Top 120 Jay-Z Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man!”

— Jay-Z

2. “Don’t ever go with the flow. Be the flow.”

— Jay-Z

3. “The genius thing that we did was, we didn’t give up.”

— Jay-Z

Featured in: Not Giving Up Quotes

4. “Don’t tell me what was said about me. Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it to you.”

— Jay-Z

5. “I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not trying.”

— Jay-Z

Featured in: Inspirational Entrepreneurship Quotes

6. “May the best of your today’s be the worst of your tomorrow’s.”

— Jay-Z

7. “You learn more in failure than you ever do in success.”

— Jay-Z

8. “Remind yourself. Nobody built like you, you design yourself.”

— Jay-Z

9. “A wise man told me don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who.”

— Jay-Z

10. “I’d rather die enormous than live dormant.”

— Jay-Z

11. “Only God can judge me so I’m gone, either love me or leave me alone.”

— Jay-Z

12. “I’m a hustler, baby; I sell water to a well!”

— Jay-Z

13. “I believe you can speak things into existence.”

— Jay-Z

14. “I look in the mirror, my only opponent.”

— Jay-Z

15. “You can pay for school, but you can’t buy class.”

— Jay-Z

16. “Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama’s running so we all can fly.”

— Jay-Z

17. “I’m not concerned with noise because I’m playing the long game.”

— Jay-Z

18. “I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter.”

— Jay-Z

19. “Without the work, the magic won’t come.”

— Jay-Z

20. “Life is a gift, love opens it up.”

— Jay-Z

21. “Leave a mark they can’t erase, neither space nor time.”

— Jay-Z

22. “I’m far from being god, but I work god damn hard.”

— Jay-Z

23. “Don’t make decisions based on the fear.”

— Jay-Z

24. “You not feeling me, fine. It costs you nothing, pay me no mind...”

— Jay-Z

25. “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.”

— Jay-Z

26. “Jealousy’s a weak emotion.”

— Jay-Z

27. “Far from a Harvard student, just had the balls to do it.”

— Jay-Z

28. “Be true to yourself- and keep things simple. People complicate things.”

— Jay-Z

29. “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.”

— Jay-Z

30. “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.”

— Jay-Z

31. “I believe excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over.”

— Jay-Z

32. “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.”

— Jay-Z

33. “Males shouldnt be jealous. Thats a female trait.”

— Jay-Z

34. “Everything evens up, you just wait, Even a garbage can gets a steak, You ain’t even a garbage can, you have faith!”

— Jay-Z

35. “Life is for living, not living uptight, see ya somewhere up in the sky.”

— Jay-Z

36. “Everybody can tell you how to do it but they never done it.”

— Jay-Z

37. “How could I be out there and not do anything?”

— Jay-Z

38. “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.”

— Jay-Z

39. “I use a lot of double meanings. I hide ’em like Easter eggs.”

— Jay-Z

40. “Hip-hop is a perfect mix between poetry and boxing.”

— Jay-Z

41. “I seen the worst of the worst. I deserve every blessing I receive I’m from the dirt.”

— Jay-Z

42. “Treat my first like my last and the last like my first and my thirst is the same as- when I came.”

— Jay-Z

43. “I got 99 Problems but Mitt ain’t one.”

— Jay-Z

44. “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.”

— Jay-Z

45. “I love you so, But why I love you, I’ll never know.”

— Jay-Z

46. “Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth. People respect success. They respect big. They don’t even have to like your music. If you’re big enough, people are drawn to you.”

— Jay-Z

47. “You know the type: loud as a motorbike but wouldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight.”

— Jay-Z

48. “Driving Benzes with no benefits, not bad huh, for some immigrants.”

— Jay-Z

49. “I’m not saying I’m God. But as far as lyrics, I’m God MC.”

— Jay-Z

50. “Rap has been a path between cultures in the best tradition of popular music.”

— Jay-Z