In 2002, during an instant-classic freestyle on Hot 97, Jay-Z rapped, “Even in my absence, my presence is felt. That gotta tell you I’m the king, dog, if nothing else.” Like most Jay-Z lines, 20-plus years later, they feel timelessly prophetic, if not even more potent.
As hip-hop, pop culture, and the zeitgeist surge on, there’s a main character we keep returning to amidst all other narratives and storylines, sometimes even more so when he tries to step away. It’s been nine years since Jay’s last solo album (the rap-elder-statesman manifesto, 4:44), six years since his last project (Jay Electronica’s A Written Testimony, on which he featured), nearly four years since his titanic verse on “God Did.” You get the idea—he hasn’t been active.
But while fans appeal for new music, even if it’s just a guest verse on a hotly anticipated album, culture continues to position itself under Jay’s ever-widening umbrella. Your favorite rapper is probably in business with Roc Nation. The Super Bowl halftime show, under his supervision, has never been a bigger source of debate and anticipation. The businesses he’s grown—Armand de Brignac Champagne, D’Ussé cognac, Tidal—have helped turn him into a self-made billionaire, nearly three times over now. And when he’s wanted to touch the stage recently, he’s done so on stops of a global tour with his wife, the biggest pop star on earth, in sets that also happen to feature their eldest daughter as a performer.
Thirty years on from his debut album—a milestone that will hit with the Reasonable Doubt anniversary in June—Jay-Z, now 56, is more influential than ever before. But the journey hasn’t been without controversy, criticism, and challenges—most recently in the form of a civil lawsuit brought against him at the tail end of 2024 by an anonymous woman who alleged he’d sexually assaulted her decades earlier. The accuser voluntarily dismissed the suit with prejudice just months after it was filed. Though Jay-Z maintained the allegations were frivolous and fictitious, the fallout still took a mental and emotional toll.
In January, when we met for a pair of two-hour interviews, Jay had a lot on his mind. So much so, in fact, that he continued to send new thoughts as he had them well after our talks, either adding context to topics we’d discussed or clarifications to ideas he expressed, or just setting the record straight on narratives he’d seen reported erroneously elsewhere. For example, one morning he shared: “I took 750m CASH, for 25 percent of my D’Ussé stake. Meaning my half is 1.5b. And the full enterprise was valued at 3b (they told me it was [worth] considerably less. My reply was ‘I’ll buy your stake at that price.’) No one has gotten this math correct.…” Like I said, there was a lot on his mind—and he’d given so few interviews in recent years. Or as he characterized it to me, referring to his last major sit-down: “It’s been a minute.”
Jay-Z: It was hard. Really hard. I was heartbroken. I’m glad we got right to that so we could just get that out the way. Like I was really heartbroken by everything that occurred. We’re in a space now where it’s almost like consequence is not thought about enough. Because everything is so instant, you know what I’m saying?
That whole [lawsuit thing], that shit took a lot out of me. I was angry. I haven’t been that angry in a long time, uncontrollable anger. You don’t put that on someone—that’s a thing that you better be super sure. It used to be like that. You had to be super sure before you put those kind of things on a person. Especially a person like me. Even when we were doing the worst things, we had those kind of rules. There was a line: no women, no kids. You hear those sayings, but those are the things that I took from the street. We lived and died by that. So it’s strict for me, like it meant a lot to me.
I took that really hard. I knew that we were going to walk through that because, first of all, it’s not true. And the truth, at the end of the day, still reigns supreme.
I don’t know. This is the first thing I’m doing, actually. It was just like, alright man, we played enough defense. 2026 is all offense.
I think that came from the neighborhood, seeing everybody fight against everything that we were up against at that time. That defiance was just like: We going to do this on our own. We got to do this on our own. We’re by ourselves. So that defiance is what’s getting you through.
When we first dropped Reasonable Doubt, we sold 43,000 records. The energy was like, “You’re new. You haven’t proven yourself.” But in our mind, the fact that we released an album was proof enough of concept. We did it. Remember, we’re not in control of distribution, marketing, anything. We’re going like a street-level, street-team approach to this. And so when we put the album out—that was the win. We had some success, and remember: On the streets we were platinum. Anywhere you was going to go, you was going to hear Reasonable Doubt.
Yeah. If you wasn’t there, now you’re looking at the analytics. Someone that speaks like that, you know they wasn’t there because if you were there, you’re like, “This not even a conversation.” Anywhere you went, any car, Reasonable Doubt was going to play.
