We’re optimistic you’ll gain lots of helpful advice on living life when you read these Jay-Z quotes we’ve gathered.
Jay-Z is often at the top of our minds when we think of great rappers. However, he also dabbled in the business side of things as a record producer and entrepreneur.
Many would credit him for the success of other famous artists like Rihanna, J. Cole, and even Kanye West! Of course, who wouldn’t forget his connection with Queen Bey herself, his spouse, Beyoncé!
Beyond his connections in the entertainment industry, Jay-Z is also known for his fantastic albums like 4:44 and The Blueprint. His music is incredibly diverse, too, as he listens to people with different cultures, beliefs, and values to find inspiration for his work.
If there’s one thing we can take away from Jay-Z, it’s his mindset toward his craft. He’s a hustler and a perfectionist who puts his heart and soul into every piece he releases.
So, prepare for helpful lessons on every aspect of life through the Jay-Z quotes we’ve compiled below. Read through to the end and find morals you should live by!
Best Jay-Z Quotes
1. “Belief in oneself and knowing who you are—I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great.”
2. “Remind yourself. Nobody built like you; you design yourself.”
3. “A wise man told me don’t argue with fools. ‘Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who.”
4. “I’m not afraid of dying; I’m afraid of not trying.”
5. “I believe everyone in the world is born with genius-level talent. Apply yourself to whatever you’re genius at, and you can do anything in the world.”
6. “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
Famous Jay-Z Quotes
7. “I love what I do, and when you love what you do, you want to be the best at it.”
8. “I’m a mirror. If you’re cool with me, I’m cool with you, and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don’t like what you see, then you’ve done something. If I’m standoffish, that’s because you are.”
9. “I treat people based on who they really are, not their name. Everyone has to be respectful and be a human being. No one’s above. That’s how I carry it with anybody.”
10. “Be fluid. Treat each project differently. Be water, man. The best style is no style. Because styles can be figured out. And when you have no style they can’t figure you out.”
11. “I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day—to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time and trying to be brighter.”
12. “My mom always taught me—you know, little boys listen to their moms too much—that whatever you put into something is what you’re going to get out of it.”
Jay-Z Quotes on Hustling
13. “I’m far from being god, but I work goddamn hard.”
14. “All I got is dreams. Nobody else believes. Nobody else can see. Nobody else but me.”
15. “I’m a hustler, baby; I sell water to a well.”
16. “Whenever inspiration won’t find you, you have to find it.”
17. “I’m not a businessman; I’m a business, man!”
18. “Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out.”
19. “Excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over again. You can hit a half-court shot once. That’s just the luck of the draw. If you consistently do it, that’s excellence.”
Jay-Z Quotes About Love and Loyalty
20. “When you’re truly in love. You will never have anything to hide.”
21. “If it’s you and me against the world, then so be it.”
22. “Providing—that’s not love. Being there—that’s more important. I mean, we see that. We see that with all these rich socialites. They’re crying out for attention; they’re hurting for love. I’m not being judgmental; I’m just making an observation. They’re crying out for the love that maybe they didn’t get at home, and they got everything.”
23. “Jealousy is a weak emotion.”
24. “Only God can judge me, so I’m gone; either love me or leave me alone.”
25. “What people do in their own homes is their business, and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination, plain and simple.”
Meaningful Jay-Z Quotes About Life and Change
26. “Life is all there is. And if that’s true, then we have to really live it. We have to take it for everything it has and die enormous instead of living dormant.”
27. “The genius thing that we did was we didn’t give up.”
28. “In order to survive, gotta learn to live with regrets.”
29. “May the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows.”
30. “I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me.”
31. “Life is about balance; you have to have time for work and time for play. If you don’t allow these two things to co-exist, you have an imbalance.”
32. “If the beat is time, flow is what we do with that time, how we live through it. The beat is everywhere, but every life has to find its own flow.”
33. “They say a midget standing on a giant’s shoulders can see much further than the giant. So I got the whole rap world on my shoulders; they trying to see further than I am.”
Jay-Z Quotes About Family
34. “A man that doesn’t take care of his family can’t be rich.”
35. “Nobody wins when the family feuds.”
36. “When you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again.”
Jay-Z Quotes About Success and Money
37. “You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip. You can’t sleep. One eye open—for real, and forever.”
38. “Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who’ve never done anything because if you haven’t been successful, then you don’t know how it feels to lose it all. You don’t have that fear. So why do you think people get stuck in those boxes? It’s that fear of going back down.”
39. “We all have the same fear—the fear of failure. We all have the fear of failure. As someone successful, the weight of all that you’ve done is on you.”
40. “Those who are successful overcome their fears and take action. Those who aren’t submit to their fears and live with regrets.”
41. “Money and power don’t change you; they just further expose your true self.”
42. “The burden of poverty isn’t just that you don’t always have the things you need; it’s the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you’d do anything to lift that burden.”
Iconic Jay-Z Quotes and Lyrics for Instagram
43. “Males shouldn’t be jealous. That’s a female trait.”
44. “You can pay for school, but you can’t buy class.”
45. “They talk. We live. Who cares what they say?”
46. “Ain’t nothin’ wrong with the aim; just gotta change the target.”
47. “Mama ain’t raised no fool. Put me anywhere on God’s green Earth, I’ll triple my worth.”
Jay-Z Quotes That’ll Give You a Glimpse of His Thoughts
48. “We change people through conversation, not through censorship.”
49. “Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it and use it as a foundation to grow.”
50. “My thing is related to who I am as a person. The clothes are an extension of me. The music is an extension of me. All my businesses are part of the culture, so I have to stay true to whatever I’m feeling at the time, whatever direction I’m heading in. And hopefully, everyone follows.”
51. “I’ve never looked at myself and said that I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people. I’ve always wanted to stay true to myself, and I’ve managed to do that. People have to accept that.”
52. “Hip hop has done so much for racial relations, and I don’t think it’s given the proper credit. It has changed America immensely. I’m going to make a very bold statement: Hip hop has done more than any leader, politician, or anyone to improve race relations.”
Jay-Z Quotes on His Music and Career
53. “Rap, for me, is like making movies, telling stories, and getting the emotions of the songs through in just as deep a way.”
54. “I try to make music with emotion and integrity. And authenticity. You can feel when something’s authentic, and you can feel when it’s not: you know when someone’s trying to make the club record, or trying to make the girl record, or trying to make the thug record. It’s none of that. It’s just my emotions.”
55. “Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I’m a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?”
Did Jay-Z Help You Put Things Into Perspective?
No matter what industry we want to work in, one thing’s for sure: it will be hard to leave your mark. Once you get out into the world, you’ll open your eyes to the reality that many more people are better than you.
However, instead of being discouraged, this must only fuel you to do better! As we’ve learned from Jay-Z, hustling through the everyday grind is the only way to ensure you make progress in life.
This applies not only to our careers but to love and life, too. Hustling, perseverance, and determination are needed to make the most out of every breath we take.
Love and our relationships with family and friends will not work if we don’t put time and effort into them; we need to be present so others can feel how much we love and appreciate them. In the same way, we should take the time to work on our passion projects to ensure we live a full life, not stuck in the walls of our office space.
Jay-Z is an inspiring artist who encourages us to work for the things we love. Things won’t always be easy, but you’ll always find happiness if you don’t give up!
