American rapper, Jay Z, could not contain his joy and emotions when his mother opened up that she was lesbian and was in love with another woman. The rapper openly sobbed when she made the revelation to him.
In 2017, Jay Z’s mother came out as a lesbian and the development inspired him to write ‘Smile’, a track on his ‘4:44’ album. According to him, he had previously known that his mother was a lesbian, but decided to keep mute about it, not until about eight months ago when they talked about it for the first time while he was working on the album.
Jay-Z said this in an interview with David Letterman on his new Netflix show
‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction’. “For her to sit in front of me and tell me ‘I think I love someone’ … I really cried. I cried because I was so happy for her that she was free. I don’t even believe in crying because you’re happy. I don’t even know what that is. What is that?” he said.
In the song ‘Smile’, Gloria Carter revealed to the world that she is a lesbian in a speech about what it was like for her to live a lie. According to her, she had lived another person’s life all her life and this was just for the sake of her children. “Imagine having lived your life for someone else. And you think you’re protecting your kids. And for my mother to have to lived 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.
I just don’t understand how I could express my love for her. She made a very huge sacrifice that will forever linger in my heart and that of the family. She is a great woman,” Jay Z added.