Jay-Z Talks Past Days Selling Crack, Advises Dealers To 'Have An Exit Strategy'
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Oct. 1 2013, Published 12:25 p.m. ET
Before he was rubbing shoulders with the President at the inauguration, Jay-Z was selling crack cocaine in Brooklyn, a place the hip-hopper boasts as a training ground where he learned the art of business.
“I know about budgets: I was a drug dealer," the "99 Problems" singer tells November Vanity Fair. "To be in a drug deal, you need to know what you can spend, what you need to re-up.”
The 43-year-old hubby of Beyonce said he knew the dangerous drug gig was a short-term deal, stressing, “You have to have an exit strategy, because your window is very small …
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"You’re going to get locked up or you’re going to die.”
The "Empire State of Mind" rapper -- whose estimated net worth is about $475 million, Forbes reports -- said he now regrets his one-time trade seeing "the effects on the community" it had during New York's crack epidemic of the 80s.