You’d stand on the block and you know how the cars go by? It’d be like [singing a Doppler effect] “Ain’t no n…” Or “D’Evils.” You hearing different songs all day, every day. Then you go in the club, you hearing “Ain’t No” for sure. It was like those songs that you hear like “N-ggas in Paris” or “In Da Club” you know? Those songs that just stop the world. “Ain’t No N-gga” was one of those, and they were playing it a thousand times in a night. That first album and not getting the deal was the biggest blessing to me.
No. No, at the time I wanted a deal. That’s why I went to every single label.
I was rejected, not dejected, you know what I mean? Every door was [mimes a shut door]. But I always believed in myself. It wasn’t a moment that I thought, I’m not good enough for this industry. At every rejection, I thought, Why do they have this guy in place? He doesn’t know what’s going on.
What I was saying was the bible for that time. Those people who experienced those emotions, the things I was saying was affecting them in a different kind of way because it was interior. It wasn’t just “Sold drugs, shoot guns, shoot guns, like girls.” It was like this feeling of paranoia, “D’Evils,” the way you exploit friendship in this, because a lot of friendships soured and a lot of people got hurt and killed. We experienced a lot of trauma, and this contained all this.
I just needed the bridge to get to the audience. I knew the audience was there for what I was saying.
Of course. It’s almost like you’re in a room and you go through this room and you get to the end and you open the door and you’re like, Wow. And then you turn back and you turn the lights on and it was like pits and snakes. Your naive nature just naturally navigated you through the dark.
That’s what made up for the things we didn’t know. And it helps because you can learn something so much that you just tap out. I think that happens a lot in the music business. People get in the music business for the right reasons and they’re very passionate about it. But then it becomes mundane.
This is the strangest thing, but you get advice from places that you just wouldn’t expect it. When I took the president job at Def Jam [in 2004], Jon Bon Jovi told me: “You’re an artist. Don’t forget you’re an artist.”
I never thought I would be there for long. It also was part of a whole deal that was cut out so I’d get all my masters back from Def Jam. It was a give-and-take there. And also I really wanted to learn. I wanted to see behind the curtain.
That’s hard to say. I think that I’ve showed the entire picture from “You Must Love Me” to “Regrets” to “Soon You’ll Understand.” But the wins are so big that I can see where that can dominate a person’s memory, that you forget the losses. I do say: “I will not lose.” So I could add to the perception, as well.
Yeah, because it’s all wins. If I had point-zero-zero-zero-one of the Nets, I won. It’s like: I had ownership in a basketball team. In Brooklyn. That actually relied on me heavily to get to Brooklyn, right? So yeah, I didn’t win the championship with the Nets. I still won.
It’s not even “God forbid” when something goes wrong. Everything in life happens for your greatest good. Everything. You won’t always see it at the time. Like how I didn’t see it at the time that I didn’t need a record deal. I was put here to be this independent person that will push a different pocket, like Prince was. Prince was for music overall. I was for hip-hop and our culture. I had to not get a deal in order to become who I am today. I had to not get a deal. But if you told me at that time, it didn’t feel like the greatest blessing of all. It was the greatest blessing that I didn’t get a deal. So again, everything in your life, it’s not happening to you, it’s happening for you.
Don’t skip over that. It’s not happening to you. It’s happening for you. You just got to know the distinction. Everything is just how you relate to it. There’s no good or bad. Shit happens. It’s life.
I read a lot of books early. The Seat of the Soul. The Celestine Prophecy. All these different books and I was picking up all these gems and jewels on the way. But I was also 26 when I came in and I lived a lot of life in those 26 years. Marcy to Trenton, New Jersey, to Cambridge, Maryland, to Newport News, Virginia. I met all sorts of people, been in all sorts of situations, and I came out without a scratch. Never been to jail.
“Three shots…never touched me.” I came out unscathed. It was very rare. So I’ve learned a lot, and I had a lot of living up to that point. And I was always curious after that. Once you’ve reached that part, like, I’ve had the living and now I’m like, Man, why did that happen? I’m always questioning: Why did that happen? Why did it happen that way?
My favorite verse is off that jumbled track. It’s so noisy and unorthodox. [Mimics beat.] “Flux Capacitor.”
