“I don’t think artist should make albums unless they got something to say. at this point, hip hop, its still a young genre. y’know? we’ve never seen anyone grow up in hip hop. i think that if you make great music, that its ageless, its colorless, its doesn’t have a genre, it doesn’t have a gender, y’know. male and female like it, black and white like it. young and old like it. as long as you’re attached to a true emotion. i still represent hip hop, i represent the culture. i see my albums, and i see what i do as part of as a collective, not outside of it. not like this is jay-z and everything else is just hip hop. i believe in music. good music and bad music. i don’t believe in the lines and the words that separate music. y’know, like pop music, rap music, and r&b, and country music. its all music. you just use different instruments like it all the same thing it all comes from creativity, it comes from your joy, your pain. whatever you draw to create into these songs, it comes from the same place. new york, new york. this is my foundation. its the center of my growth. the muse for my art. its where i grew up. its you know, the thing i have a lot of pride in.” —JayZ