This thing we call life has rules, and Jay Z has written a manual of sorts. Having achieved a considerable amount of success in his career, the Brooklyn-bred legend’s continuously provided listeners with gems to live by.
Acknowledging Jay’s penchant for kicking game, Hip-Hop Wired revisits 12 lines that have changed lives for the better. Hit the jump to peep the list. Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Photo: YouTube
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“New Day”
Album: Watch The Throne
“Look a man in his dead eyes/So he know you talk truth when you speak it/Give your word, keep it.”
“Show You How”
Album: The Blueprint 2
“Pay ya taxes, you ni**as is hustlin backwards.”
Photo: Tim Edwards/WENN.com
“U Don’t Know”
Album: The Blueprint
“That’s another difference that’s between me and them/I smarten up, open the market up/One million, two million, three million, four/In 18 months, eighty million more.”
“Watch Me”
Album: Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter
“He can’t take you nowhere, leave that dude. Be that rude if he’s that’s cool.”
Photo: Tim Edwards/WENN.com
“30 Something”
Album: Kingdom Come
“I don’t got the bright watch, I got the right watch/I don’t buy out the bar, I bought the nightspot/I got the right stock, I got
Stockbrokers that’s movin’ it like white tops.”
“Never Change”
Album: The Blueprint
“Old heads taught me, youngin, walk softly/Carry a big clip, that’ll get ni**as off me/Keep coke in coffee, keep money smelling mothy/Chains is cool to cop but more important is lawyer fees”
“Stick 2 the Script”
Album: The Dynasty: Roc La Familia
“When I’m skatin through the city and I stop and kick it/Be the most asked question – how I got them digits?/I say I stay on my grind, never stop for b*tches/Never talk like a mime, I gotta watch you snitches”
“D’Evils”
Album: Reasonable Doubt
“Nine to five is how you survive, I ain’t trying to survive/I’m tryna live it to the limit and love it a lot”
“Politics As Usual”
Album: Reasonable Doubt
“I’m taking wages down in Vegas just in case Tyson/Have a major night off, that’s clean money, the tax write-off”
“Pound Cake”
Album: Nothing Was The Same (Drake)
“The homies said ‘Hov, it ain’t many of us’/I told ’em less is more ni**as, plenty of us.”
“Hard Knock Life”
Album: Vol 2. … Hard Knock Life
“I’m from the school of the hard knocks, you must not/ Let outsiders violate our blocks, and my plot…”
“Can’t Knock The Hustle”
Album: Reasonable Doubt
“I’m leaning on any ni**a intervening/ With the sound of my money machining”
