Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing that truth can be a very powerful thing.
Jay-ZRead
People really feel like music is free but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap, and it's good water. But they're OK paying for it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the contradiction of valuing music less than basic necessities like water, despite both being readily accessible.
Jay-Z's quote reflects on society's perception of music as a consumable art form that is often taken for granted, unlike essential resources such as water. It emphasizes the irony of people willing to pay for something that is essentially free at its source, while underestimating the value of creativity and artistic expression present in music.
Themes
MusicValuePerceptionArtSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the music industry's dynamics during a seminar.
More from Jay-Z
All quotes →The most amazing feeling I feel_x000D_ _x000D_ Words can't describe what I'm feeling for real _x000D_ _x000D_ Maybe I paint the sky blue _x000D_ _x000D_ My greatest creation was you.
Jay-ZRead
Far from a Harvard student, just had the balls to do it
Jay-ZRead
I never ask for nothin' I don't demand of myself. Honesty, loyalty, friends and then wealth
Jay-ZRead
It was a very intense and stressful situation. There was playing in the Johnny-pump (an opened fire hydrant) and the ice-cream man coming around and all of these games that we'd play, and suddenly it would turn just violent and there would be shootings at 12 in the afternoon on any given day.
Jay-ZRead
I would run into the corner store, the bodega, and just grab a paper bag or buy juice - anything just to get a paper bag. And I'd write the words on the paper bag and stuff these ideas in my pocket until I got back. Then I would transfer them into the notebook.
Jay-ZRead
Similar quotes
I am writing for myself and strangers. This is the only way that I can do it.
Gertrude SteinRead
I hate outlines. I have a broad sense of where the story is going; I know the end, I know the end of the principal characters, and I know the major turning points and events from the books, the climaxes for each book, but I don't necessarily know each twist and turn along the way. That's something I discover in the course of writing and that's what makes writing enjoyable. I think if I outlined comprehensively and stuck to the outline the actual writing would be boring.
George R. R. MartinRead
It's going to take a while before we see a real shift in the students and the dancers that are going into professional companies because it takes so many years of training, but I do think that there's a new crop of dancers, of minority dancers that are entering into the ballet world.
Misty CopelandRead
The eyes of a poet discover in each person a unique and irreplaceable humanity. While arrogant intellect seeks to control and manipulate the world, the poetic spirit bows with reverence before its mysteries.
Daisaku IkedaRead
I write plays not to make money, but to stop myself from going mad. Because it's my way of making the world rational to me.
Edward BondRead
Some poems present themselves as cliffs that need to be climbed. Others are so defensive that when you approach their enclosure you half expect to be met by a snarling dog at the gate. Still others want to smother you with their sticky charms.
Stanley KunitzRead