Glory (Jay-Z song)

On January 7, 2012, Beyoncé gave birth to her and Jay-Z's first child, Blue Ivy Carter, at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Two days later, Jay-Z released "Glory" on his social website LifeandTimes.com. Produced by The Neptunes, the song was composed in honor to Blue Ivy Carter, who is credited on it. ==Composition and lyrical interpretation==

"Glory" is an emotional hip hop song dedicated to Blue Ivy Carter and Knowles, as Jay-Z sings "You're my child with the child from Destiny's Child." "Glory" opens with Blue's heartbeat, As the song progresses, Jay-Z reveals that the baby girl was conceived in Paris, a day before Knowles shot the cover artwork for her fourth studio album 4 (2011). It also details Jay-Z's and Knowles' pregnancy struggles, including a miscarriage Knowles suffered previously, In reference to Aaliyah's death in a plane crash in 2001, Jay Z also urges Blue to exercise safety, with the lyric, "Just make sure the plane you’re on is bigger than your carry-on baggage". At the end of "Glory", Blue Ivy Carter can be heard crying. ==Critical reception==

Touré of Time magazine called "Glory" one of the "greatest love songs in hip-hop history". Chris Randle of The Village Voice wrote that the song "sounds humbled and relieved, and soft enough to bear some marks; at certain points, Jay's voice almost seems to quaver." He added that Jay-Z "goes from revealing a past miscarriage to sharing the precise date of conception, as if still ambling through the ward in elated exhaustion." Maura Johnston of the same publication noted that "Glory" was "happy and humbled just like all those shots of new dads in movies; you can almost smell the cigars being lit as Jay tosses off his first (but probably not last) dedication to his daughter, which has as its best line 'You're the child of a child from Destiny's Child.'" SF Weeklys Shona Sanzgiri noted that the "rapper [is] celebrating with a strange mixture of certainty and guilelessness" in the song. David K. Li, Josh Saul, and Tata Palmeri of the New York Post wrote that "the emotional song may win over even Jay-Z's harshest critics". David Marchese of Spin magazine felt that "Jay spouts all sorts of fatherly sentiment on the track". Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone awarded the song with three-and-a-half out of five stars, praising its "lilting Neptunes beat". He further compared the song with "Isn't She Lovely?" (1976) by Stevie Wonder saying that it's "mixing exultant proud-papa sentiments with brand-consolidation braggadocio: 'A pinch of Hov, a whole glass of B.' But the mood is reflective. 'Everybody go through stuff... Life is a gift, love, open it up.'" ==Chart performance==

The song debuted at number 74 on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart issue dated January 21, 2012, with 1.7 million audience impressions, according to Nielsen BDS. It also debuted at number 23 on the US Rap Songs chart issue dated January 28, 2012. As Jay-Z's daughter, Blue, is officially credited on the song, she became the youngest person in history to have a charting song on any Billboard chart. ==Music video==

The official music video for "Glory" was released on April 16, 2015. ==Charts==