Jay-Z Prepares To Open 40/40 Sports Bar

The New York Daily News spoke with Jay-Z as he prepares to open the 40/40 Sports Bar tonight, a $4 million, high-tech, low-decibel, 8,000-square-foot luxury lounge on 25th St. just off Madison Square Park. Jay owns the place together with Juan Perez, the former minor-league baseball player, Rucker League coach and founder of Roc-A-Fella Records’ Baseline Studios, and nightclub entrepreneur Desiree Gonzalez. “I don’t know any other way,” Jay-Z says of his business approach, “because that’s how I had to do it coming up. No one would give me a record deal, so I started Roc-A-Fella. I don’t know how to be an artist who signs over his rights to someone else.”