On Kanye West's 'Big Brother' record:
“Not everything on the song was true, but it was true in his mind,” said Jay. “He says ‘Carleen said I could buy two tickets.’ You would think he didn’t get any tickets. I gave him four, he wanted six. It was a charity event! And Coldplay — I introduced him to Coldplay, I gave him the number! But I thought it was a brilliant song. It brought us closer together.”

On Kingdom Come:
“Maybe it was too sophisticated. Maybe I fucked up.”

On Hip Hop:
“When a guy says ‘I could make a million saying nothing’ on a track, you know you’ve reached a bad place,” he said. “It’s way past salvaging. I’m going the other way. That’s why [my album] is the way it is.”

On his admitted embarrassment on retiring:
“I was watching Fade to Black on VH1, and I was cringing, because I kept saying, ‘It may be the last album’ — I’ve made two albums already!” he says, laughing. “When I put The Black Album out, I said I wasn’t going to say that anymore. I just stopped talking. Nobody believes it. Not even you.”

Labels: Jay Z