We are not sure if the credits for this one should go to Beyoncé for extensive training on her husband, or maybe give it to the true power of feminism, or that thing that happens to men when they have daughters (as much as we’d really like that not to be a prerequisite). Either way, Jay-Z deserves an accolade for dad of the year after his impromptu speech to a little girl in the middle of a concert.
“Now remember, like I was saying, you can be anything that you want to be in the world,” Jay-Z told a 9-year-old girl in the audience at his 4:44 tour stop in Cleveland on Sunday night. A video shot by another audience member shows the girl’s face projected onto the big screen. “I’ll tell you something, at this very moment America is way more sexist than they are racist. But you, young lady, you got the potential to be the next president of the United States. You believe that.”
The rapper then asked the girl to help him count down to the start of “N—as in Paris,” and the video goes on to show the girl on screen dancing excitedly to the track.
JAY-Z just brought a little black girl to the front so he could tell her she was able to do anything and let her count down so he could restart performing N****** in Paris #444tour #blackexcellence
— Philippa Georgiou (@naptural_mae) November 20, 2017
My favorite moment of the concert ? it was so amazing to see him uplift this beautiful black child like this #444tour pic.twitter.com/DIsPowjQQT
— Philippa Georgiou (@naptural_mae) November 20, 2017
Several times in 4:44, Jay talks of women’s sacrifice, the struggles of his lesbian mother, and how he wants to do better, without actually saying he’s a feminist. In “4:44,” his open apology letter to Bey about his infidelities, he says, “Took for my child to be born/ See through a woman’s eyes.”
Just being a good man to your own wife and daughters isn’t enough, however. Of course, Blue Ivy and Rumi Carter, who are essentially royalty, can be anything they want to be. Telling this little girl in Ohio that she can, too, is a much bigger message everyone needs to hear.
Picture credit: FuseTV
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