Jay-Z’s time spent with LeBron James and the hosts of his show ‘The Shop’ found the Brooklyn rapper and mogul being very candid about life, including his family, learning how to swim, his time spent with DMX, and now the state of his relationship with Beyoncé and the impact of his album ‘4:44.’
Jay-Z spoke on how the album affected many, including “super gangster rappers,” who he says thanked him for his open and vulnerable bars about his life. Hov said, “To be vulnerable in that space, after you've done all this work -- and you don't have to. Your ego will tell you, I don't gotta do that. But then, you know, no one else heals. So many super gangster rappers comin' up to me like, 'Yo, thank you for that.' You know, they could tell me on the side, 'Yo, you saved my relationship.'"
From there, Jay-Z talked about how the song “Smile” from ‘4:44’ changed the relationship with his mother, who was featured on the song. Jay-Z noted his mom was “super defensive” at first.
Jay-Z said, “What happened, I was in L.A. She flew out to L.A. then she left and was like, 'No.' We talked through it and then, when she flew back to L.A., she had written a poem. She wrote that on the plane. It came with the American Airlines, like a little notepad. I was like, 'You got bars, ma.' Gloria got bars." Take a look above.
