The Sun Doesn’t Know It’s a Star

" extraordinary, visual, emotional, passionate artist. A lot of times people, they have a knock on him about he wasn’t the most technically skilled rapper, but those aspects of what he was doing was just as difficult or more difficult than just having an incredible flow or being —having great metaphors, because if you’re a great lyricist and you have metaphors you have the entire dictionary at your disposal. So you can do just about anything with your voice and flow, granted that you have that talent.He was telling stories that had linear thoughts and emotions and — you know, multiple levels - when you match that story with rhythm, rhyme, flow, - When you put them in song, "
[Excerpts of Jay-Z Interview w/ Charlie Ross]

I look at my dreams, only wonder what they mean
Silent like a movie scene!
I tell you to hang at half of the fame and …
..call up scene, want nothing in between
Is either all or nothing
I say everything will be all right
As long as these dreams don’t leave my sight
I swear to God I’ll sleep at night
I just lay there in the crowd
All you gotta do is say where,…stay happy ..stay mess
While all the people see I’m hurt, I want stay there
Cause I’m…
I feel like my brothers are aching, …
Distress that I have, some dudes can’t take it
To shut like this scared kid…
And people ask me what is the key to make it?
I tell them just use your patience
It’s a long road, when the right situation is the wrong song
It’s equivalent to…
And the magnitude, the drama man is untold
..to focus on one goal, to live, not to go to the…
I’m trying to see the world in this zone shits
Man, I’m trying to make an impact
That will make everybody in the world come back
I’m focused, determined, I wanna make dough, make earnings
And pull up this… and that’s charming
I see you watching the world while is turning
Just stand it, I’m awake and demand whatever I want
Whenever I want I make…
I work hard to get life in direction
To any little thing that my mind could imagine
Don’t believe just examine the rhymes
And make …cause anything that I imagine is mine

[Werner Herzog]
It's not only my dreams
It’s my belief that they are yours as well
And the only distinction between me and you
Is that I can articulate them
And that is what poetry or literature or film-making is all about
It’s as simple as that
And I know that I can do it to a certain degree
And it is my duty because this might be the inner chronicle of what we are
And we have to articulate ourselves
Otherwise we would be cows in the field

For me When rap is great, it can take ordinary experiences and make them extraordinary
[Excerpts of Jay-Z Interview w/ Charlie Ross]

*Background Music of Arms and Sleepers called Helvetica