Washington, Sept 17 : Rapper Jay Z fears that he is growing too old for hip-hop, and needs to continue reinventing himself to maintain his popularity.

The 38-year-old singer says, as he approaches 40, staying relevant is harder.

In an interview to the Scotsman, the star, real name Shawn Carter, said that he needed to continue trying new things.

"Hip-hop is about the gift of discovery. It''s who has the newest sneakers, who has the new pants,” Contactmusic quoted him as saying.

"So if I go to school with Jay-Z on my iPod, they go, ''OK, we all know him.'' You have to come to school with some new band that no-one else has heard of.

“As an artist you''re fighting against everything that''s new. So not only are you swimming upstream, you have someone pulling on your leg: the new guy, the weight of the new guy,” he added. (ANI)