Key Takeaways
- JAY-Z gave Memphis Bleek $1,000 and told him to stop hustling, offering a new path forward.
- The exchange happened in Marcy Houses, where Bleek was navigating survival and street life.
- Bleek later credited that moment as the beginning of his rap career and mentorship under JAY-Z.
Before Memphis Bleek became one of JAY-Z’s most loyal protégés, he nearly took a different path. On a recent episode of Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay,” the Brooklyn rapper reflected on a pivotal moment from his youth in the Marcy Houses when Hov literally threw his drug pack away and gave him the cash instead.
“I remember a day I was in the building actually thinking I was gon’ be Nino Brown. And JAY came through… He like, ‘Yo, what you doing?’ And I'm like, ‘You know, I'm [trying] to get money. I'm [trying] to be like y’all… You know, lights off in the crib. I gotta make sure mine is straight,’” Bleek recalled. “He like, ‘Let me see what you're working with.’ So, I show him my pack. Like, ‘Yeah. I'm getting money.’ He took it and threw it… So, I'm like, ‘Yo, bro, bro, I needed that… That was a thousand-dollar pack. I need it.’ And he was like, ‘Man, don’t be out here.’ He gave me a thousand dollars [from his] pocket, and he was like, ‘I better not catch you in the building selling drugs no more. You gotta better future than this.’ Straight up.”
Bleek added that although he and JAY-Z aren’t blood brothers, he was raised by Hov alongside Dame Dash, Biggs, Clark Kent, and his cousin Bee High. The intervention came at a time when Bleek idolized Nino Brown, the infamous drug lord from the 1991 hit film New Jack City.
The quiet generosity of JAY-Z
JAY-Z’s reputation for looking out for others extends far beyond his inner circle. As previously reported by REVOLT, Houston legend Scarface recently revealed that both JAY-Z and DJ Khaled “chucked me a lifeline” when he was battling COVID-19 and kidney failure. Tina Knowles has also praised her son-in-law’s generosity, saying, “People really have no idea what JAY-Z does on the regular to help others.”