Gloria Carter and Adnis “AJ” Reeves welcomed JAY-Z into the world on December 4, 1969.
The native of Brooklyn, who was reared by his mother after their father abandoned them when they were children, maintains a tight relationship with her. In addition to rapping about his parents in his songs, JAY-Z has discussed his relationships with each of them in interviews.
In fact, the Grammy Award-winning musician debuted a song with the title “Dad” in June 2017 on his 13th studio album, 4:44. The song is a letter to his father, who passed away in June 2003 from liver failure.
In the wake of his father’s abandonment, JAY-Z has talked openly about changing his hatred toward him into admiration.
JAY-Z stated in a 2015 podcast that he would “love for our generation and all the people who 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.”
“It makes you put up walls and not let people get close to you. Because you don’t ever want to feel that feeling of abandonment or hurt again,”. He explained, “So without that background, just him leaving, I had this anger. But as I slowly learned why, I could understand a little bit of what happened to him,” the speaker said.
AJ and Gloria Carter are parents of four children
JAY-Z (born Shawn Corey Carter), Eric Carter, Michelle Carter, and Andrea Carter are the four children Gloria and AJ had together. They grew up in the Marcy Houses public housing complex in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant district of New York.
JAY-Z’s father, who abandoned his mother and siblings when he was 11 years old, had a tumultuous relationship with him. JAY-Z and his older siblings were left to be raised by Gloria. A single parent who was working as an investment business clerk at the time.
It was difficult for JAY-Z when AJ left the family because he didn’t see his father again until a few months before dad passed away years later. “Kids look up to superhero pop culture,”
JAY-Z and AJ haven’t spoken in a long time
JAY-Z had a tumultuous connection with his father, who abandoned his mother and siblings when he was 11 years old. He was alienated from AJ for the majority of his childhood. JAY-Z and his older siblings were left to be raised by Gloria, a single parent who was working as an investment business clerk at the time.
It was difficult for JAY-Z when AJ left the family. He didn’t see his father again until a few months before dad passed away years later. According to the musician, “Kids look up to they pop like Superman,” according to a 2005 biography in The Book of Jay.
Superman just got out of the cradle? It’s traumatizing s—, Jay-Z continued. He was a decent man. Simply put, he didn’t react appropriately to the circumstance. You forget all the good this guy done because of the way he handled it, he continued. “The scorn, the resentment, and all the feelings from that, as you see, I’m a grown-ass man, but it was still there with me.”
Also disclosed by JAY-Z was that he “changed a lot” and “became more guarded” as a result of his father’s disappearance. In his profile, he stated, “I never wanted to be linked to something and have that ripped away again. “I never wanted to experience that feeling [of being abandoned] again.”