HomeENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Turning to your own nominations, you got five overall — three for ''Umbrella'' with Rihanna, two for your own work.
JAY-Z: I mean, that's great. It was unexpected. I knew ''Umbrella'' would get a lot of nominations, [but] I didn't know the total would be five altogether. It's a fantastic thing to still be getting those type of nominations, every year. I'm never jaded about the whole thing.
You've talked to me before about how Kingdom Come might not have been what some people wanted to hear, might have gone over some people's heads. Is it vindicating for you to see the album recognized come Grammy time?
I've always known — and I still know this to be true — that it would be an album that would be appreciated over time. I absolutely believe that. And I don't think this is the vindication. I think there's more to follow in the years to come, when people start discovering the records that's on this album.
Now that the nomination phase is done, what's your next step as a label head? Do you start lobbying Academy members to get to those wins?
[Laughs] Nah. For me, I'm gonna sit back and hope that this whole process works the way it's supposed to work: The best records, without lobbying, get the wins. And I believe that we have pretty good records in the category.
So I gotta ask you: It's December now. How are you feeling about your contract at Def Jam? That's coming up soon.
You know, it's active. We'll see how it turns out. I mean, we're close. So we'll know in the next couple of weeks how it turns out.
The New York Daily News said last week that talks were stalling because you made some big demands. Is there any truth to that?
No.
So from your perspective, do you think you'll be at Def Jam next year?
Yeah, I think — I don't know. Let me not even say that. I don't know. We'll see how it goes. But seriously, it's not about money. That's really the last thing. Of course, as a person that does these type of things and puts his heart and soul into it — and it's effective, as the Grammys would indicate — you want to be compensated for what you do. But it's really not about money. It's really about the future of the music business, and not wasting anyone's time. I don't ever want to sit in a seat just to sit in a seat. I could be off doing something else that's beneficial to the future of the music business as well as myself. So it's not about money! I mean, you couldn't pay me enough. And I don't mean that in a cocky way.
Does something like these Grammy nominations change that equation for you at all? Does that make you excited about staying in this position?
Nah. I always knew what we were doing. Even if the outside world didn't know what we were doing, I knew the plan was to make great music and we'll get through all adversities, all the trouble of the music business, with great music. 'Cause great music gon' win at the end of the day. Not gimmicks, not fads. Just great music.
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