A History Of Jay Z Rapping About His Dad

Jay Z's '4:44' could be his most personal album yet, and there are hints it will discuss his relationship with his father. Here's what he's said on record.

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Jay Z has spent his entire career working out his relationship with his dad. 

Abandoned by his father, Adnis Reeves, at the age of 11, Hov internalized years of pain and sprinkled it into his lyrics. They reconciled in 2003, just months before Reeves died of liver failure. While short-lived, the restored relationship seems to have helped heal some of Jay’s emotional wounds, but the scars are still visible.

The trailer to Jay Z’s new album 4:44 features a song called “Adnis,” and based on the short snippet, he will be delving deeper into the aftermath of his strained paternal relationship—a topic that’s likely been weighing on his subconscious even more these days after the birth of a set of twins just this month. He raps: “Letter to my dad that I never wrote/Speeches I prepared that I never spoke/Words on a paper that I never read/Proses never penned/They stayed in my head.” When 4:44 drops, we may witness the deepest look into Jay’s psyche yet.

Ahead of the album's release this Friday, this is a history of the times in Jay Z’s discography that he's detailed his relationship with—and directly addressed—his father.

“Can't Knock The Hustle”

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Lyric: “My Pops knew exactly what he did when he made me/Tried to get a nut and he got a nut, and what!”

Album: Reasonable Doubt (1996)

Intended to be Jay Z’s sole album, Reasonable Doubt doesn’t delve into the Brooklyn rapper’s private life (save for the closer “Regrets”). Instead he keeps his unshakeable cool throughout, even talking slick while imagining his own conception. This chuckler of a couplet is a guarded introduction to his relationship with his dad—a theme that grows deeper with his catalog.

“This Life Forever”

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Lyric: “I just can't lose/When I was young I was like Fresh, Papa raised me to chess moves/And though you're gone, I'm not bitter, you left me prepared/We got divided by the years, but I got it from here”

Album: Black Gangster Original Soundtrack (1999)

Hov buries this nugget within a clever verse built on chess and mathematics puns. While vague, it’s one of the earliest instances of Jay opening up on wax about growing up without his Pops. He commented on the verse in Decoded: “My Pop taught me chess, but more than that, he taught me that life was like a giant chessboard where you had to be completely aware in the moment, but also thinking a few moves ahead. By the time he left, he’d already given me a lot of what I’d need to survive.”

“Hova Song (Outro)”

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Lyric: “Retrospect, ain't been the same since I lost my dad/He's still alive, but still fuck you, don't cross my path”

Album: Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter (1999)

Jay finally reveals that his father was indeed absentee—his venom here is a precursor to the passionate open letter that follows on The Dynasty: Roc La Familia.

“Where Have You Been”

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“Streets Is Talking”

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Lyric: “I lost my Pops when I was 11, mmm, 12 years old/He's probably somewhere where the liquor is taking it's toll/But I ain't mad at you dad, holla at your lad!”

Album: The Dynasty: Roc La Familia

Jay leaves the door open for reconciliation here, also alluding to a drinking problem that’s more serious than the rapper lets on.

“Still Got Love For You”

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Lyric: “Seemed sunny outside, always rained on Jay/Pop you my umbrella, come help your son with the weather/Soon we come together like man and man and build/Play Spades, cards face up, I've come to deal/In order to get right we gotta deal with this wrong/And the pain I felt all my life you feel in the song”

Album: Beanie Sigel’s The Reason (2001)

Perhaps feeling they’d been too harsh on “Where Have You Been,” Beanie Sigel and Jay dropped a more compassionate sequel one year later. On it, Hov extends an olive branch to his dad, rhyming about his yearning for a relationship with the man he’d idolized as a kid. But he wasn’t completely off the hook: “The one thing you taught me is to face my fears, coward.”

“Meet The Parents”

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“If I Can't (Freestyle)”

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“Moment Of Clarity”

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"Pray"

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"New Day"

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"Jay Z Blue"

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