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Jay-Z
The 'bitch' is back … Jay-Z's camp deny reports he will stop using the b-word in lyrics. Jay-Z Photograph: Otero Andres/SIPA/Rex Features
The 'bitch' is back … Jay-Z's camp deny reports he will stop using the b-word in lyrics. Jay-Z Photograph: Otero Andres/SIPA/Rex Features

Jay-Z not dropping the word 'bitch' from lyrics

This article is more than 12 years old
Reports that rapper has renounced the b-word following the birth of his daughter have been denied by his representatives

The reports were wrong: even the birth of his baby daughter will not stop Jay-Z from using the world "bitch". And it appears the rapper is not the author of the widely circulated poem about Blue Ivy Carter, in which the writer says: "Before I got in the game, made a change, and got rich/ I didn't think hard about using the word b*tch/ I rapped, I flipped it, I sold it, I lived it/ Now with my daughter in this world I curse those that give it."

The poem, initially attributed to Jay-Z, was actually written by the blogger Renee Gardner on 10 January. Three days after it was posted at Rolling Out, Perez Hilton brought it to wider attention on his own blog. "Jay-Z Swears Off 'B*tch' for Blue Ivy!" he wrote. He did not give a source.

Soon the story was picked up by the Daily Mail, NME and New York magazine. The Guardian covered it, too. But when E! News asked Jay-Z's representatives for comment, the answer was unequivocal. "A source close to the rapper's camp [said] the poem in question is not by Jay-Z," it reported. "No word how the lyrics made it online, but it wasn't from the rap mogul." Another denial came via a tweet from the Roots' leader, ?uestlove: "This just in: [Jay-Z] to me: 'B*aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch!!!!!!!! and tweet that.'"

As it is, Jay-Z's major public statement about his parenthood comes in his newest track, Glory. The B-word does not make an appearance. "Baby I'll paint the sky blue," he rapsabout his daughter. "My most greatest creation was you."

More on this story

More on this story

  • Beyoncé and Jay-Z's baby Blue Ivy - in pictures

  • So what if Beyoncé's skin colour is looking lighter?

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