Mystery solved! Jay-Z revealed why he and wife Beyoncé chose the names Rumi and Sir for their twins, who were born in June.
“Rumi is our favorite poet, so it was for our daughter,” the “Smile” rapper, 47, said during the second part of his interview with Rap Radar podcast hosts Elliot Wilson and Brian “B.Dot” Miller, which was released on Friday, August 25. “And then Sir was, like, man, come out the gate. He carries himself like that. He just came out, like, Sir.”
Jay-Z made sure to schedule his upcoming tour for after the birth of the twins. “I booked the tour for October so I could have at least four months … to just really bond and see their fingers and s–t like that,” he said. “They’ll be with me [on tour] anyway, but I’m just saying, like, [I needed] a space where I’m not doing nothing, I’m just focused on them. I’m not thinking about a show at night or anything like that. That’s why the tour is so far away from the release of the album.”
The Roc Nation founder also opened up about how the couple’s firstborn, daughter Blue Ivy, ended up rapping a freestyle for one of the bonus tracks on his new album, 4:44. “I can’t even listen to that song no more. I only listen to her freestyle, and then I’m like, ‘I can’t listen to this,'” he quipped.
Blue, 5, was in the recording studio with her father while he was working on the record. At one point, he turned his back and started working on something else, so Blue took matters into her own hands.
“She got the headphones and she climbed on the little stool, and then she just started rapping. … I was like, ‘Oh, s–t,'” Jay-Z recalled. “I have [her full freestyle] on my phone. Five minutes! Five minutes of her doing that.”
One lyric in particular from Blue’s freestyle went viral after the song was released in early July. “She kept doing that ‘boom shakalaka, boom shakalaka’ [part]. I was like, ‘Oh, she understands the concept of a hook.’ She’s 5, and she understands the concept of a hook,” the hip-hop star said. “I was like, ‘What the f–k is going on in here?’ One of the great memories.”
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