Barack Obama had some kind words to say about his friend Jay Z in a video that surfaced Thursday as part of the rapper’s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Among other things, the 44th president said that he’s been “listening to Jay since I was a young and hungry state senator,” and that “I’m pretty sure I’m still the only president to listen to Jay Z’s music in the Oval Office”—which is probably true if you discount Millard Fillmore.
“I like to think Mr. Carter and I understand each other,” Obama said in the video, referring to Jay Z’s real last name. “Nobody who met us as younger men would have expected us to be where we are today. We know what it’s like not to have a father around, we know what it’s like not to come from much, and to know people who didn’t get the same breaks that we did. So we try to prop open those doors of opportunity so that it’s a little easier for those who come up behind us to succeed as well.”
And the greatest rapper of all time OBAMA . Thank you 44 https://t.co/CueS0BynCj
— Mr. Carter (@S_C_) June 16, 2017
Despite being the first hip-hop artist inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Jay Z wasn’t in attendance at the New York ceremony on Thursday because his wife, Beyonce, is close to giving birth to the couple’s twins—something that Obama acknowledged in his tribute. In fact, it sounds like he over-acknowledged it. Speaking of the big day, he said “Jay and I are also fools for our daughters, although he’s going to have me beat once those two twins show up.”
Hmm. The Carters have kept quiet about the sex of their impending babies, so this statement has sent the internet scrambling for its calculator to find out what 1+2 is. Obama, of course, has two daughters (Sasha and Malia), and Jay Z and Beyonce have one (Blue Ivy). According to the math, the only way Jay Z could “beat” Obama in the daughter count is by having two more.
On the growing list of presidential and ex-presidential leaks, this has to rank right up there with telling two Russian diplomats in the Oval Office that you’re glad to have the “nutjob” FBI director off your back.