Jay-Z covers Vanity Fair November 2013
For the November issue of Vanity Fair , the monthly popular culture, fashion, and current affairs magazine decided to tap rapper, businessman, and new father Jay-Z to serve as their coverboy.
Inside the issue, he speaks on an array of topics including his drug dealing past, estimated $500 million net worth, family life and more. Take a look at a few excerpts below.
On dealing drugs:
“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. Or if you want to start some sort of barbershop or car wash—those were the businesses back then. Things you can get in easily to get out of [that] life. At some point, you have to have an exit strategy, because your window is very small; you’re going to get locked up or you’re going to die.”
On his $500 million net worth:
“I’m not motivated by that. . . . I don’t sit around with my friends and talk about money, ever. On a record, that’s different.”
On Blue Ivy:
“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.”
On his childhood:
“We were living in a tough situation, but my mother managed; she juggled. Sometimes we’d pay the light bill, sometimes we paid the phone, sometimes the gas went off. We weren’t starving—we were eating, we were O.K. But it was things like you didn’t want to be embarrassed when you went to school; you didn’t want to have dirty sneakers or wear the same clothes over again.”
“Crack was everywhere—it was inescapable. There wasn’t any place you could go for isolation or a break. You go in the hallway; [there are] crackheads in the hallway. You look out in the puddles on the curbs—crack vials are littered in the side of the curbs. You could smell it in the hallways, that putrid smell; I can’t explain it, but it’s still in my mind when I think about it.”
You can read more from his interview at vanityfair.com , and look out for the full interview when the magazine hits newsstands next week.
