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Oprah Winfrey Once Told Gayle King That She Loved Jay-Z
Oprah Winfrey may have disagreed with Jay-Z on his music, but she might’ve become one of the rapper’s biggest fans once she got to know him.
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Oprah Winfrey once opened up about what it was really like interviewing Jay-Z for the first time.
by Antonio Stallings
Published on January 21, 2025
Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z are so close that she’s even given his wife, Beyoncé, advice that might’ve helped save their relationship. The media mogul had a list of reasons why she found Jay-Z to be one of a kind.
Oprah Winfrey | Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty ImagesOprah and Jay-Z became well-acquainted with each other when she first interviewed him in 2009. Jay-Z opened up to the former talk show host in a way he rarely did, taking her on a tour of his own neighborhood. The interview touched on both Jay-Z’s career and his personal life. Despite her candid feelings about rappers like Ludacris back then, Oprah found Jay-Z exceptional. So much so that she was a bit smitten by the artist.
“I have some disagreements with the music. But I love him,” she once told colleague Gayle King according to All Hip Hop. “He was so charming and delightful and he smelled so good. It’s that kinda thing where you hug a guy and his scent is buried in him.”
Jay-Z’s scent might’ve been the most unforgettable part of speaking with him.
“Jay-Z is my new best friend. He was so graceful and he smelled so good when I had him on the show. It’s like when you hug a guy and the scent is kind of stuck on them. Even when I went to another country, I could still smell it on me. It made me say, ‘Oh my God, this is so wonderful,'” she further gushed on O Radio (via Telegrafi).
However, in addition to Jay-Z’s charm and scent, his intelligence further impressed Oprah.
“Everyone says how smart he is. He’s really gifted and talented,” she added. “At the end of the day, I felt that I made a friend.”
Oprah has had a very tumultuous relationship with the hip-hop community over the years. However, the genre didn’t completely disagree with her. According to XXL, she even listed some of the rappers she had on her playlist back in the day.
“I listen to some hip-hop,” she said. “You know, I’ve been accused of not liking hip-hop and that’s just not true. I got a little 50 [Cent] on my iPod. I really do. Love ‘In Da Club.’ … Love that, and you know, love Jay-Z, love Kanye [West], love Mary J. [Blige].”
She interviewed all of the artists she mentioned. Even 50 Cent, with whom she had a long feud in the past. But Jay-Z might’ve made the most impression on her. Oprah confided that the Brooklyn emcee had a very positive effect on her feelings towards hip-hop.
“He hasn’t changed my mind about rap; he has opened my mind,” Oprah once told EurWeb (via Essence). “What we did on our show was agree to disagree. I still have my opinion about the N-word, and he still has his; I can see his point of view and he can see mine. I mean, I would say he’s become a really good friend of mine because of that. We agree to disagree.”
Jay-Z’s book, Decoded, also played a huge role in Oprah’s shifting opinion towards hip hop. The book was a memoir and autobiography that he refused to release for the longest time. However, after he did, Decoded dove further into Jay-Z’s backstory and his rise to stardom. Oprah plugged his book while interviewing him and shared some of the interesting insights she read in Decoded.
“His book is fantastic,” she said. “There’s a thing in his book where he talks about rappers trying to tell stories that the rest of the world doesn’t want to hear. And I realized that I was close to wanting to hear it. So the difference is I’m now open to hearing it.”
She seems to have grown more receptive to hip-hop music as of late. She even gave her seal of approval to the Lil’ Yachty record “Oprah’s Bank Account,” which was partially inspired by her.