[Laughs.] Yeah, sometimes you need to sit in the pocket. My pocket is always with a foot over the thing anyway. It’s always hanging to the last moment, and then it’s like: “Uh.” [Mimics squeezing in another beat.] Because sometimes I try to fit a lot of words into a small space and that last word just get in the door. There’s a lot of different flows that I’ve done musically. I know when I’m offbeat. I know exactly where the beat is. I’m fucking Hov. [Laughs.]
The only thing I heard coming up was the American dream. You could make it, if you pull yourself up by the bootstraps. I heard that my entire life—until we started being successful. Then it was like: You’re selling out because you’re making money. People had this allure for the “struggling artist”—that’s a mind game, what we would call, back in the day, “tricknology.” I’m not going for that. I make art first and then I make sure that I’m compensated for my art. I didn’t get here by taking advantage of people or taking advantage of the loopholes in the system, or some wrinkle in a capitalist structure. That structure exists; I just see the world for what it is, not for what I want it to be. I’m a realist. It’s not idealistic. People speak about the world how they want to see it. You’re never going to win like that.
I have to deal with the reality of the world, and I’m going to navigate this world not only for me but for a bunch of people that’s been disenfranchised by a system that doesn’t play fair for us. In order for us to progress forward, we have to deal with the world the way it is. Sometimes that means going out and starting your own company. Sometimes that means partnering with established companies because that’s the world that we live in. [There’s] nowhere you’re going to go that Black people control distribution and control media. At some point you’re going to have to partner with somebody.
There’s so many different ways to go about being successful and achieving great things in music and beyond. I’m just open to all those—just seeing the world for what it is. Not like, “Everything has to be a hundred percent Black-owned.” It’s Black-owned if I own one percent of it. Elon Musk owns 20 percent of Tesla. You wouldn’t say it’s not his. You would not say it’s not “white-owned.” I don’t even know if I’ve ever heard the term “white-owned.” [Laughs.] Have you?
I think it was understandable. We’re an emotional people.
Black people, for sure. I don’t think that the world has to agree with everything I do. I see the world as it is. There was a moment in time when we could get in there and we can actually effect some change because [the NFL was] vulnerable at that moment. We can put our music on the stage. As well as all the Inspire Change [social justice initiative]. I don’t want to gloss over that. The guys who own the teams, they’re from all over and they live in ivory towers—they don’t touch culture. So the things that we care about—“But it’s the right cultural thing!”—they’re like: “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I have no idea what that means.”
I don’t know if that’s fun. I can’t imagine—that can’t be fun. Who wants to be successful and just not have fun?
I even want you to take that out of your vocabulary.
“Allowed.” We’re not allowed to do anything. In order for someone to allow you, they have to have authority over you. No one has authority over us. We exist like everyone else here. No one can allow us to do anything. But that word comes from a real space, and I want to eliminate all those type of words for us. So the answer to that is yes.
Oh yeah, for sure. A hundred percent. What’s the Nipsey thing? “Pray for me, y’all, one day I’ma have to pay for these thoughts. Real n-ggas is extinct, it ain’t safe for me, my dawg.” These are real fucking lyrics.
However the system is set up to keep things at status quo and keep us in a position of using words like allow—anyone that’s culpable in creating a system that we operate under, that’s “they.” And it actually goes beyond color. I’ve encountered that a lot, where it was like, “Okay, this successful Black man made it. Let me go to him for help.” And they’re like, “We don’t fuck with no rap shit.” Not out loud like that, but you see the energy.
I needed the people around me more than ever because usually when I have that feeling, I would just make music and it would be therapeutic. I’d be able to [exhales], blow it out and I would move on. I had to sit in that for a long time. I’ve built this circle that’s really safe for me of people that really love me, are not using me, and really care for my best interests. So I was able to have that in the most crucial time for me.
But again, there’s blessings and curses in all that. I also got to see how people felt about me, especially people that were close to me, and I’ll explain. So when those types of things happen, people run, they don’t care what happened. It’s like, save yourself. So I have partners I’ve had big deals with. I called my guy from LVMH: “Hey, man, this is coming and I can’t get rid of it.” I can’t take a settlement—it ain’t in my DNA. First of all, first I had to tell my wife. Let’s back up. I know the weight that this is going to bring on our family. I can’t do it. I would die.
If I settled—make that thing go away. And for me, it would’ve been cheaper? Yes. Cheaper, quicker, move on with your life. I knew what was coming. I wasn’t naive. I called—again, after my family—my partners. They were like, “What do you need to help? Don’t even worry.” In a phone call. Not even a: “I got to go to the board with this.” It was like a testament because people know me. Like: “I know who you are and that’s impossible. Not only are we standing by you, but what do you need?”
