After listening to Jay Z's "Smile,"on 4:44, many were surprised to learn that his mother, Gloria Carter, had been living in secret. Miss Carter was a guest on the latest episode of the D'USSE Friday Podcast hosted by B. Axelrod, Nashawn Carter, and Rel Carter.
Jay's mom said the two are close and recalled the moment she told him she was a lesbian. "I just finally started telling him who I was. Besides your mother, this is the person that I am. This is the life that I lived. So my son started actually tearing because he was like, 'That had to be a horrible life, Ma' and I was like, my life was never horrible. It was just different. So that made him want to do a song about it." Surprisingly, when Mama Carter first heard "Smile," she wasn't feeling it because she wasn't ready to share her story with the world, she just wanted to tell her son.
It was during Miss Carter's flight to Los Angeles to see Jay, when she had a change of heart and decided to help him and write the poem you hear at the end of the record.
As for how her life has been since the song's release, Gloria said, "I don't have to worry about anyone wondering whether I'm in the life or not. I'm gonna tell them. So now that I've told you what do you have to talk about? So now maybe you can focus on the phenomenal things that I do. So focus on that."
Source: YouTube
