A Quote by Jay-Z

When I listen to great music, the first thing I wonder is what people were saying when this came out of the speakers in the studio. I want to know what happened when they played it and said, "This is the one!"
Music as background to me becomes like a mosquito, an insect. In the studio we have big speakers, and to me that's the way music should be listened to. When I listen to music, I want to just listen to music.
I'm always intrigued by people that listen to my music, I just naturally want to get to know people who listen to my music because people who end up having such an attachment with my stuff, I wonder why they have such a connection to something that's so personal to me in the first place.
Tom Stafford was an odd character, you know - a brilliant guy. He looked weird and I think he took a really defensive attitude about being a hunchback. You know how people can be, giving him a hard time. So he turned that into a defensive mechanism. He would strike first, a lot of times. But he was a great guy, and really those talks we had when I was about 15, out of all of that came the studio over the drugstore and everything else. I'm not saying - I'm no big deal, but I was a part of the birth of the music there.
Growing up, my grandmother did not want worldly music in the house. Then when I went out to California, I started listening to Spanish music, mostly Mexican music. But were I in Egypt, I would listen to the music of the people, or if I was in Italy, I'd listen to Italian music.
All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.
At first, my love was just to be in the studio and make the music and enjoy it when I hear it played back, but then the biggest thing for me was to see the response of the people. When you go out and see the energy in the crowd, it's incredible.
I think because "Dollhouse" was the first story that I put out. It was the first thing that people were able to listen to and find the aesthetic of my music, so I figured we could use that as a title.
All music done, as I said, through low res mp3 and $5 earbuds and so I think as a producer or a band you want your music to sound good in that medium. Sometimes when I'm doing a mix I'll listen to it on my laptop, on the crappy speakers on my laptop. It lets me know what the tracks gonna sound like if someone else listens to it that way.
Even though you don't understand what I'm saying, you are going to really feel it. The same thing happened to me when I used to listen to English music. I didn't even understand one word. You know? But it just makes me feel great.
I listen to nothing or classical music just because after being in the studio for twelve hours, the last thing you want to do is listen to anything.
I have a big barn that I converted to my music studio, so I go there early in the morning and the first thing I do is rowing. And that's when I listen to a lot of music.
Obviously I know if you're putting yourself out there, saying, 'Hey! Listen to my music!,' with pictures of yourself in the magazines, then people are going to judge you. 'I hate her music. I hate her hair. I hate her production. I hate her videos.' Fine: don't care. That's the great thing about art: it's not for everyone.
I'm always blowing the speakers out in studios, like, there's smoke coming out of them. I found out that I'm not built for studio monitors. I record and mix down everything in the headphones and then I bring it to the speakers.
We happened to be in the studio next door and I think Noel Redding came around and said, 'Do you fancy having a sing on this?' We just went and did it and it was great.
I want to take it really far in Spanish; even non-Spanish speakers listen to my music across the world. Even though they don't know what I'm saying, they really feel it. We want to take it to another level and keep building our name. We want to take it really far just in Spanish.
I'd have to say that "Mr. Crowley" in my most memorable solo... I had spent hours trying to figure out a solo for the song ... Ozzy came in and said "it's crap - everything you're playing is crap" .. he told me to get in there and just play how I felt. He made me really nervous, so I just played anything. When I came back to listen to it, he said it was great.
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