"If the beat is time, flow is what we do with that time, how we live through it. The beat is everywhere, but every life has to find its own flow."
This quote gives the reader an in depth look at how music resonates with Jay-Z, and references the experience of finding rap music in everyday life.
"I love metaphors, and for me hustling is the ultimate metaphor for the basic human struggles -- the struggle to survive and resist, the struggle to win and make sense of it all."
Throughout the book, Jay-Z references poetry and its importance in life and rap and his passion for it. Relating poetry further back to his childhood, where he very much lived the hustler lifestyle, is a testament to how deeply his upbringing has effected his life and music thus far. He gives the reader, who might not understand the lifestyle he had in the projects and selling drugs, a simple way to relate to him.
"Rap, as I said at the beginning of the book, is at heart an art form that gave voice to a specific experience, but, like every art, is ultimately about the most common human experiences: joy, pain, fear, desire, uncertainty, hope, anger."
Here as elsewhere, Jay-Z is explaining the deeper meaning of rap music and the versatility that allows it to be a universal experience. Though it might originate in certain experiences, the message is relative to every walk of life and means more than the lyrics might seem at face value.
