JAY-Z addresses several intimate topics on his 13th studio album, 4:44, released June 30. He opens up about the infamous elevator fight from 2014, his infidelity against wife Beyonce, his beef with rapper and friend Kanye West; but it’s his track which his mother, Gloria Carter, appears on that carries the biggest emotional weight.
On the track “Smile,” JAY-Z openly discusses, for the first time, his mother’s sexual identity rapping, “Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian / Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian.”