I’m still dealing with that. Because that’s a horrible thing to put on someone. It was like released the night of my daughter’s [movie] premiere.
Of course that’s a question because this is her moment. But our family, we are a tight unit. Blue has this jersey with “Jay-Z” on the back. She put it on one day. She went to school with the “Jay” [points to his back]. I was just in the corner, like tears coming down. Seriously. To have that, it’s priceless. People can say that [they’ll always be there for you], but it’s very rare that you’re going to have to exercise it. And in the darkest moment for me, I got to see those sorts of things.
It gives everything meaning, everything. I’ll go cross-country, do what I have to do, and I’m back on the plane that night. I love taking them to school. I love picking them up. Everything means so much more.
That was amazing. On the first tour there was a lot of conversation around her first performance, and she worked really hard to get to that point, but she still wasn’t going for it. She still was going through the motions. And then she just started fighting back. I saw her fight maybe for the first time in her life—like, not everything is just given to her and everything is easy. She fought for it. She’s almost on every number. I had to take her off some, like, “Man, you can’t be on that stage when she’s singing ‘Six-inch heels…’; are you crazy?”
Blue is a crazy pianist, but she won’t let us get her a teacher. She doesn’t want it to be a job. But she has perfect pitch. If she hears a song, she’ll be like “Play it again” and then she’ll teach herself. That’s just talent, she doesn’t work at that. She worked at this, and it makes me proud that she fought for something that she really wanted to do. I don’t think we’re going to be able to get her off that stage now.
4:44 released a lot. I can’t really even listen to 4:44. It’s the album that I was always afraid to make… just pure and vulnerable, the real interior thoughts. Not like Superman, this mythical figure. It was a lot of trauma [growing up], a lot of loss, a lot of seeing things that nine-year-olds shouldn’t be seeing. We tuck it away and we bury it, and then it shows up in different ways. You’re a lot younger than me, but you’ll see it shows up later in life in different ways, and you won’t know why you’re acting out in certain ways. And it’s because of those things that are buried deep, and whatever triggers it can cause any sort of response in your relationship and the relationship with your family. At some point you got to figure out how you’re going to navigate the world.
I’m super proud of the work that I’ve done and put in. And to be able to do that in front of the whole world. Most people, they get to go through their things very privately.
On tour! Live. Every night. It wasn’t easy. It was so healing, and it was so worth it. Healing in real time. It was like stumbling and bumbling and: Here it is. Here it is in its truest form. From like Lemonade to like 4:44 to Everything Is Love. That’s a real chapter in life that got recorded.
Yeah, a hundred percent. That was just all bravado. Part of it was closed off and it works. It’s like anything else. People like the hothead. That excitement and that danger has an allure to it. That’s Jigga. It was very useful, but it’s also not sustainable. You don’t want to look up one day and just be in some insane asylum somewhere, alone, no family. It’s another side of that, that had to happen.
You need it. “Sometimes you need your ego, gotta remind these fools.” It’s all in there. Everything.
Yes, of course. “I’m cynical…when I’m in interviews. The percentage who don’t understand is higher than the percentage who do. Check yourself, what percentage is you?” That was “Can I Live II.” I didn’t trust the music business. People would tell you something, do something else, and then hide behind paperwork and lawyers. That made me super cynical. And as you grow, you learn that you don’t have to place yourself in certain circles. So [I’m] maybe less cynical [now] because my life is edited better.
You got to edit your life at some point. There are people in your life that’re going to be there for a minute that are not necessarily going to be there for the whole ride. That happens. Some friends are for life. Some friends are for those moments. And you got to know when to move. Because these ideas of loyalty will hold you in places that you don’t belong, because it’s not really loyalty. Loyalty is for life. So even if we fall out and [now] you’re going on about me, I know that I made the right decision. You wasn’t my friend because loyalty is forever.
Yes! You’re not honoring the integrity of what that relationship was. So obviously it wasn’t real. Even some people that I don’t deal with, I’m not going to go on about them. I may have a response to certain things, but if someone asks me about them, I’m going to say, “[He’s] smart.” I’m going to say something that lends itself to honor the integrity of the relationship. Forever. There comes times you have to respond, of course. But I wouldn’t initiate that. I would hold down the relationship. At some point, the relationship just doesn’t mean anything, and then it’s fair game.
I know what she’s trying to accomplish and anything that I can contribute—I mean, that’s my family, first of all—I thought it was super important. And a fun challenge.
