This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. Today we conclude our hip-hop history series and

featured the interview I recorded in 2010 with rapper and music entrepreneur Jay-Z. Jay-Z grew

up as Sean Carter in a housing project in Brooklyn, and in the 1980s he watched as crack

cocaine destroyed his neighborhood. He even sold crack for a time to support his family

before he found a new identity in the recording studio and onstage. He's often regarded

as one of the greatest and most successful rappers of all time. He's won 24 Grammys, holds

the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200, and in

2017 he became the first rapper to be inducted into the songwriter's hall of fame. For the

past few years he's recorded infrequently, but in 2018 he made an album with his wife

Beyonce called Everything Is Love. He's also a successful entrepreneur. He's the founder

and chair of the entertainment company Rock Nation, the former president of Def Jam Records,

and in 2019 he became hip-hop's first billionaire. Jay-Z has also been central to the commercial

success of other artists including Rihanna and Kanye West. When I spoke with Jay-Z in 2010

he just published his book Decoded in which he tells the stories behind 36 of his songs.

We talked about his early life in Brooklyn, his pivot from being a hustler to a rapper,

how he writes and remembers his lyrics, and how he got the rights to sample hard-knock

life from the musical Annie. But first let's start with a story about Jay-Z, told by

Westlove co-founder of the Roots, which became famous as a hip-hop band and has been the

Tennitro band ever since Jimmy Fallon became the host. He's also famous as a DJ and for

his immense record collection. In 2021, Westlove told me about the crazy circumstances

in which he first listened to Jay-Z's album The Blueprint. The album was released on 9-11.

That morning, Westlove was staying in a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. He slept late and

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