If you know me you know Jay-z is my favorite writer, entrepreneur, rapper. He’s just my favorite!

I didn’t even know Oprah had a Podcast but I logged into twitter and saw a sponsored ad all I searched and listened. I so glad I did this episode moved me to tears this morning. It was packed with so much inspirational and motivational content. I was so deeply connected to the content.

The July 18th episode is so just motivational! Jay-z talks about his beginnings. He speaks about his writing; he wrote his raps to motivate his 10 friends he grew up with. He wasn’t writing to move the masses. (Jay-Z also mentions the word niche 90 times so I had to blog about it😂😂) Jay stated “I would write about what happened to us the week before and rap to them and they would be like “Yo that’s exactly what I felt!” That who I was writing to” Jay went on to explain how his failures really motivated his success. After the moderate success of his first album Reasonable Doubt (Which is a FREAKIN CLASSSICCCC!) Jay decided to change the direction of his sound in order to capture mainstream success. He failed. He said that failure taught him to remain true to himself and always speak his truth, not necessarily write to be popular or successful. From that lesson he went on to write

Hard Knock life a gritty street anthem about Jay’s life and what he LIVED🙌🏾 I was moved tears about this entire podcast because I’m on my life journey at this moment this blog is my truth. I’ve learned to make a living from telling my truth and that to me is success. The podcast episode goes deeper Jay z speaks about his fathers abandoning him at 11 and how his father’s death emotionally stunted him until the age of 36! I’ve dealt with grief at the same age. I lost my mother at 11 in 1996 when Jay-Z first album was released and I connected with him because I felt that pain at that time. No I never sold any drugs, I’m not from Marcy projects but I too had pain. I felt abandoned, I felt alone and when I rapped along to Jay I felt those words. I grew up with Jay, like everyone who loves hip-hop they have a Jay album they really did it for them. For me it was The Black Album

I had my first car and “99 Problems” made me feel like a boss when I came around the corner. I remember picking up my brother and we just went line for line in the car. Another favorite song almost an anthem for me is “so ambitious” the lyrics just speak to me

“I felt so inspired by what my teacher said,

Said I’d either be dead or be a reefer head,

Not sure if thats how adults should speak ta kids,

Especially when the only thing I did was speak in class,

I teach his ass”

I felt what he said on a spiritual level. I’ve been there. I’ve felt. I’ve felt having someone look you in the eye and tell you “you can’t do that.” I love to prove them wrong. I still play the black album and all Jay-z when I’m writing. If you’ve traveled in my car you’ve been Jay’d to death in my car. I just love the man. People hold the fact he sold drugs against him. I was go-go dancer and I modeled at car shows to pay bills when my oldest was first born and I regret nothing in fact I’m proud of it. I had bills worked 3 jobs and went to nursing school so we could have our own apartment. I’m not scared of hard work.I’m not afraid to hustle because Jay-Z made me feel like I could do it. Every album evolved and made you feel excellent just reciting the lyrics to yourself. Jay reveals in the podcast that on the Black album he was conveying to his audience that it’s okay to be a multifaceted individual. He was a rapper, owned a record label but desired corporate success (which is why he bought def jam and spoke about it heavily on his record. ) What I Love about Jay and this podcast episode was it spoke about speaking to your audience and being true to yourself. I started writing to talk to mom group friends and my Facebook friends🤷🏾‍♀️ those are my people. Success isn’t measured monetarily. Money is great and I’m blessed to be able to say that I make money writing. I make money as blogger but the success to me is having views, shared, comments, likes. Success to me is this speaking your truth and inspiring others to do the same. I inspired a someone to start a blog an awesome blog a blog for female entrepreneurs to me that’s success. You have to be mindful of what you feel success is. Money comes and goes and it’s an indicator of success in my opinion. I’ve worked for millionaires, I’ve cleaned their wounds and drained their tubes, bandaged their chest and changed their lipo garments. In doing so I learned. Money doesn’t make you a better person. I can give you a better life but you’re still human and you’re still gonna need someone to care for you. Anyways that’s my thoughts for Thursday I have to clock in now 🙌🏾🥂🤘🏾