Gayle King Recalls Oprah Winfrey Doubting She'd Land JAY-Z Interview

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UnitedMasters, A Celebration Of Independence At The 65th GRAMMY Awards
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 03: Gayle King attends UnitedMasters, A Celebration Of Independence At The 65th GRAMMY Awards at Hollywood Palladium on February 03, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Greg Doherty/Getty Images for UnitedMasters)

Gayle King recently detailed the process she went through to get an interview with JAY-Z.

Gayle King says that Oprah Winfrey doubted she'd be able to land her recent viral interview with JAY-Z. Speaking with Access Hollywood in Las Vegas, last week, King explained Winfrey doubted the interview would come to fruition as the Brooklyn rapper repeatedly postponed their meet-up.

“Even Oprah said, ‘You’re making a damn fool of yourself! Stop asking him. He doesn’t want to do it.’,” King recalled. “But I couldn’t let it go because he never said, ‘No, no, no.’ He just kept delaying, delaying, delaying. Oprah said, ‘He’s being polite because he doesn’t want to tell you, ‘No.’ I kept coming back. I don’t know why he said yes or why he changed his mind but I’m forever grateful.”

Read More: Jay-Z's Full Interview With Gayle King On CBS Is Now Available: Watch

Gayle King Speaks With Oprah At Her "2020 Vision: Your Life In Focus Tour"

DENVER, COLORADO - MARCH 07: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey speak during Oprah's 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour presented by WW (Weight Watchers Reimagined) at Pepsi Center on March 07, 2020 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Oprah)

“I’m still floating from that interview honestly. I was really buzzing after because you don’t know and you know he doesn’t like to do interviews,” she continued. “I had an older woman who was not the JAY-Z demographic and she came up to me saying, ‘You know, I never listened to that kind of music. But after listening to his interview, I’m going to go to the library and I want to listen to his music.’ And I said, ‘You should get ’99 Problems’ mam, you’d enjoy that!'” Check out her full comments on the interview below.

Gayle King Recalls Oprah's Response To JAY-Z Interview

During King's discussion with JAY-Z, the legendary rapper discussed his "most important" album, the origins of his "One-Take Hov" nickname, and much more while touring Brooklyn Public Library's The Book of HOV exhibit. Be on the lookout for further updates on JAY-Z on HotNewHipHop.

Read More: Jay-Z Explains Which Of His Albums He Feels Is The “Most Important”

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About The Author
Cole Blake is currently an Editor at HotNewHipHop based out of Brooklyn, New York. He began working at the site as an intern back in 2018 while studying journalism at St. John’s University. In the time since, he’s graduated with a bachelor's degree and written extensively about a wide range of topics including pop culture, film & television, politics, video games, sports, and much more. He’s also covered music festivals such as Gov. Ball and Rolling Loud. You can find him publishing work for HNHH from Monday to Wednesday or on weekends. On the sports front, Cole’s a passionate NBA and NFL fan with his favorite teams being the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Lakers. He also roots for the Yankees whenever he finds himself at Yankee Stadium or the Red Storm when in the company of other SJU alumni. His favorite hip-hop artists are billy woods, Earl Sweatshirt, Cam’ron, MIKE, and Mach-Hommy.