Jay-Z reveals his mother is a lesbian
Image: Photo: Kim Erlandsen.
STAR Jay-Z has revealed on his new album 4:44 that his mother is a lesbian.
He made the revelation about his mother, Gloria Carter, in the lyrics to the track “Smile”.
The song’s lyrics include “Mama had four kids but she’s a lesbian / Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian”.
The song is a duet with his mother, who closes the track with the lines, “The world is changing and they say it’s time to be free / But you live with the fear of just being me.”
Jay-Z has used the song to confirm rumours about his mother’s sexuality, and also explained how she turned to substance use to cope with the stigma of being a lesbian.
He is known as one of the earliest voices in hip hop to speak out for LGBTI rights. He came out in support of marriage equality five years ago, and has called opposing same-sex marriage “no different than discriminating against blacks”.
“What people do in their own homes is their own business and you choose to love whoever you love,” he told CNN in 2012. “That’s their business.”
Coward & a shit kid to both hide her & then expose her to profit.
Everyone can have their view but I’m certainly more sympathetic. Jay-Z sells many records because he speaks not talks. He introduces his audience to new ideas, he doesn’t just regurgitate what they already know. And as we saw in California less than a decade ago, the black community turned out in force to vote for Obama (entirely reasonably) but while they were at the ballot box they also overturned same sex marriage in that state by supporting Prop 8 70-30 (google Prop 8 for more info). So giving his mother time to work out how she was going to progress in that context seems pretty fair.