The Beatles - my 1st song

JAY-Z는 자신의 과거와 고난을 이야기하며, 끈질기게 꿈을 쫓아 결국 정상에 올랐다고 밝힌다
그의 노래는 개인적인 경험과 감정을 그대로 담고 있으며, 그가 겪은 기쁨과 슬픔이 모두 음악의 원천이라는 메시지를 전한다

Y'all wanna know why he don't stop?
Y'all wanna know why he don't flop?
Let me tell you pe-people why
Came from the bottom of the block I
When I was born, it was sworn, I was never gon' be shit
Had to pull the opposite out this bitch
Had to get my ri-ide on
Eyes on the prize, Shawn knew I had to
Had to had to get these chips
Had to make moves like Olajuwon
Started out selling dimes and nicks
Graduated to a brick
No exaggeration, my infatuation with the strip
Legendary like a schoolboy
Crushin' merely nearly every every chick
Heavy shit – that's how schoolboy got whipped
And got left on some Just Me, Myself and I
On some Trugoy shit
Had to voyage to a place of, to a place of no return
Had to play with fire and get burned
Only way the boy ever gon' learn
Had to lay way in the cut, 'til I finally got my turn
Now I'm on top in the spot that I earned
It's my life, it's my pain and my struggle
The songs that I sing to you is my everything
Treat my first like my last, and my last like my first
And my thirst is the same as when I came
It's my joy and my tears
And the laughter it brings to me, it's my everything