Jay-Z Says He Wept With Joy When His Mom Came Out as Gay
Jay-Z is the latest guest on David Letterman’s new Netflix show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which is a little more Oprah’s SuperSoul Sunday and a little less “Stupid Human Tricks.” Some proof: On the episode to be released Friday, Jay-Z tells the emotional story of when his mom, Gloria Carter, came out to him last year.
“For my mother to have to live as someone that she wasn’t . . . and didn’t want to embarrass her kids, for all this time . . . for her to sit in front of me and tell me, ‘I think I love someone,’ I mean, I really cried. . . . I cried because I was so happy for her that she was free,” Jay-Z, a.k.a Shawn Carter, told Letterman (who, for his part, thoughtfully nodded along). “I don’t even believe in crying because you’re happy. I don’t even know what that is. What is that?”
Jay-Z went on to say that he knew his mom was gay, but that was “the first time we had the conversation and the first time I heard her say she loved her partner.” The mother-son talk came during the making of the rap legend’s latest album, 4:44 and, the very next day after his mother came out to him, Jay-Z turned the experience into the song “Smile.” With Gloria’s voice featured in the song, it includes the verse: “Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian . . . Cried tears of joy when you fell in love/Don’t matter to me if it’s a him or her."
Greatest rapper of all time—and a pretty fantastic son, too.
