Jay-Z’s upbringing in Brooklyn could be brutal at times, but, despite the hardships, he clearly holds the New York borough close to his heart.
Jay appeared on the Fresh Air show on NPR in 2010 to reflect on his early life growing up in Brooklyn, specifically in the Marcy Projects, a public housing project in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood. Describing his childhood environment, he said, “You have these three columns of buildings, with four people on each floor, six floors, you know. So you had people to the left of you, right of you, on top and on the bottom of you. It’s a very intense and stressful situation.”
This environment was something of a pressure cooker, with so many people all living within such a tight space. That could be a problem, but, on the other hand, it also led people to share really tight-knit relationships with each other…