink wine ... things I like that I had never been exposed. But I never said, "I'm going to buy art of impressing this crowd." It's just ridiculous for me. I do not live my life like that, because you could be happy with yourself? "

Staying faithful to oneself could be a brief summary of Jay-Z philosophy ofSuccess. The notion goes back to Shakespeare 'with so-called so-called true, and further than that of Greeks. But for Jay-Z, he has a contemporary urgent meaning. Even, or perhaps, in particular, in particular, in the midst of thousands of entertainment and lifestyle choices, consumers are at their disposal, which separates the winners of the losers is a commitment to a single proposal: you are the product. If people believe in you, they will believe in what you are creating. Jay-Z understands this and is down.

By selling nearly 40 million albums and building a business empire that extends well beyond music in clothes, perfumes, new jersey nets, sports bars, alcohols and hotels (To name a few of his apparently innumerable investments), Jay-Z has turned into one of the most powerful brands in the world. But this brand retains its power that if people remain convinced that the product they buy somehow truly reflects Jay-Z and his tastes. As he put it celebrated in one of his raps, "I am not a businessman / I am a company, man."

"My brands are an extension of me," he says. "They are close to me. It's not like running GM, where there is no emotional attachment." The reference is APT, given the government's continued potential rescue of two large car companies. Jay-Z notes that resonance with a break and laughter.

"My thing is related to whom I am as a person," he says. "The clothes are an extension of me. Music is an extension of me. All my businesses are part of the culture, so I have to stay true to what I feel at the time, whatever the direction I m 'Fan. And I hope everyone follows. "

In the conversation, Jay-Z's speech is slower, calmer and more deliberate than in the propellant and deep and often incendiary rants that made it a Titan in the world of hip-hop, a man whose sales and The living room have raised it first except a handful of potential rivals. It's a fiancé and animated speaker, quick to touch you friendly to emphasize a point.

But as casual and accessible as it seems, it also breathes a calm air of confidence. He does not need to be aggressive or imposing his will in a clumsy way. Half a dozen people float around the studio, ready to read any sign of need or impatience on his part. It is cooperative and pleasant in the way someone who knows he can immediately put an end to any experience that moves in an unpleasant direction can be. "Jay-Hova," he called, echoing in the name of the powerful God, avenger of the Hebrew Bible. He himself anointed the "God ™".

But he also reminded that he "never prayed to God / I prayed Gotti. Maybe there is a distinction between Jay-Z, the Battle ™ with this day fee in the first exchanges with young rappers who seek to bring him down, and Shawn Corey Carter, the businessman Clairvoyant who co-founded his own label, Roc -a-Fella Records, in 1996; Who served as President and CEO of DEF JAM Records from 2005 in early 2008 and helped start the career of Kanye West, Young Jeezy and Rihanna; Who sold its Rocawear clothing line in 2007 for $ 204 million, while maintaining an important participation in society; And who, following a path traced by Madonna and U2, forged a $ 150 million contract last year with the Live Nation promotional concert company.

Last summer, Forbes ranked seventh Jay-Z on his "Celebrity 100" list of ultrafamous and ultrapowerful. The magazine estimates its annual income to $ 82 million, and other sources reported its net worth to $ 350 million. If it does not seem quite enviable, last year Jay-Z married Beyoncé Knowles, one of the most desirable women in the world. He is part of his ultimate cool attitude that he never speaks publicly on her.

Jay-Z moves in the exclusive circles of all types. Musicians, actors, designers, politicians, industry captains, and athletes all want to get next to him. He developed an easy way that allows him to cross these cultural borders in a way that make it accessible, but still seems worthy, always aware of who he is. "I am a mirror," he says. "If you are too cool! If you do not like what you see, you have something. With me, I'm cool with you, and the exchange begins. What you see is what you reflect. If I am standoffish, it's because you are ".

From time to time, rear stereotypes and uncomfortable situations arise. "He's a lot of a hilarious time," he says. "You have a conversation with someone, and it's like, 'you speak so well! I am like, "What do you mean? Do you understand it's an insult? "

Growing up, however, Shawn Carter was far from being the most likely candidate for this kind of astounding success. It has always been recognized as today, even brilliant, the first time someone who meets Jay-Z always uses to describe it is intelligent and in sixth year, it has been tested at levels 12th year. But the Marcy projects in Brooklyn have been invaded by drugs and violence in the 80s. His father left the family when Carter was 11 years old, and his mother had to raise him, his elder brother, and his two senior sisters. . When he was 12 years old, Carter fired on his brother for stealing his jewelry. (They have since reconciled.) Carter attended school with his compatriot Brooklynites B.i.g. Notorious and Busta Rhymes, but abandoned the drugs deal in a region that stretched from Brooklyn in Maryland and Virginia as it details in his music and bubbling in the hip-hop game still nascent.

With the dealers who headed the neighborhood around MARCY projects, Jay-Z remembers to identify sports personalities like his first models of success. "Having grown up where I grew up, we looked at the athletes," he recalls. "They were our first heroes. They came from the same places we come. I mean, you can not watch TV and see someone who has succeeded that you can really identify. This person is not true, he did not exist. But traveled athletes in the world, had these big houses, and gave their families a better life. We were like, "wow, it's really cool. These guys are paid millions of dollars to play the game they like ".

