Jay-Z recently sat down with The New York Times and gave potentially the most personal interview of his career. He talked about growing up poor and black in America, becoming famous, his mother’s sexuality, his hopes for his children, his relationship with Kanye West, and, of course, his marriage to Beyonce.
In the interview, Jay finally admitted the obvious: he cheated on Beyonce. And while they both worked through it and made the best albums of their careers–Lemonade and 4:44–listening to each other’s music about Jay’s wandering dick wasn’t exactly comfortable. Shocker, I know.
While most people, myself included, kind of wondered why Beyonce didn’t just leave Jay-Z’s ass after he stepped out on her, Jay explained that he realized when he cheated it was time for him to really deal with himself so he wouldn’t lose Queen Bey:
You know most people walk away, and the divorce rate is like 50 percent or something, ’cause most people can’t see themselves. The hardest thing is seeing pain on someone’s face that you caused, and then have to deal with yourself.
Jay explains that their respective albums were kind of like a form of couple’s therapy and that they both really loved the other’s music, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t awkward af listening to what the other had to say about the whole thing. Jay said of listening to the other’s songs about the issues in their marriage: “We were both very, very uncomfortable.”
I mean, I’m totally glad Beyonce and Jay-Z worked it out and are happy together again, but I can totally understand how sitting down and listening to “Don’t Hurt Yourself” might’ve been a bit awkward for him Like damn…I really need to keep my dick to myself. And you do, Jay, you really do.