Vanity Fair Magazine - Jay Z: "Drug Dealing Was My Job Experience" (INTERVIEW)

Jay Z meets the criticism of his drug-dealing past head on in a cover story for Vanity Fair Magazine.

Bragging about his business exploits in the November 2013 issue, the 43-year-old rapper said, “To be in a drug deal, you need to know what you can spend, what you need to re-up.”

Jay Z also boasted about helping his pal President Obama to balance the budget, “I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer.”

Anticipating the backlash from parent groups, Jay Z admitted that the most important plan any drug dealer can make is how to get out of the business.

“You have to have an exit strategy, because your window [for dealing drugs] is very small,” Jay?Z said. “You’re going to get locked up or you’re going to die.”

In an interview with JET magazine, singer Chris Brown questioned his critics for disrespecting him while giving Jay Z a pass.

“No disrespect, because I’m a fan, but nobody brings up the fact that he stabbed somebody and sold drugs,” Brown said, referring to Jay Z pleading guilty to stabbing record producer Lance “Un” Rivera in 1999.

Looking back, Jay Z said he regrets having played a role in the city’s 1980s crack epidemic. He admitted that, at the time, he was thinking only about the money.

“Not until later, when I realized the effects on the community. I started looking at the community on the whole, but in the beginning, no,” he said.

“I was thinking about surviving. I was thinking about improving my situation. I was thinking about buying clothes.”
From his beginnings in Bed-Stuy’s Marcy Houses, Jay Z has gone on to become one of hip-hop’s biggest names — not to mention the hubby of one of pop’s hottest singers, Beyoncé.

He raked in $42 million in the past year, adding to a net worth of about $475 million, according to Forbes.