It actually does the opposite. I’m actually fulfilled in that space. But again, I was just so heavy [last year] and when I write, I write from experiences. And that would have been a very angry offering.
I’m not sure with the amount of negativity in the world that people needed me to add to that with my feelings—because it would have been harsh, and it would have been harsh on everybody. I don’t know how to make music that’s not reflective of how I’m feeling at the moment. That’s why I can quote lyrics in this conversation. I could draw back to what song it was that this thing happened that we’re talking about. Because it’s my real life, and I don’t know how to do it any other way. I had to be real and honest to my experiences at the moment. It would have been fiery.
I don’t know if it would have done more harm than good. I have a lot of scratch ideas and they’re all bad [laughs]. I got to be honest.
Yeah, I was close. I think the first thing that I say, it has to be said from me. [Pauses and reconsiders.] I don’t want to be so rigid with it, though. I’m going to keep that open. I’m going to take that back. I don’t want to be so rigid. But at that moment, I was like, “Yeah, I want to do something.” But in order for me to move forward, I got to get this shit out. I got to get it out.
I think everyone should experience music in its totality. And for a lot of years, it was only one side of music that was being represented for whatever reason. We got the opportunity to create a more balanced idea of what popular music is today. I’m not going out on a limb. These are the most famous people in the world. I didn’t pick the indie artist that I really like from Portland. [This was] the number one streamed artist in the world. “I got an idea, let’s let him [Bad Bunny] play.” [Laughs.] It’s Rihanna!
Yeah, for sure. He could have made it a little easier on himself. The artistic choice to play the new album was brave in front of that big of an audience. Because even if 10 million people know some of these songs, there’s 120 million people that’re like, “What is he doing?” As an artist, to stand up there and do it and complete your vision—I had to tip my hat. I had high respect for him already, but, like, even more my respect was like: He’s really about what he says he’s about.
Well, until now.
I’m going to have an answer you’re not going to like. Well, I don’t know if you’re going to like it. That’s presumptuous. There are four pillars of hip-hop. There’s breakdancing, graffiti, there’s DJ’ing and battling. Breakdance is not at the forefront of rap anymore. It’s actually an Olympic sport. So that’s dead [laughs]. Graffiti, beautiful in certain places. It’s not part of hip-hop. The DJ was in the forefront. It was Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Eric B. and Rakim. You don’t even know the DJ for half of the artists anymore. And the last pillar is battling. We love the excitement and I love the sparring, but in this day and age there’s so much negative stuff that comes with it that you almost wish it didn’t happen.
Now, people that like Kendrick hate Drake, no matter what he makes. It’s like an attack on his character. I don’t know if I love that. I don’t know if it’s helpful to our growth where the fallout lands, especially on social media.
It’s too far. It’s bringing people’s kids in it. I don’t like that. I sound like the old guy wagging his finger, but I think we can achieve the same thing, as far as sparring with music, with collaborations more so than breaking the whole thing apart. It could stand it before because there was no social media. You had the battle and it was fun and then you moved on. Right now, I don’t know if it could stand it with the technology that we have.
It takes up so much oxygen. It’s like trying to tear down people’s lives. I don’t know if it’s worth it at this point. I love the idea that we got so much music in such a short period of time. Just everything around it was like, “Man, this is taking us a couple steps back.” We’ve just grown so much that—I guess I’m going to say it—I don’t know if battling needs to be part of the culture anymore. We grew from breakdancing. We love graffiti. Before, the MC’s job was to bring attention to the DJ…. I want to hear what the rapper is saying.
Now the last pillar is battling, and these are all the things that come with it. I hate that I have this point of view on it. I do. Because I know what it sounds like. It’s just how I feel about it.
[“There is clearly an agenda to silence voices in our community, a heavy right wing agenda,” Jay said later in a text. “And the culture is happily playing along in the name of this insane thirst of Stan culture to have something on the other side. We are in a strange time. I’m curious as to how this plays out!”]
I chose the guy that was having a monster year. I think it was the right choice. What do I care about them two guys battling? What’s that got to do with me? Have at it. They drag everybody in it, like everyone’s part of this conspiracy to undermine Drake, I guess. But, it’s like, what the fuck? I’m fucking Jay-Z! [Laughs.] All due respect to him. I’m fucking Hov. Respectfully. It doesn’t make any sense. It couldn’t be that these guys just don’t like each other. I think this has been brewing, just like me and Nas was brewing. It didn’t happen at the Summer Jam—that happened with “Lex with TV sets, the minimum.” It was a whole bunch of stuff leading up to that point. I actually regret that because I really like Nas. He’s a really nice guy.
