15 Songs on How Jay-Z Is A Spiritual Guru Part 8

13. Reminder

Summary of Principles:

If people are becoming complacent, stagnating, and not feeling the creativity, perhaps they need a shock, a wake-up call, a reminder? Something like an unprecedented 11th Number One Album?

All rhymers with Alzheimers line up please,
All mommies with mind freeze please line up please,
All bloggers with comments,
Please I come in peace,
See if we can kill your amnesia by the time I leave,
All mommies I harbour for vouch for me,
Tell em bout the time on your mommas couch mommy
All hustlas who ever bought an eighth from me,
Take the time out to set the record straight for me,
Remember me, silver-bullet hard-top mentally
They think think I’m outta shape so I have to jog their memory,
Think with indelible ink, I let the pen go,
Verses permanently tattooed serve as mementos,
This is a reference to the fact that Jay-Z has written so many words and rhymes in his life, that as his craft evolved he found it annoying to keep writing, so he adapted and developed a memory capable of remembering multiple inspired songs (or even albums?) until he get’s to a recording studio.
Ah, I’m so mental, my track record speaks for itself,
Im so instrumental,

Allow me to rekindle lets all reminisce like Mary did,
Think I have to send you a reminder,
Here it is,

[Chorus]
Reminder
Reminder,
I got it if you need it,
A reminder
Reminder
Reminder,
Think I better give you a reminder,
Reminder
Reminder,
I got it if you need it,
A reminder
Reminder
Reminder,
Cos I can give you a friendly reminder,

Ah,
What the hell have you done,
To even have an opinion on what I been doing,
What the hell have y’all won,
Only thing you can identify with is losing,
Many people focus continually on the ’bad’ things that happen, and their poor luck, so much that they feel they have nothing to contribute to society in conversation or otherwise, without the drama of being a victim.
10 number 1 albums in a row,
Who better than me?
Only the Beatles nobody ahead of me,
I crush Elvis in his blue suede shoes,
This is an awesome line, visualizing, expecting, and predicting that Blueprint 3 will be a number one album.
Made the rolling stones seem sweet as coolaid 2,
96, 97, 98, 99, 2000, 2001 and beyond,
02, 03, 04, 05, 06 and 7, 08, 09
Back to back double plat, I did what you want,
Men lie women lie, numbers don’t,
Ain’t nothing changed for me except the year it is,
I think have to send you a reminder, here it is

[Chorus]
Reminder
Reminder,
I got it if you need it,
A reminder
Reminder
Reminder,
Think I better give you a reminder,
Reminder
Reminder,
I got it if you need it,
A reminder
Reminder
Reminder,
Cos I can give you a friendly reminder,

Write 16’s in between running 16 businesses,
All the while showing these young punks what the business is,
Jay is clearly comfortable managing many projects and businesses, and accomplishing much. A highly recommended attitude

[Chorus]

14. So Ambitious

Summary of Principles:

Often known for appreciating the tragedies of life, Jay-Z sings about the many people close to him and not-so-close who viewed him as a drug-running thug, who’d amount to nothing. Interestingly he spring-boarded from that environment of zero support and is now perceived to have done more for hip-hop than practically any other artist of our time.

[Pharrell]
Yeah 3 in the morning on the Westside highway, top down baby,
Fuck y’all

[Jay-Z]
This a special dedication,
I wanna thank you for the fuel,
No really thank you,Similar to ’Hate’, Jay-Z shows genuine love and passion for the inspiring negative-talk he faces in life.

I felt so inspired by what my teacher said,
Said I’d either be dead or be a reefer head,
Not sure if thats how adults should speak ta kids,
Especially when the only thing I did was speak in class,
I teach his ass,
Even better’s what my uncle did,
I pop my demo tape in start to beat my head,
Peaked out my eye, see if he was beating his,
He might as well say beat it kid, he’s on the list,
Its like Im searching for kicks like a sneaker head,
He gon’ keep pushing me until I reach the ledge,
And when I reach the ledge I’ll tell ’em all to eat a dick,
Take a leap of faith and let my eagle wings spread,
Spread spread.Feels like a description of a Dark Night of The Soul, which inspires a person to really launch their vision and fly.

[Pharrell - Chorus]
Motivation for me was them telling me what I could not be,
Oh well,
I’m so ambitious,
I might hit two sisters,
Hey I’m on a mission
No matter what the conditions,
Forget the personal issues
When you been what I been through,
Hey if you believe it,
Then you could conceive it.Pure universal law.

[Jay-Z]
I had to lace up my boots even harder,
Father is too far away to father,
Further- more of the kids either smoke reefer,
Or either move white, there’s few writers in my cipher,
Where he grew up there were very few people who succeeded in any industry other than drugs.
So they made light of my type a dreams seemed dumb
They said wise up, how many guys a you see making it from here,
The world don’t like us, is that not clear, alright,
So Jay-Z was mocked whenever he wanted to share his dreams/vision, or people would listen without really listening.
But I’m different, I can’t base what I’m gonna be off a what everybody isn’t,
They don’t listen, just whispering behind my back,
No vision, lack of ambition,
So wack!Jay-Z notes that not following his own vision or purpose simply because others are talking or hating is not cool, and their negativity is simply a demonstration of their own inability to support another person’s passion and a sign of their lack of ambition.

[Chorus]

[Jay-Z]
Had a couple of meetings no offers yet,
Maybe I ain’t good enough for these offices,
Back to the drawing board ducking officers,
It’s all good cos the streets is A&R’ing this,
So with or without any of your involvement,
Coming for all of this, respect my conglomerate,
I went from pauper to the President,
Every deal I ever made set precedent,
Niggas thought I’d fall without old buddy,
Oh buddy, what I do is make more money,
Dear Teacher, your probably somewhere near a speaker,
I’m balling outta control, can you hear my sneakers,
Fuck y’all,Once again Jay references his rough youth and appreciates his own success. The buddy he mentions may be Damon Dash, an ex-partner of Jay-Z, and though they’ve gone separate ways, Jay-Z has continued to succeed even more than before.

[Chorus]