Music: Jay-Z -- Back to Brooklyn

NEW YORK -

'See, that's Fort Greene right there, the projects, and I went to school right here -- this is George Westinghouse," says Jay-Z, looking through the window of his gray Rolls-Royce as it chauffeurs him into his past.

"Marcy Projects is about five minutes straight down," he says, pointing toward the housing development where he once lived. "See that? That's one thing I liked about going to school here," he adds with a smile, indicating a road sign that reads "Jay St."

Jay-Z, 37, doesn't return often to the Brooklyn neighborhood where he grew up as Shawn Corey Carter. Stardom and wealth have taken him away to a Manhattan home and the globe-trotting life of a hip-hop star and record executive.

It's his role as a recording artist that has brought him back on a warm fall day, to rehearse for a taping of "VH1 Storytellers" on a soundstage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. As the car inches past the courts where he used to play basketball and the corners where he once sold drugs, he finds that his emotions are stirred.

"Yeah, man, it's the place that made me," he says softly.

As it happens, Jay-Z's homecoming parallels the artistic journey he made on his new No. 1 album, "American Gangster," inspired by the Denzel Washington movie of the same name.

"It connected with me on an emotional level," said the rapper, who completed the collection in a typically fast three weeks. "It was so similar to the neighborhoods that I came up in, and things that happened there. And Denzel's character, as well ... you know, his laid-back persona, that's pretty much how I am.

"It's really about the emotions of that life. I would take an emotion that I felt was important, or things that resonated with me ... and make a song. But none of the emotions are current emotions. I mean, success is, because that's the thing that I've dealt with, but none of the songs are currently how I feel now. ... It's like writing a book, going back to all these things, these emotions that I thought were buried."

Settled into the back seat, he opens a takeout container of salad. He seems relaxed as he eats his late lunch and talks about his passion: hip-hop.

"I think the reason I've been able to have such a long career and still garner the kind of attention I can right now is because there's truth there. People relate to that. And whether the truth is about an island in St. Tropez or is about Marcy Projects, it doesn't matter, as long as it's the truth."

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What he sees on the New York streets is a vibrant culture that's been moving to the rhythms and imagery of hip-hop for nearly three decades. That reign is now being questioned, as the genre's CD sales have fallen even more sharply than those of pop music overall, and the bold artistry that made it a significant force seems in short supply.

"It's just the way of the world," Jay-Z says of the sales decline. "Our fans are younger, so our fans live on computers. Other genres still have an adult audience, and as adults we're not stealing music off the Internet. We'll pay for the convenience of not having to wait for it to download, right? ... I think the consumption of hip-hop is the same, if not higher. It's just not happening with sales."

He seems amused when asked what kind of kid he was, and when he smiles, his round features give him the look of a little boy.

"I was a great kid. Very happy, a little shy. A reserved and even-keel kid. ... I'm still even-keel for the most part, but I didn't like being shy at all. So I told myself I didn't like being shy. ... I like saying what's on my mind."

That personality adjustment led to trouble, though. Soon he was out on these street corners selling drugs to customers who pulled up in their cars. "It's just how you grow up and the things that you see," he says. "For the most part, growing up where I grew up you don't see doctors and lawyers walking around. There's no one to emulate but drug dealers. They're the only successful people in the neighborhood."

• • •

The car comes to a halt in the Navy Yard, now a busy business complex. Dressed casually in loose jeans, white Nikes and a black "Crooks From Hell" T-shirt, Jay-Z has a hug or a friendly fist-tap for crew members as his band warms up, but along with the easygoing approachability is an unmistakable air of stardom.

He's accustomed to it after a decade of popularity, an unusually long run in the hip-hop world. But last year's comeback album "Kingdom Come" was the lowest-selling and worst-reviewed of his career. You get the feeling he wouldn't mind making a point as he gets ready to run through the seven new songs he'll perform on "Storytellers."

Sliding his rap easily into the soul groove of "Pray," he sounds commanding as he delivers the album's first full song, spoken by a young man preparing to enter the game.

"Everywhere there's oppression the drug profession flourishes like beverages," he raps with his distinctive force and fluidity. "Refreshing sweet taste of sin/ Everything I seen made me everything I am."