Happy mom, happy son. Jay-Z recounted his reaction to his mother, Gloria Carter, coming out to him in a clip from the Friday, April 6, episode of David Letterman’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
“Imagine having lived your life for someone else. And you think you’re protecting your kids. And for my mother to have to live as someone that she wasn’t and hide and like, protect her kids — and didn’t want to embarrass her kids, and you know, for all this time,” he explained to Letterman. “And for her to sit in front of me and tell me, ‘I think I love someone.’ I mean, I really cried. That’s a real story. I cried because I was so happy for her that she was free.”
Jay-Z, 48, said he knew that his mother was gay before they shared this heart-to-heart, but this was the first time they talked openly about it. “The first time I heard her say she loved her partner. Like, ‘I feel like I love somebody.’ She said, ‘I feel like.’ She held that little bit back, still,” he added. “She didn’t say, ‘I’m in love.’ She said, ‘I feel like I love someone.’ And I just, I cried. I don’t even believe in crying because you’re happy. I don’t even know what that is. What is that?”
The rapper said the conversation took place eight months ago, and the next day he came up with “Smile,” a song from his 4:44 album which recreates the moment. Jay-Z’s lyrics portray the same sentiment he expressed to Letterman: “Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian / Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian / Had to hide in the closet, so she medicate / Society shame and the pain was too much to take / Cried tears of joy when you fell in love / Don’t matter to me if it’s a him or her / I just wanna see you smile through all the hate / Marie Antoinette, baby, let ‘em eat cake.”
Jay-Z’s episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction will begin streaming on Netflix Friday, April 6.
