Jay Z Speaks on How His Cousin Made Him Leave the Street Life and Face Music

In his mid twenties, Jay Z and his cousins moved into a building in 560 State Street in Brooklyn, New York, and were leaving reckless...street life, cars, girls. At a point, his cousin got tired of that life, and advised Jay Z to leave the life and focus more on his music career. Good thing Jay listened to him. He became successful shortly after leaving the streets and gave the music his undivided attention.


Jay Z narrated this story recently, during his visit to his old building on 560 State Street in Brooklyn. Read his words on this below...

"When I was leaving here, me and my cousin actually fell out. He was like, why are you in the street, messing around, something is going to happen to you. You are going to get locked up or killed. You fucking stupid. And I still had a bit of...you know, I wasn't as evolved as a person. I got this feeling, but I didn't trust em. You know, it was early, and I was feeling things and I was like, that ain't right. I always had good instincts. That ain't right, but you know, I still was...I was doing my thing. You know, new cars, and girls, and I didn't really wanna hear it at the time. 

Pic: DJ Envy, Sheek Louch, Jadakiss, and Common

This picture was taken two days ago, Wednesday night precisely, at Styles P, and Jadakiss new Juice Bar (Juices for Life) opening in Brooklyn. They have a couple of them bars scatted all around New York. I wish them the best with the line of business.



That's DJ Envy, Sheek Louch, Jada Kiss, and Common.

Nas Riding a Bicycle in New York with Business Partner

Checkout this picture of legendary rapper, Nas riding a bicycle with his business partner, John Seymour, in front of their joint business establishment (in New York), Sweet Chick. Nas joined Seymour to expand the chicken and waffles eatery last year, and they haven't been doing badly ever since.

Pics: Inside The Late Joan Rivers' Mansion

Comedian/TV Host, Joan Rivers pasted away last week Thursday at the age of 81. She sure lived large from her 50 something years of making people laugh in all manner of ways. Check out how she lived...see inside of the late Joan Rover's New York mansion below. 

Bun B Speaks on Trinidad James New York Comments

Rap music has always been an ego thing, so it is no surprise that a little tension is sparked between rappers every now and then. The Kendrick Lamar King of New York line (which I feel was very disrespectful to the region) created a lot of tension a couple of months ago when Big Sean's Control dropped. I am not sure if Trinidad James made his own disrespectful remarks about New York from the heart, or he just wanted the result of what his words would bring- Attention. Anyway, he said...






“I remember when New York ran this shit, dog... What happened? I remember when New York rap was the shit. And us in the South, us bammas, we was like ‘what the fuck’ and we just did our own thing. But now we run y’all musically." (Comment made during a concert in Brooklyn, New York)










Maino and a couple of New York artist didn't find his remarks so funny, but I really respect how Bun D (a Southern Legend) addressed the issue.



"Hip Hop left New York in the late '70s, early '80s and went out to the world and I came back," Bun B said. "I threw Hip Hop out into the world in 1992 and [A$AP Rocky] came back. So, once you give it to the world, when it comes back to you, you can't be mad at how it comes back to you because you sent it out there in the first place. We can't be critical, too critical of situations because we have to keep everything in its proper perspective. Hip Hop started in New York, so if you're an emcee...you're already trying to be like New York, so it don't make sense for somebody to say New York tryin' to be like them. We're all students of the culture. We're all taking in information and giving it back out. It's just starting to look different than maybe it looked originally. It's starting to sound different than maybe it sounded originally. I can understand his viewpoint. There's some validity to that, but that's happened in Hip Hop before, where other regions have been so enamored by what's happening from here, that we want to be a part of it. You can look at Hip Hop fashion today and everybody in Hip Hop really dressing like Europeans. Nobody's talkin' about that. You're either dressing like a European or a Japanese person. We sent Hip Hop to Europe and Japan and that's how it came back. Now, we're taking notes from their influence and giving it right back to somebody else. That's how it's supposed to be. If you're in Texas and all you doin' and all you know and everything in your life is just Texas, then you've blocked yourself out of a lot of great things in this world. That goes for every region. Hip Hop started out as a regional thing. It was very segregated. Like everything else in this world that involves segregation and division, we've got to tear that down."  (MTV)


Nuff said!