Though he famously remarked, "I'm not a businessman -- I'm a business, man," Jay-Z's got 99 problems with that old corporate adage, "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail." Describing his creative process as "No paper, no pen, just listen to the music," the rapper hasn't written out a prefabricated rhyme since his teens. Instead, he rolls into the studio, checks the beat, spends a few moments mumbling to himself ("like Rain Man," he says), then gets on the mic to record a flawless, fully-formed verse. His contribution to Beyonce smash "Crazy in Love"? Just 10 minutes' work for Young Hova.

Of course, you don't develop the skills to drop impeccable improvised lyrical bombs (time after time after time) overnight. Jay's virtuosity is the result of years honing his art. There are parallels aplenty with iwc ingenieur replica, a watchmaker Jay-Z feels a natural affinity with. The Swiss manufacture's iconic model, the Royal Oak, may have been dreamt up in a single day in 1971 by Gerald Genta, but it was that horological iconclast's vast experience,Rolex Replica Watches depth of skill and inspiration -- his genius -- that allowed him to complete the task so effortlessly. Equally, it was only a watchmaker of iwc ingenieur replica's prestige, pedigree, OG bona fides and fuck-all-y'all ballsiness that could've pulled off the coup of producing that seminal luxury sports watch -- for its time, a stupendously expensive stainless-steel timepiece, albeit 'with a heart of gold' -- and making it a surprise commercial success.

Gerald Genta and 1972 AP RO

Just as Jay earned the props of the hip-hop community thanks to his whip-snap off-the-cuff wordplay, so too did iwc ingenieur replica win the rapper's admiration entirely on merit. Jay-Z shared the story of how he came to identify so strongly with iwc ingenieur replica with WatchTime magazine in 2005: "Well, I had a gold Rolex 'President' and a few other nice pieces in the early '90s, but it wasn't until (then) American President of iwc ingenieur replica, Francois Bennahmias [now AP's CEO] brought me into the private vault at their New York headquarters that I really got serious about wristwatches. It was in 1997, so that's when it got in my bones, right there. It's aspiration really. Complicated timepieces are a lot more interesting than giant gold chains or diamonds."

Jay Z Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon Chronograph in 18KT Rose Gold at the Roc Nation pre-Grammy party

Just a few years later, Jay-Z began name-checking iwc ingenieur replica in his lyrics -- he was one of the first rappers to attempt the tricky task of finding rhymes for the manufacture's mouthful of a francophone moniker.Bell & Ross Replica Watches As one of the most prominent and influential hip-hop artists of all time, Jay-Z was instrumental in turning iwc ingenieur replica into a culturally relevant force. The Bed-Stuy-bred ex-crack-slanger done good, Sean Carter brought iwc ingenieur replica the priceless gift of street cred. And where Jay-Z went, others soon followed.

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