Baby Carter - Why We All Care!

Someone on Twitter last night compared it to the moment in the Lion King when Simba is presented to the Jungle.

I thought that was a perfect analogy. What we all witnessed last night was a happy couple bubbling and brimming with excitement for the new addition to their family. That isn’t new or unexpected. Because the happy mom and pop to be are the notoriously private Shawn Carter and Beyonce Knowles – Carter, we all took extra notice. Some people cried when she rubbed her growing belly, overwhelmed with the emotion of joy for this couple. Not one person that I know who cried actually knows either of these two. But to say you don’t know Jay and Bey (as we all affectionately call them) isn’t actually true. Maybe we didn’t know Beyonce when she was in Destiny’s Child singing cookie cutter records that were only approved by her dad, but we sure started to get to know Bey on Dangerously in Love when she first started seeing her now husband Jay Z. Every album she released since then gave us a deeper insight into who she is beyond this pop singer. She started to appear like a person and not a drone of her father’s making. We started to connect to her through her connection to our friend Jay. He gave her the ok so we figured she must be alright.

And speaking of her husband, we have known him for 15 years! He has been very open with us, telling us his darkest secrets through rap. We knew about his childhood, his siblings, his dad and how he felt when his dad left. We knew in detail how the death of his friend Biggie altered his life and his music (hence The Life and Times of Shawn Carter Vol. One). And when Baby Girl, Aaliyah passed away so tragically, he let us know just how much he was hurting. We have been with him through his rough patches and beefs. Some of us were forced to choose between him and Nas and we made the tough choice. We listened in detail to his cry for our loyalty when people doubted his excellence. We even gave him a party for his short lived retirement from rap, a move we all knew was his punishment to us for not sticking by him and giving him his props (he can be spiteful that way sometimes). His threat to leave shook us to the core, we took notice and paid attention, sorry Jay, we appreciate you!

Because we always listened carefully to his lyrics, we all knew just how important his nephews were to him, as we watched them grow through cameos in music videos. And we all felt a bit of heart break when we learned his nephew had been killed in a car crash. In his grief, he turned to us, sharing how guilty he felt for having purchased the car and how his dreams were haunted by the tragedy. As well as we knew him for being a man who wouldn’t “wife” just any chick, we could see the difference in him when she came along. Just as we pumped our fist for the Big Pimpin version of Jigga, we were happy to see him, settled with “the hottest chick in the game.” We rooted for them, silently and hoped that finally he had found a chick worth “the powder blue Roc- A-Wear suit, white nikes”. We soon realized she was worth that to him and so much more. So on 4-4-08, we all were tickled and joyful to hear they were married. How sweet, a hip hop royal couple had formed before our eyes and we knew him, loved him and because of that, accepted her and loved her. I mean if he chose her, she must be cool! Forever there were rumors about a baby, but not this time. This time, our girl Bey just popped up with a belly, much like she popped up with a wedding ring. And the crowd roared, and people cried and Jay cheered from the audience, looking at his wife and his accomplishment. If you are truly a Jigga fan, your emotion was intensified because you know him and you know just how badly he wanted a baby. If you listened closely to his music over the years, you could sense his feeling of accomplishment in every realm, especially love, and all that was left was a baby. And again, if you are a Jay Z fan, you love Bey because you know just how much he loves her. So to see her, belly poked out grinning from ear to ear made you smile for many reasons, but mainly because she was giving him what we all have known he has wanted and needed for some time, she is giving him the heir to the throne.

“If we have a daughter, guess what Imma call her, Brooklyn Carter”

We all wait anxiously for baby Carter’s arrival but moreso for the wonderful words our friend Jay will bless us with once he/she arrives. He will tell us a great story and he will morph into a Dad right before our eyes, as he did into a man and a husband, I’m sure of it. And if you are as much of a Jay fan as I am, you are looking forward to bearing witness to greatness.

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