Jay-Z
Appearances
Diddy On Trial
Jay-Z fights bombshell allegations
I was just a regular guy. No one discovered me in 34th Street singing and signed me to this huge record contract. I had to make my own way, make my own record company. So I would just say as a real person and someone who didn't give up, I like to serve as an inspiration to anybody, that anybody could do it. I'm just a kid from Marcy Projects. There was nothing special about me.
Diddy On Trial
Jay-Z fights bombshell allegations
I don't got extra special muscles or anything like that. It's just talent and refusing to give up.
Diddy On Trial
Jay-Z fights bombshell allegations
In a united front, the hip-hop mogul hit the red carpet in Hollywood last night with his superstar wife, Beyoncé, at the premiere of Disney's Mufasa, The Lion King. He was there to support Beyoncé, who has a small part in the film, and daughter Blue Ivy Carter, who has a starring role.
Fresh Air
Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse
Well, what happened was my sister's name is Andrea Carter, and we call her Annie for short. So when the TV version of the play came on and it was like there's a story called Annie, I was immediately drawn to it, of course. This is my sister's name. Like, what is this about? So I watched it, and I was immediately drawn to that story. And those words, instead of treated, we get tricked.
Fresh Air
Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse
Instead of kisses, we get kicked. it immediately resonated with me. So fast forward, I'm on the Puff Daddy tour, and I'm about to leave stage, and a DJ by the name of Kid Capri plays this track, no rap on it, just instrumental. It stopped me in my tracks. It immediately brought me back to my childhood and that feeling.
Fresh Air
Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse
And I knew right then and there that I had to make that record and that, you know, people would relate to the struggle in it and the aspiration in it as well.
Fresh Air
Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse
Yeah. Well, I mean, we got the rights already, so it was a bit late. Because I exaggerated a touch. You know, it's typical when you have to clear a song, you have to send it, a sampled song, you send it to the original writers and they grant you permission and you pay a fee for that permission. You know, with some writers, their art is, for them, very important.
Fresh Air
Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse
So it has to be the right sort of... attitude and the right take and the emotion on the record has to fit, you know, what was originally intended. So we're having difficulties clearing the sample. And I wrote a letter about how much it meant to me, you know, what it meant to me growing up and how I went to like a Broadway play, which was an exaggeration.
Fresh Air
Remembering Broadway Composer Charles Strouse
I saw it on TV and, you know, we got the rights.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
Yeah, basically. After thinking about that comparatively to the other answers...
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
WWDTM: One Last Gift to Unwrap
You know, my intuition spoke for me. That was the hustler, homie. Yeah.