Jay-Z's Mother's Coming Out Inspired 'Smile'

(Radio.com) Jay-Z's mom, Gloria Carter, shared that coming out as a lesbian inspired the song 'Smile" from the rapper's newly released 4:44. "Mama had four kids, but she's a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she's a thespian," JAY-Z raps in the track.

'I just finally started telling [Jay] who I was," Carter said in D'USSE Friday podcast. "Besides your mother, this is the person that I am. This is the life that I live. So my son started actually tearing. 'Cause he's like, 'That had to be a horrible life, Ma'. I was like, 'My life was never horrible. It was just different.' So that made him want to do a song about it."

A poem that Carter wrote and recited to Jay while he was on an airplane made it into the song, since he recorded the call: 'I was never ashamed of me," she said. 'In my family, it was something that was never discussed'I'm tired of all the mystery. I'm gonna give it to 'em. I don't have to worry about anybody wondering if I'm in the life or not, I'm gonna tell them. So now that I told you, what do you have to talk about? So now maybe you can focus on the phenomenal things I do, so focus on that'Now it's time for me to be free." Read more here.