Jay Z: 'My drug dealing past taught me good business skills'

JAY Z has opened up about his notorious history with drugs, crediting his dealing past as the reason for his multi-million dollar success.

Jay Z opened up recently to Vanity Fair about his history as a drug dealer. Picture: Splash News

JAY Z has revealed he learnt his business skills during his early years as a drug dealer.

The rapper and business mogul grew up in Brooklyn surrounded by gangs in his neighbourhood and has previously admitted he had dealt drugs by the time he was 13.

The 43-year-old has now spoken about how his early life impacted his multi-million dollar music business.

"I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer," he told Vanity Fair magazine.

"To be in a drug deal, you need to know what you can spend, what you need to re-up."

Jay Z, real name Shawn Carter, says he knew it wasn't the path he wanted to take but never expected to make it so big in the music industry.

"If you want to start some sort of barbershop or carwash - those were the businesses back then," he explained to the publication's November issue.

"Things you can get in easily to get out of [that] life.

"You have to have an exit strategy, because your window [for dealing drugs] is very small. You're going to get locked up or you're going to die."

Looking back, one-half of Forbes' highest-earning celebrity couple can't believe he became caught up in drugs and is upset to think he had a hand in peddling illicit substances.

"Not until later, when I realised the effects on the community. I started looking at the community on the whole, but in the beginning, no," he admitted.

"I was thinking about surviving. I was thinking about improving my situation. I was thinking about buying clothes."

Earlier this year, the rapper founded his very own sports agency, Roc Nation Sports, which already boasts a number of high-profile athletes.

Jay Z married pop star Beyoncé Knowles in 2008 and the pair share 20-month-old daughter Blue Ivy.

He revealed Blue Ivy has become his biggest fan after hearing his latest album Magna Carta ... Holy Grail.

"She loves all the songs. She plays a song and she goes, 'More, Daddy, more ... Daddy song.' She's my biggest fan", he said.

"If no one bought the Magna Carta [album], the fact that she loves it so much, it gives me the greatest joy."

Proud mum Beyonce shows off Blue Ivy in her documentary Life Is But A Dream. Picture: Supplied

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