Jay-Z opens up about the absence of his father

Jay-Z opened up to GQ magazine about the absence of his father, Adnes Reeves, who left him at 11 years old, and who’s now deceased.

“He was gone. He was not himself. My dad was such a good dad that when he left, he left a huge scar. I bet my dad didn’t believe he’d spaz out and leave either. If your dad died before you were born, yeah, it hurts but it’s not like you had a connection with something that was real.”

In a previous 2003 interview:

“I talked about what it did to me, what it meant, asked him why. There was no real answer. There was nothing he could say, because there’s no excuse for that. There really isn’t. So there was nothing he could say to satisfy me, except to hear me out. And it was up to me to forgive and let it go.”