Jay Z will be covering the November 2013 cover of
Vanity Fair, in which he discusses his crack-dealing days, wooing the hottest chick in the game, and his daughter's love for his music.
While keeping his fashion dapper and iconic, he also added a hint of street style from his Brookyln roots through styling by June Ambrose.
The rapper explained his good business sense was learned through crack-dealing.
I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer. To be in a drug deal, you need to know what you can spend, what you need to re-up.”
He emphasized that his dealing days were used as a stepping stone and that you always have to have an exit strategy.
“If you want to start some sort of barbershop or carwash — those were the businesses back then. Things you can get in easily to get out of [that] life.”
“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.”
Cue dope boys, or the aspiring ones, at least. You can't be Jay Z's age still trapping.
As far as what got him out of that life and how it affected him:
“Not until later, when I realized the effects on the community. 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.”
He was also asked if the rumors about his daughter, Blue Ivy, not liking Beyonce's music was true and how she likes his music.
"That’s not true. She does like her mother’s music—she watches [Beyoncé’s concerts] on the computer every night. But my album came out and I don’t know if Blue ever heard any of my music prior to this album—she’s only 18 months old and I don’t play my music around the house. But this album was new, so we played it. And she loves all the songs. She plays a song and she goes, ‘More, Daddy, more . . . Daddy song.’ She’s my biggest fan. 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. Just to see her—‘Daddy song, more, Daddy.’ She’s genuine, she’s honest, because she doesn’t know it makes me happy. She just wants to hear it.”
He then goes on to talk about the other lady in his life, Beyoncé and how he snagged her ten years ago.
Jay says that when he and Beyoncé were both featured on the cover of Vanity Fair’s 2001 Music Issue “we were just beginning to try to date each other.” Try? “Well, you know, you’ve got to try first. You got to dazzle . . . wine and dine.” He tells [writer] Robinson that “of course” he pursued Beyoncé, and when asked if he hadn’t been Jay Z—say, he had been a gas-station attendant and she pulled up—would he have been able to date her, he responds, “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.” Jay confirms that the line on his latest album, “She was a good girl ’til she knew me” is about Beyoncé, and when Robinson asks if she’s not a good girl anymore, Jay laughs, saying, “Nah. She’s gangsta now.”
At 43-years-old, Jay Z is about to kick off his
Magna Carta Holy Grail tour November 30th, and does not see an end to rapping days anytime soon. (Remember his retirement, wasn't like almost ten years ago?)
And that Chris Brown, is how Jay Z gets a pass. He turned lemons( crack-dealing) into lemonade (good business skills and one of the top paid rappers in the game.) No whining here, sir.
Photo: Mario Testino for Vanity Fair
