The admiration rapper Jay-Z and President Barack Obama have for each other has been well documented; at various times over the years, both have often talked fondly of each other.
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The friendship between the two reached new heights yesterday, when Jay-Z hosted a fundraiser for Obama at his own 40/40 Club. The event, which cost $40,000 a plate, and which racked up $4 million for the President’s campaign, reached its zenith when Obama hit the stage for his speech.
Before he got into his typical sales pitch, our Commander-in-Chief had a few cool quotes to say about rap’s Commander-in-Chief:
“Jay-Z now knows what my life is like…We both have daughters, and our wives are more popular than we are. So we’ve got a little bond there.”
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He might have been joking, somewhat, but actually, Obama and Jay-Z do share some similarities, other than their wives and kids.
Check them out below!
They both come from fatherless homes.
From “Where Have You Been” to “December 4th,” Jay-Z has often talked about his father abandoning him, his siblings and his mother when they were young. When Barack Obama was younger, he also experienced the same thing. Soon after Obama was born in 1961, his father would leave both young Barack and his mother to attend Harvard University and then to eventually go back to Africa.
Both have dealt with drugs as a youth.
Jay-Z has built a career off his vivid rhymes that often dealt with the highs and lows of dealing drugs. It’s something that Jay really experienced throughout the ’80s until the mid ’90s. While Barack Obama has never dealt drugs, he has openly talked about his experience with illegal narcotics. In his memoir, Dreams From My Father, he candidly talks about smoking weed and “using a little blow” (but no “smack” though).
They both came up the on the oldies.
We often associate rap with Obama. But the truth is, he’s a old soul, man. Dude came up on the oldies. This was shown most clearly when Obama started singing Al Green during a speech earlier this year. Just because Jay-Z is younger, doesn’t mean he didn’t come up with the same kind of soul music. In fact, in his Decoded book, Jay-Z talked about the epic music collection his mother had. He also said a lot of those records were the inspiration behind his classic The Blueprint album.
1996 was the breakout year for both men.
In June 1996, Jay-Z released his all-time classic debut album, Reasonable Doubt. Five months later, Barack Obama won his first political election, becoming an Illinois state senator coming from District 13. Who knew that both men would go so far with their careers?
Both are sports nuts.
From the basketball court to the football field, our President Obama gets busy when it comes to sports. He also enjoys watching the games (whenever he’s not busy being the President, of course). We don’t often see Jay-Z on the court balling, but we know he’s into his sports. Over the years we’ve seen Jay attend every single type of game, from baseball to basketball.
