On December 4, 1969, Gloria Carter and Adnis “AJ” Reeves welcomed JAY-Z into the world.
The Brooklyn native is very close to his mother because they grew up together after their father abandoned them when they were little. JAY-Z has spoken openly about his connections with each of his parents in interviews in addition to singing about them in his songs.
In reality, in June 2017, the Grammy Award-winning musician’s 13th studio album 4:44 featured a song titled after his father. The song is a letter to his father, who passed away in June 2003 due to liver failure.
Jay-Z has talked candidly about how, following his father’s leaving, he went from feeling hatred toward him to respect. In addition, he has made use of his own struggles as a springboard to assist those experiencing similar difficulties.
“I would love for our generation and all the people that grew up without their parents, whether you knew them early on or not is to have that conversation so you could let that sort of anger go, because that’s the sort of anger that keeps you from love,” Jay-Z said in a podcast from 2015.
“It makes you put up walls and you don’t let people get close to you, because you don’t ever want to feel that feeling of abandonment or that feeling of hurt again,” he stated. “So without that context, just him leaving, I had this anger, you know, but when I slowly got to know why I could understand a bit of what happened to him.”
Continue reading to learn everything there is to know about JAY-Z’s parents, AJ and Gloria.