At about the same time, he started identifying with the athletes, Carter had another revelation: hip-hop. He started writing without stopping into notebooks, keeping his mother and his brothers and sisters awake at night as he beat the kitchen table to create beats. He hung up with a Jaz-O local rapper, who brought him to England when visited. Carter recorded with Jaz-O and also with Big Daddy Kane. But despite the recognition of his skills (and his growing concern that the violence or the law would eventually make up with him in the streets), Carter was reluctant to abandon the contracts. He rolled in a Lexus and wins more money, as much as he could say, that most rappers.

Nevertheless, he decided to take the step, but no record company was willing to offer him a contract. So with two partners, Carter formed Roc-A-Fella Records and, in 1996, published his first album, a reasonable doubt, which established it as a major figure on the hip-hop scene. It was a given moment, but Jay-Z was barely understood at that time. "I was naive," he recalls. "I made this album to impress my friends, so they would say," Oh, wow, look at what you did! "It was my first album on the label we owned. I was like" okay, what's going on now? ""

What happened was that Jay-Z's left drug was behind and started building his empire, moving regularly from "grams in Grammys", as he puts it in a song. But the process was not easy. The betrayal of life in the streets, where he was facing balls nearby, turned out to be anything compared to what he would encounter in the upper echelons of the musical activity. "I come from a completely different world from the music industry, and it has not been recognizable for me at all," he says. "I come from a place where you had to keep your word, where people would stay with you, no matter what. It's impossible in the music business, where if you're not hot, people do not talk to you Not. I just tried to be a man of my word. "

The choice of ROC-A-FELLA on behalf of its label would prove knowledge. On the one hand, it is standard hip-hop braggadocio to establish a link between a rapper of strip and one of the richest and most powerful families in American history. But he also suggested that Jay-Z can possibly establish his professional empire. The Rockefeller family and the other 19th century industrialists have set up a monopolistic outfit on all aspects of the goods they produced. If you have the mines that produced coal, for example, you also bought the railways that transported it, the refineries that prepared it for the market and the public services that provided its final product to the population general.

As Jay-Z's career has progressed during the past heads, he sought to establish a similar outfit in the life market for which his music provides the soundtrack and in which it is as the ideal model. imitate. Rather than providing anything tangible or tangible as coal or oil, Jay-Z, through its myriad brand investments, manufactures a way to be that makes it theoretically possible to never leave The world of its products. You can enjoy its music all in Rocawear clothing sports (estimated $ 700 million a year in business), wearing one of its perfumes and sipping its Aces of champagne spades. You can attend its concert and finish at night in one of its 40/40 discotheques. His videos, DVDs and CD Booklets offer free exhibition for all its products, all, in turn, improve all other aspects of the Jay-Z brand.

The question then becomes how, with all this extension of brilliant marketing and brand, does Jay-Z maintain credibility in the hip-hop world that made it a marketable star in the first place? "We are delighted to collaborate with an industry giant such as Elizabeth Arden," said Jay-Z declared in the press release announcing his perfume line, who made his debut last year. No matter what depth you have absorbed the power of Jay-Z's traditional scope, this sentence always makes you a double grip. It's the man who took the American Gangster movie as inspiration from his last album? Jigga What?

But Jay-Z deeply believes in the ambitious power of hip-hop, the notion that real fans of music want to see their heroes succeed and want to imitate them. It attracts a sharp distinction between hip-hop and rock 'n' roll, whose stars have often expressed their disdain for business and success. "I noticed this difference early, as if you had a success in the rock" N ", it was a very bad thing," says Jay-Z laughing. "You almost had to hide it. You had these guys of 200 million recordings with Sales t-shirts. I was like, come, guy. Come on. We know you're successful."

"Hip-hop is more to reach wealth," he continues. "People respect success. They respect big. They do not even have to love your music. If you are big enough, people are attracted to you."

As a result, any discussion of credibility, or keep it real, causes an answer from incredulity on its part. "It's an unsecured emotion," he explains. "Do you make your first album, you gain money and you feel like you always have to show face, like" I'm still going in the projects. I'm like, why? Your job is to inspire people from Your neighborhood to go out. You grew up there. What makes you think it's so cool? "

Of course, Jay-Z has not been safe from these insecurities itself. In 1999, he was arrested to stab a record leader in a New York club and, in 2001, he was accused of possession of a loaded hand. Against the opinion of his lawyer, he pleaded guilty to a delay of offense in the Dagard case and was sentenced to a three-year probation. The burden of firearms has been abandoned.

It is usually thought that these brushes with potential incarceration healed Jay-Z of the need to prove that he could still live the life of the thug. He struck about these two arrests ("put on this knife to you / take a little life of Ya / AM I'm scared?"), But did not show any other desire to transform his words into action who would put a end to the extraordinary life he created for himself. In fact, all the opposite. He was tirelessly supported by other RPs-Nas, to quote a single example, raided "gay-z" for his "lips" dick-suckin 'and reacted in kind, but only in the song. In real life, he took steps to mitigate these rivalries and ensure that tragedies such as tupac murders Shakur and the notoirious B.i.g. Never arrive again.

