The State of Jay-Z's Empire

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304741404575564092478617462.html

by jonbischke • 16 years ago

147 60 16 years ago

online.wsj.com

jeffmiller• 16 years ago

Jay-Z. An inspirational guy. Other startup folks think so too, given how often I see Jay-Z quotations on Twitter.

mynameishere• 16 years ago

Really? Example? I couldn't find one thing here that wasn't embarrassingly juevenile.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jay-Z

Niggas pray and pray on my downfall, But every time I hit the ground I bounce up like round ball

I mean, seriously?

benologist• 16 years ago

How is that really any less embarrassing than slapping ads around fwd:fwd:fwd:fwd:fwd cat photos?

Either way it's going to sound dumb explaining it to your grandchildren.

icegreentea• 16 years ago

It's from a rap. Can't judge the line all by itself. It exists in the context of the rest of the lines, and the delivery.

Also, what you consider juvenile, others may just consider 'simple'. Jay-Z has frequently been criticized for his relatively simple lyrics and rhythm structure. But that's part of the reason why its so popular, AND inspirational. You don't need to sit there for a minute trying to wrap your head around it. You just get it.

carbocation• 16 years ago

Blueprint 3 has a couple:

The motivation for me / was them telling me what I could not be (So Ambitious)

I'm on the practice field running two-a-days / so I don't drop the ball when it's threw my way (Off That)

kenjackson• 16 years ago

This is a Zuckerburg line: I heard motherfuckers saying they made Hov. Made Hov say, "Ok so, make another Hov"

Another line I've always liked, about how you run with action, not the mouth: Now all the little soldiers wanna roll with my team, Cause I ain't sold em a dream, I just showed em the cream

PStamatiou• 16 years ago

I remember this being on HN last year: startup tips from Jay-Z http://themetricsystem.rjmetrics.com/2009/12/21/top-5-startu...

  Adapt to Serve Your Market
  Be a Renegade
  Stay in Food and Beverage
  Be a Business, Man
  Data is King

jfb2• 16 years ago

I thought it was an OK read, thankfully light on the hagiography, although (like Gates and technology), I think Jay-Z is much more interesting as a businessman than a musician.

SandB0x• 16 years ago

"I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man." - Jay-Z

sudont• 16 years ago

"While white suburban kids studied rap lyrics, gangstas studied corporate culture."

--Misquoted and without attribution. Rolling Stone, maybe.

zackattack• 16 years ago

Was the innate poetic structure and meter of your sentence intended? hagigography/technology, businessman/musician

jfb2• 16 years ago

Just happenstance. I'm not much of an MC.

adlep• 16 years ago

He is a big pimpin I guess...

InfinityX02• 16 years ago

I love love love that they added a Jay-Z song to the page in a classy, non-automatic way. It enhances the article so much. Well done on WSJ's part there.

omouse• 16 years ago

Yeah that was fairly awesome. It's nice when news outlets make use of new media like that :D

troffe• 16 years ago

"I sell ice in the winter, I sell fire in hell. I'm a hustler baby, I sell water to a well."

aston• 16 years ago

Best part about that line is the homophone: "I sell water to a whale."

nochiel• 16 years ago

Jay is a master of making one word flower multiple meanings. In "So appalled", he delivers the punch line, "Not only am I fly, but I'm f*in not playin' "

The way he makes "playin'" sound like "plane" and "plain" is characteristic of his whole lyrical style.

uurayan2• 16 years ago

Don't sleep on these hip hop guys. They're born hungry. Look at Russell Simmons, Diddy, Jay-Z and 50 Cent, and (technically not a rapper) Usher. They all have pretty impressive business portfolios.

vaksel• 16 years ago

and for every one of those, there are hundreds, if not thousands, who piss their money away

uurayan2• 16 years ago

It still takes dedication and drive to make it to have the thousands to piss away. There are tons of business owners who piss away their earnings too.

_pius• 16 years ago

Much like the general entrepreneurial pool.

nickelplate2• 16 years ago

"Y'all not remembering. My motto is simply: I will not lose."

TGJ• 16 years ago

He talks about how people look down on the genre because of the foul language, but I have to wonder. Would Gates and Buffet and the rest of the business world put up with a foul mouthed individual? I very much doubt that he talks like he raps and more than likely he keeps his mouth in check when trying to make million dollar deals.

InfinityX02• 16 years ago

Undoubtedly. He has business sense - a foul mouth sells the records, but it doesn't seal the million-dollar deals. I have no question that he is smart enough to not be a philanderer when talking with other business moguls.You don't get to $500 million net worth without this ability to differentiate.

ZeroGravitas• 16 years ago

Didn't Joel (on Software) write about famously foul-mouthed reviews from Gates?

Here it is:

My First BillG Review http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html

"In my BillG review meeting, the whole reporting hierarchy was there, along with their cousins, sisters, and aunts, and a person who came along from my team whose whole job during the meeting was to keep an accurate count of how many times Bill said the F word. The lower the f-count, the better."

datums• 16 years ago

He's all business. In his earlier work he was more of a lyricists. He pivoted and started selling more record, making commercial music. His timing was right and he executed perfectly. In his own words.

"I dumb it down for my audience

and double my dollars

they criticize me for it

yet they still yell "Holla"

If skills sold

Truth be told

I'd probably be

Lyricly

Talib Kweli"

The glorification of drug dealing and gun carrying is a huge turn off album after album.

nickelplate2• 16 years ago

"Truthfully I want to rhyme like Common Sense

But I did five mil

I ain't be rhyming like Common since

When your senses got so much in common

And you've been hustlin since your inception

Fuck perception go with what makes sense"

He is essentially saying that he started dumbing it down after doing "Vol. 2 Hard Knock Life" - which sold five million copies.

grandalf• 16 years ago

It is truly heartwarming the amount of love that HN readers have for Jay Z.

msy• 16 years ago

To me he represents the best of the meritocracy in action: incredible success without the gifts of money, power or connections at birth, survival and achievement though skill, intelligence, hard work and refusing to ever give up. I have so much genuine respect for him.

polynomial2• 16 years ago

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

The State of Jay-Z's Empire

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