Once upon a time Jay-Z didn’t know how to swim, but that all changed once he became a father. 

During an appearance on HBOMax’s The Shop: Uninterrupted, the 51-year-old rap star revealed that he learned to swim after his daughter, now nine-year-old Blue Ivy, was born. 

“It’s amazing. It’s a very grounding thing,” Hova said after being asked to share his experiences raising two daughters. “I didn’t learn how to swim until Blue was born. There goes everything you need to know. This is a metaphor for our relationship. If she ever fell in the water and I couldn’t get her, I couldn’t even fathom that thought. I gotta learn how to swim. That’s it. That was the beginning of our relationship.”

In addition to Blue, Jay also shares 3-year-old twins Rumi and Sir with wife Beyoncé.

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