Jay-Z reveals he learnt to swim for daughter Blue Ivy: “If she ever fell in the water and I couldn’t get her, I couldn’t even fathom that thought.“
Fatherhood comes with great responsibilities. You learn to stop living for yourself and start living for others, or in this case, your children. Their life and safety becomes paramount, so you cover all the basis and try to do all you can to ensure the risks are minimal. Like the rest of us, Jay-Z became aware of his shortcomings when he had his first child Blue Ivy.
In a recent chat with LeBron James, Nneka Ogwumike, Paul Rivera and Bad Bunny on HBO’s The Shop: Uninterrupted, the father of three admitted fears of him not being able to save his daughter if she ever fell into the water led to him learning how to swim.
“I didn’t learn how to swim until Blue [Ivy] was born “ he said. “If she ever fell in the water and I couldn’t get her, I couldn’t even fathom that thought. I gotta learn how to swim. That’s it. That was the beginning of our relationship.”
The 51-year old rap mogul also reminisced about the moment he decided to boycott the 1999 Grammys out of respect for DMX, who was snubbed that year by the Recording Academy despite having two number one albums.
“The first time I boycotted the Grammys was for him,” Jay-Z said. “We both came out that year, he didn’t get nominated. He dropped two albums, he had two number one albums in the same year.”
You can read more on Jay-Z’s The Shop appearance over at our Creative Weekly round up.