@oursoundstash: There are choices people make that cost them an entire version of themselves. Jay-Z tells Rick Rubin plainly that no one has ever successfully lived as both an entertainer and a street guy, and that everyone who tried ended up in serious trouble. At twenty-six, walking away meant giving up twenty-six years of believing himself to be a certain kind of person. He admits it was hard to let go of a reputation that, in that life, had meant everything. For JAY-Z, leaving the street life was not a single decision but a full separation from who he had been. #JayZ #HipHop #Rap #NewYork #Brooklyn