Jay-Z felt “afraid to be vulnerable” before meeting Beyonce.
The 56-year-old rap star began dating Beyonce in the early 2000s, before tying the knot in 2008, and Jay thinks the chart-topping star has helped him to become more expressive.
Discussing 4:44 — the song in which he opens up about womanising and fatherhood — he says in Jay-Z on 8: “I probably heard that song less than any song I’d ever written, except for You Must Love Me. Just listening to it is hard. Doing it was difficult enough. Then hearing it back.”
In 4:44, Jay raps: “I said: ‘Don’t embarrass me’ instead of ‘Be mine’ / That was my proposal for us to go steady / That was your 21st birthday / You matured faster than me, I wasn’t ready / So I apologise.”
Jay now admits to being more immature than Beyonce, even though she’s 12 years younger than him.
He shared: “That’s how we start going together.
“I was so immature and so afraid to be vulnerable that I like this person. I like this woman. And I’m like, how do we take the step from just talking on the phone and being friends to boyfriend and girlfriend?
“And instead of saying, ‘Let’s try this thing, boyfriend and girlfriend…’ I was like, ‘Don’t embarrass me. It’s like, are you asking me to be your girlfriend?’ That was the only way I could get to being vulnerable like that.”
Earlier this month, Jay admitted to feeling “super inspired” by Beyonce.
The Grammy-winning rap star revealed that he’s drawn inspiration from her “fearless” approach to life.
Speaking to Extra, Jay explained: “I’m super inspired by her.
“I think she’s a phenomenal producer and writer. And she’s fearless. She tries all kind of stuff.
“Some things she does I’m like, ‘I couldn’t do that’. She’ll be sitting in the back, like, hollering ad libs and it’s just, you know, I’ll get in the way of myself, you know, I get too self-conscious about it. And she’ll just try anything, anything she feels in the moment.”
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