I recently watched an episode of the David Letterman’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” with Jay-Z and it really gave me a newfound vision about Jay-Z’s life, as an incredible artist and human being:
Here are some of the talking points I found the most interesting:
Some of Jay-Z’s most influential Inspirations as an artist:
His dad left home when Jay-Z was 11. While a teenage drug dealer, during his time in the streets selling drugs, every free second was spent creating rhymes in his notepad.
While David Letterman found a new guiding direction while taking a 11th grade public speaking course, Jay-Z found a connection with words from his English teacher, Ms. Lowden. They connected over one of Lowden’s favorite lessons, in which she would ask the class a question using a word that was probably beyond their vocabulary.
We should aim to create content that lasts a lifetime instead of music of the moment. Jay-Z’s references:
During his adult life, he regained perspective and compassion towards some of his life situations, namely the anger he felt from his dad – which went through Jay-Z’s whole life – and the fact that his mother had four kids to take care of at 20 years old.
There’s a special song on the 4:44 album: Smile. Written in collaboration with his mother Gloria Carter. It’s a beatiful composition about the difficulties she found while dealing with her sexuality. As you can read in Pitchfork: “Gloria Carter bravely comes out as a lesbian on the song “Smile.” “Love who you love,” Carter says, “because life isn’t guaranteed.” This intergenerational ensemble helps Jay unlock these reflections on honesty, acceptance, and resolution.”
The only thing about that experience for me, is her. Imagine having to live your life as someone else. And you think you’re protecting your kids. This was a time… Now everyone’s more accepting to everyone’s lifestyle. And there’s still people out there who are living in a different time. But we look at those people as – “You’re living in a different time.” And to my mother to have to live as someone that she wasn’t and hide and protect her kids, and didn’t want to embarrass her kids, for all this time… And for her to sit in front of me and tell me, “I think I love someone.” That’s a real story. I cried, because I was so happy for her that she was free.”Jay-Z