(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Jay-Z dealt with his childhood surroundings by pretending he was in a gangster film.

The rapper had a famously tough time growing up in Brooklyn, New York. His father left his mom and his three other siblings when he was just 12-years-old.

It was around this time that he turned to life on the streets and began peddling drugs.

"One of the ways that you deal with your surroundings is almost to imagine you are in a drama on a big screen," Jay-Z explained to British music magazine Q. "It sounds crazy but it can help you survive to see yourself in terms of a story. I think films are a major influence on any rapper. You could write a whole book on what hip-hop has taken from The Godfather and Scarface and all those gangster films."

This difficult period in his life was also when the star found he was a talented rapper. He soon became known in his neighbourhood as a street rapper named Jazzy, which he later modified to Jay-Z.

However, whilst film remains a big influence on Jay-Z he doesn't believe some other genres of music have inspired hip-hop.

But he does respect the role they have played to make the music industry more inclusive.

"Rock music didn't influence my music but they made me think what was out there," he considered. "I don't think you can listen to U2 or George Michael and really hear them in hip-hop but I see an influence in those big crossover artists in terms of mentality. They appeared in the R&B charts in America during the 80s. They were white guys and they were played on black radio, which in America is much, much more segregated than the situation in Europe. I was influenced by the fact that you could speak to the world via the radio." (C) Cover Media