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Jay-Z:Hustler, Businessman

Jay-Z has developed a distinctive recording style in which he mumbles words to himself in the studio and then steps into the recording booth to complete a track. He recently discussed his songwriting in a lengthy interview, in which he even wondered aloud if his “Rain Man” process has inspired a generation of bad songwriters. Jay-Z, the Def Jam president and rapper, said the last time he actually wrote lyrics was for “Can I Live,” on his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt. At the time he was collaborating on Jay-Z mixtapes when someone heard the first verse of that track and told Jay to finish it, ’cause it sounds like you got a lot more to say.’ Jay just wanted to get it down quick. He didn’t want to keep going over it, so he sat in the booth and wrote out that verse. Irv Gotti, who produced it, says the song was originally intended to be a collaboration between Jay and a member of the rap group Original Flavor. Gotti believes that Nas was supposed to appear, but after Nas passed, Jay-Z mixed tapes of the song and finished it himself. The advice Jay gives his nephew, who hopes to be an MC one day, is to always be writing. “Repetition is the key to perfection,” he says. “The more repetition, the better you will perform.” Jay-Z mixtapes as a teenager for hours at a stretch. Jay-Z mixtapes would be passed from hand to hand at Eli Whitney High School. In Brooklyn, a Jay-Z mixtape was what everyone wanted in their boombox. Jay credits those days of practice with his current success and fame. He’s no longer writing, but penning some lyrics still appeals to him. He says he wanted to write lyrics for The Black Album. He believed it was going to be his last album. Ultimately Jay couldn’t shake the process that has been at the root of his creativity for years. He even listened to an old Jay-Z mixtape from the days to tap into his roots. “It just felt better,” Jay said. “It’s difficult to go back to what you was doing when you was 15, 16 years old.” Once he was back in the studio after years and years of the same process, he said it felt so natural to do it the way he’s been doing it: no paper, no pen, just listen.