When Jay-Z decided to pen a verse for "Paradise," which he performed at the closing ceremony of the Paralympics in London, he wanted to make a statement. Recently, Jay opened up about why this verse was important for him to make and why he chose to craft it the way he did.
“The thought behind the verse is, anyone with a disability, just wants a sense of normality – that’s why they’re competing in these games," he explained on his Life+Times site, discussing his verse for "Paradise."
"That was the idea to make the verse as inclusive for as many people, and to make it as normal as possible. It’s influenced by so many different things. There are parts that are influenced by Gabby Douglas, there are parts that are influenced by Ryan Lochte, and by Serena Williams.”
“It can relate to everybody. ‘You can take everything,’ means whether through some tragedy you lost a limb, like an arm or a leg. Or, it could be something like you lost the mortgage to your house. That’s pretty much the idea,” he continued.