Jay-Z Says He Cried Tears of Joy When His Mom Came Out as Gay 

CelebritiesDirt Bag

Here’s a really sweet story in which the dirtbag turns out to be repressive heteronormative social mores. In a new clip released from his forthcoming interview with David Letterman on Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Jay-Z recalled how he cried tears of joy after his mom, Gloria Carter, came out to him as gay.

“This was the first time we had the conversation,” Jay-Z said. “And 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. 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?”

Jay-Z also revealed that he recorded “Smile”—a track on on which he discusses his mother’s sexual orientation, and which appeared on his 2017 album 4:44—the day after that mother-son conversation took place.

Here’s that Letterman clip; the full interview will premiere April 6 on Netflix:

[Pitchfork]


Hell yes. Thank you, Page Six, for this incomparably parched take.

[Page Six]


I continue to adore her.


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