[Jay later told me: “I realize it’s a bit hypocritical because of how many battles I’ve been in, and given the nature of ‘Super Ugly.’ It takes growth to arrive at this place, because I’ve done the bullshit too!” ]
You had to pick a side?
Yeah, clearly. [Laughs.]
You’re like, “I want to hear it, but I ain’t supporting him.” I’m careful because I always hear that person talking about the new culture of folks. And I always was like, “Shut the fuck up. You had your time.” So I’m really careful to let people just do their thing.
Yeah, do your thing, man. I accept it all. I trust that you guys are going to take it in a proper direction.
Yeah, I hope so. We’re making corrections on the fly, but we have a lot of information, a lot of codes that we want to share. Things that took us 30 years to accomplish, hopefully take the next person 10, five. We’re embracing everything that’s new. That’s why we pretty much scaled back from a traditional label to a distribution model, because that’s what people need today. But you may not know what’s around the corner. We do. And that’s the value we add.
Yeah, and “We’re going to curate your career in this sort of way.” I never was comfortable with that anyway. An artist’s expression should be their expression. I really fall back. That’s what I think happened with [J.] Cole. The narrative is that we didn’t love Cole. No, we believed in him enough to let him find his journey. It took him a minute, but he found his way.
I was giving him a chance to take his talent and show it to the most people possible, but his way. I didn’t say, “Here’s this record from Stargate and you putting it out.” Like I forced Bleek to make “Memphis Bleek Is…”
Bleek is my little brother, he has to listen to me. But for J. Cole, he has to find his own direction and I’m going to give him the tools. Stargate made humongous records with Rihanna, Wiz Khalifa “Black and Yellow.” Biggest songs in the world. You don’t want to go sit with them? Fine.
I don’t have any negative feelings for him. I’m actually super proud of him and what he’s done.
[DJ] Clue sent it to me actually, not Cole. I’m a fan of hip-hop and this culture. I’m listening to it all. I play it all. I’m playing songs that most people haven’t heard of.
Your morality defines who you are. Your morality is not defined by a dollar amount. And if so, what is that dollar amount? When does it start? If it’s a cutoff like “all millionaires are bad,” at 999,000 I’m good? It can’t be that way. It doesn’t make any sense. I got successful the hard way, in spite of the way the system is set up. Everything was against me. My talent pushed against all the headwinds and I got successful that way. And with that success, I’ve done things with my reach that I wanted to do that was helpful for a lot of people.
And I think that’s most important—the things you believe in, the things you align with. Because a person with more money can do more good. It’s a choice. Again, we’re living in the real world. You can be realistic or idealistic. This is the system that we have. And with the system that we have, what are you going to do?
I got to give you the honest answer: There’s no tension. I don’t give a fuck what you say. [Laughs.] You can believe what you want to believe. And people behave the way they want to behave—it’s not a dollar amount. It’s almost like a cop-out. You get to demonize this group of folks without fixing the actual system that exists, that’s in play. [Money] may enhance it or may cause you to act in a way. But you was going to act like that anyway.
I don’t know yet. I don’t know. But I know that we have enough negativity currently. Forget the landscape of music. I don’t know what I need to create currently that’s going to fulfill me and make me happy because that’s most important. I know I just got to be honest about what I feel and where I am. Maybe I’m overthinking it. Maybe I’m stopping myself from just creating. Whatever it is, it just needs to be a true representation of how I feel. Trying to create something that people like is where I think a lot of artists get jammed up. And people can feel that because it’s not authentic. I just got to make something timeless that I really love and that’s really honest and true to who I am.
The next step is owning the building—No, you’re staying at my hotel. There’s always a next level as long as you’re alive. I think as long as you stay curious in life, no matter what it is, you’ll stay fed. As long as you stay curious, you won’t ever get stuck. If we stay curious, there’s always going to be another level.
This interview has been condensed and edited from a longer conversation, excerpts of which are featured in our cover video on GQ.com.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Photograph by Rashid Johnson
Styled by Mobolaji Dawodu and June Ambrose
Hair by Nakia Rachon
Skin by Hee Soo Kwon using Sauvage Serum
Tailoring by Yelena Travkina
Set design by Heath Mattioli
Produced by Camp Productions