Anytime Jay-Z pops out for some sort of interview, there’s always a gem to takeaway. His appearance on LeBron James’ The Shop had the rapper opening up about everything from learning how to swim to his relationship with DMX. Though it’s been a few years since Jay released his last album 4:44, he touched on the importance of the album, especially to other rappers who’ve faced similar issues in their personal lives.
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“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,” he said. “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.'”
On a personal level, Jay-Z explained that the album played a role in the shift of their relationship. He said that when he first played “Smile” for his mother, who ended up on the song, she got “super defensive.”
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“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.”
Peep the clip below.