(AllHipHop News) In a music career that spans three decades, Jay Z has many memorable lines with a lot of braggadocious declarations. One of Jigga’s claims that has been challenged, dissected, and defended for nearly 15 years is the “92 bricks” bar off “Never Change.”
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Jay raps on The Blueprint cut:
Lost 92 bricks had to fall back. Knocked a n-gga off his feet, but I crawled back. Had A-1 credit, got more crack. From the first to the fifth, gave it all back. If, I’m not a hustler what you call that? This is before rap, this is all fact.
But was it all fact? Complex caught up with fellow Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Kareem “Biggs” Burke to get his take on Jay’s famous lyrics.
“I’m not sure. You know what Jay says, ‘Believe half of what you see, none of what you hear, even if it’s spat by me.’ [laughs],” said Biggs. “Back then it was another life, so he raps about certain things, but it’s not to be glorified. It’s about telling a story about what happens in the hood everyday.”
Biggs also addressed another question that has been circulating the internet for years. Did the Roc fall apart because of internal conflict? According to Biggs, the plan from the beginning was always to sell the company at some point.
“Once we did the deal with Def Jam the plan was to build to sell. There was a formula put in and it was a certain number times net, and probably the only regret was it should’ve been times gross but they weren’t doing any deals like that,” he explained. “We wanted to sell in 2002 but we were having so much success they extended the deal for another three years. They didn’t think Jay was going to last this long.”
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