Hip hop mogul Jay Z, one of the richest men in the music
industry, has admitted he got his business skills from drug dealing
He said selling crack cocaine on the streets of New York
during the 1980s gave him the skills to succeed later in life.
'I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer,' said the 43
year old who is married to singer Beyonce. 'To be in a drug deal, you need to
know what you can spend, what you need to re-up.'
Jay Z has never hidden his past as a drug dealer before he
found fame and fortune as a music producer.
He told Vanity Fair magazine he was part of the crack
cocaine epidemic that blighted the streets of New York and was responsible for
hundreds of deaths.
Jay Z said he now regrets being part of the drug problem but
said at the time he was only thinking about the money.
'Not until later, when I realised the effects on the
community,' he said. 'I started looking at the community on the whole, but in
the beginning no.
'I was thinking about surviving. I was thinking about
improving my situation. I was thinking about buying clothes.'
Jay Z, real name
Shawn Carter, started his career as a rapper before becoming one of the most
influential forces in hip hop music.
In 2008 he married Beyonce and the couple have an
18-month-old child Blue Ivy.
The pair are the richest couple in the music business with
an estimated fortune of more than $750million between them.
Jay Z told the November issue of the magazine that the most
important plan a drug dealer can have is to get out of the business.
'You have to have an exit strategy, because your window(for
dealing drugs) is very small. You're going to get locked up or you're going to
die.'
On a happier note, Jay revealed his daughter has become his
biggest cheerleader after hearing his latest album Magna Carta... Holy Grail.
'She loves all the songs. She plays a song and she goes,
"More, Daddy, more... Daddy song." She’s my biggest fan,' he said.
'If no one bought the Magna Carta [album], the fact that she loves it so much,
it gives me the greatest joy.
'And that’s not like a cliché. I’m really serious. She’s
genuine, she’s honest, because she doesn’t know it makes me happy. She just
wants to hear it.'
Admitting 'of course' he pursued Beyonce, Jay maintains he
would have charmed her even if he had been working a 'normal job' and not been
a famous hip hop star.
'If I’m as cool as I am, yes. But she’s a charming Southern
girl, you know, she’s not impressed... But I would have definitely had to be
this cool.'
He also confirms that the line on his latest album: 'She was
a good girl ’til she knew me' is about his wife.
When quizzed if she is no longer a 'good girl', Jay-Z
responds: 'Nah. She’s gangsta now.'
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