This is because too much is at stake now, more than money or bling. At 39, Jay-Z is old enough to think about the cultural impact that Hip-Hop has already had and the critical role he played. "Hip-hop has done so much for racial relationships and I do not think it gives the right credit," he says. "He was immensely from America. I will make a very bold statement: hip-hop has done more than any chef, politician or anyone to improve race relationships.

"I'm going to explain why I say that," he continues. "Racism is taught at home. We agree on that? Well, it is very difficult to teach racism to a teenager who listens to rap music and who idol, say, Snoop Dogg. C ' is hard to say, "This guy is less than you. 'The kid is like: "I like this guy, it's cool. How is it less than me? This is why this generation is the smallest racist generation of all time. You see it all the time. Go to any club. People mingle, dragging, having fun, enjoying the same music. Hip-hop is no longer just in the Bronx. He is around the world. Wherever you go, people listen to hip-hop and party together. Hip-hop did it. "He pauses, as if they marvel at the idea, then repeat for the emphasis:" Hip-hop did that. "

Something other than Hip-Hop did, at Jay-Z, help to elect Barack Obama. "Rosa Parks Sat So Martin Luther King could walk and Martin was heading Obama could run," said Jay-Z told a concert audience in the crucial swing state of Ohio before the election of November. "Obama is running so we can all fly, so fly." He recorded a Get-Out-The-Vut message for Robo calls to African-American voters during primaries. Perhaps even more extraordinarily, after a particularly heated primary debate, Obama brushed the attacks of Hillary Clinton with a wiping gesture of his suit and hip observers recognized an undeniable reference to the song of Jay- Z ", from your shoulder dirt. "

Jay-Z eyes widen when he remembers this moment. "I felt like, the man, what time do we live, where a presidential candidate refers to a rapper?" he says. "What a beautiful place where we arrived. Growing up, politics never repulsed in the areas we come from. But the people of Obama camp and Obama himself, contact me and asked for my help on the Countryside. We "I sat and dinner, and we talked on the phone. He is a very sharp guy. Very charming. Very cool.

"It's surreal", continues Jay-Z. "I could not imagine anything like that could happen. I did not vote until I was an older adult. I did not think I would never vote because it did not matter who was in the office. The situation has never changed where we lived. Our voices were not heard. "

Jay-Z walks perfectly around the studio because the crew members break down the whole for his photo shoot. He strikes with a hip-hop track blowing in the room. When the sound system turns off suddenly, Jay-Z continues to hit and move to music, like Wile E. Coyote in the preceding time that he only looks and realizes that he has cast on the cliff. Jay-Z attaches, looks around the room in a simulated surprise and laughs. This is the kind of self-depreciating gesture, it is good, grateful that all eyes are upon him, but by humoring the whole factor of intimidation of his presence.

It is a quality that it also brings into the conference room. It is far from just a figure or a media front. He takes his businesses as seriously as his art and he goes both with the same level of determination. It is clear on his own points of view, willing to listen to others, eager to keep everyone loose and motivated, and much more interested in the long-term strategy than the short-term gain. Even in the current economic environment, which is difficult to say the least, he insists on the execution of his game plan rather than making changes that may not finally be right for his brands.

"He is smart like hell," says Neil Cole, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Iconix brand group, the company that bought Rocawear two years ago for more than $ 200 million. "He understands himself as a brand, and it's incredibly well thought out. We meet each week and there is nothing impulsive from him. He is very coherent, and he will not settle. If something Is not correct, it will not do it for more money. He will wait for good success. He has a wonderful level of taste on where he wants to take the brand .. and himself. "

Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation, echo the evaluation of Jay-Z. "Meeting with superstars on potential offers, there is some spitting" How much can I get? "And the meeting is over, because you know you start at the wrong base," he says. "When we sat up with Jay-Z," How much money do you pay? "Has come to to be the seventh conversation. The first conversation was: "Can we change the company together?

"Just there we knew we had a common agenda," says Rapino. "It was like," I'm hungry. The company changes. I am a change agent and I still have many years. "Then the creativity flows. You will not become the best of the world to what you do, then return the off switch. Jay-Z wants to win. And for him, it's also about the integrity of victory. It's a real partner., Always looking for the winner winner. He asks, "How do we win together? '"

Indeed, part of the Jay-Z refinement has reached a successful image vision. It's a vision that exceeds business and beyond music. This is what makes your life meaningful and it goes beyond the way of life to a way of life. "I'm hungry to know," says Jay-Z. "The whole thing is to learn every day, to become brighter and brighter. That's what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he shone. Martin Luther King Brillé. Muhammad Ali shines. I think it has just been shiny all the time and trying to be brighter.

"That's what you should do all your time on the planet," he concludes. "Then you feel like" my life is worth everything. And yours is too. "

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