Jay-Z Quotes

I don't see categories; I don't see styles - l see them all gelled together. And it was gospel that definitely helped me to do that.

I'm universal. As much as I can get out a 'Firework' with Katy, I can get a 'Lil Freak' out with Usher. Or a 'Lay It Down' with Lloyd. I can get Caribbean as I did on 'Rio,' then go from there to working with No Doubt.

When I got out of the Nazz, I had it in my mind that simply to be eclectic was an important aspect of making music. It was something that I derived from The Beatles.

Barriers have been broken: rappers are singing, and singers are rapping. You might catch a rapper on a rock song, a pop artist on a hip-hop song - there are so many different things that are going on today. That is the same way in which we live our lives; we're all over the place. I like to try different things.

I never thought that I would be creating my own 'cross-over' genre. What I did was very real and organic. I have worked in so many different styles so it all just came together.

I like the idea of an eclectic approach, incorporating jazz with other forms and other genres of music.

Back then we were young, we would just mash all forms of music together and come up with something.

Performing with Thomas Rhett our song 'Craving You,' I'm so excited for the fans to see it and sort of see our worlds come together because I feel like he's sort of a genre pusher and boundary pusher, and I feel the same way about my music.

Swavey is a musical genre that I came up with to describe artists who are too talented to stay in a box with their music.

Clarinet is often associated with certain genres, like swing or folk music. I combine the old and new, using the clarinet as an expressive tool and not in one genre. I'm just happy that people are drawn to what I do.

A lot of Arabic composers such as Mohammed Abdel Wahab mixed sounds and instruments from all over the world. It's important to be able to propose new ways and new sounds without being stigmatised, censored or put aside.

That's kinda what happened to me: I listened to jazz, country, R&B, rock 'n' roll. And when I sat down to write a song, I had all these influences comin' through.

The global view of cultures is part of my nature. I want to break down the walls between genres, categories, or cultures.

Swavey, it puts more than one genre of music together. That's the approach I have with all music I do.

My musical selections are a reflection of how I grew up. Because, back then, you could see Miles Davis and Ravi Shankar on the same stage. And nobody thought anything of it, other than the fact that it was great music.

I've worked with jazz artists, country artists, classical artists, pop artists. I never wanted there to be categories, because when I was a kid there weren't.

Do not be precious about your music within your own world. Try everything you want to try; just because it exists doesn't mean it's done.

I don't want to ever be categorized. I want to be able to hit every genre.

I worked with different producers from all genres, trying to bridge different styles of music, from urban to electronica to ballads.

I keep my hip-hop as hip-hop, my R&B as R&B and my pop as pop. The ability to cross those boundaries and do all these things effectively is not commonly done.

I don't have a genre because I play lots of different music that people would say are different genres.

I don't want to put a name on my music. Other people can put a name on what I do. It's just the union of what I've been listening to and what I've been learning. It has some elements of classical music, it has some rock, it has some jazz, but I don't want to give it a name.

As an artist, I would never let myself get boxed in. I'm a human being, too, and like most humans, I have interest in many different types of music.

The beauty of jazz is that it can accommodate all styles. You can take jazz and put rock in it, and it's still jazz.

I've been criticized for doing so - crossover music. But I never claimed to be a pure dancehall artist.