Hip hop superstar 'Jay-Z' on CNN’S Talk Asia

MUMBAI:Superstar rapper and music mogul Jay-Z tells the story of his remarkable rise from street hustler to one of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs in this weekend’s TALK ASIA.

The multi-millionaire and five-time Grammy winner is known for his hard-hitting and streetwise rhymes and remains unapologetic about the ‘vulgar lyrics’ which saw him banned from China earlier this year. "The Rolling Stones had to take like five songs out. So, I’m in good company! I don’t feel so bad, I feel like a rock n roll star! It’s an honor to be next to the Rolling Stones.”

With a business empire that encompasses his own musical comeback, his leadership of the influential Def Jam records and his recent association with the New Jersey Nets basketball team, he tells Anjali Rao how the worlds of sport, music and business are intricately linked. “My passion is music, and music influences cultures, influences lifestyle…It’s really all one field…it all comes from the music. All ball players want to be rappers and rappers want to be ball players. That’s just how it is!”

Jay-Z also recalls the harsh realities of everyday life growing up in New York’s notorious Marcy Houses, his time spent as a street hustler where he was a self-proclaimed ‘ghetto celebrity’ and his recent and much publicized fallout with the makers of Cristal champagne, formerly the star’s drink of choice.

As for his relationship with fellow music superstar Beyonce, he explains his reluctance to talk about it, saying “You put so much out there, so much of yourself into your music, you need some type of refuge…you’ve got to have some part of yourself you just don’t talk about.”