Meet The English Teacher Who Reached A 12-Year-Old JAY-Z

“The thing I remember about Shawn is he took the reading test and he scored 12th grade in the sixth grade,” says Rene Rosenblum-Lowden, the sixth grade teacher who JAY-Z credits with reinforcing his love of words. “I remember telling him… ‘You’re smart, you better do well.’ And he listened.”

Jay mentioned Lowden in his Netflix interview with David Letterman, remembering a school trip to the museum which included a stop at Lowden’s apartment.

The Washington Post reports:

“Lowden, 77, now lives in Columbia, Md., but in 1980, she taught sixth grade at Brooklyn’s I.S. 318. Carter, a shy and avid reader.”

“I remember him as the kid who never smiled,” Rosenblum-Lowden said. She believes in using humor in the classroom, and making Carter smile was always one of her goals. A sense of accomplishment accompanied every grin.

Those pearly whites have stuck with her during the past few decades.

“He was a skinny little kid,” she said. “He’s totally different looking. When I first saw him again, I didn’t recognize him until he smiled. And there he was: Shawn.”

They reconnected in 1999 after Jay mentioned her in a Teen People profile. She is thankful for the credit he gives her, and his advocacy for increasing teachers’ pay. But she insists he would have been brilliant with or without her.

“One thing that I feel uncomfortable with is all the credit he gives me. I don’t think I’m deserving of all that credit. He was super bright,” she said. Still, “it makes me feel great that I had a part, or that he feels I had a part, in his love for words.”

He’s just lucky she didn’t find out he wasn’t a Mets fan. “If I had known he was a Yankees fan,” she joked, “he never would have gotten into seventh grade.”

Hit the jump for five gems from Hov and Letterman’s must-stream interview on Netflix.

JAY-Z and David Letterman agreed that they are basically twins at multiple points in their new interview on Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.

Sure, Dave’s face is covered by a thick white beard, while Jay refers to his own fro as the “beard on his head.” And of course, young Dave hustled via a paper route as a young man, while a teen-aged Shawn Carter was bringing back $2,000 a day from selling drugs in New Jersey. But still, both men were able to build a great discussion around their common grounds of creativity, parenthood and marriage.

Stans might be bored by some of Letterman’s elementary questions about Jay’s childhood, Hip Hop culture and “The N-word,” but when both men reflect on how their infidelities almost cost them their families, the world gets to hear from a side of Jigga that few knew existed, pre-4:44.

“I’m not the worst of what I’ve done,” said Hov as both took a moment to reflect on their shared mistakes.

Keep flipping for five more moments that made Jay and Dave’s talk a must-stream.

1. Jay Flips The Script On Dave

Early in the interview, Dave asks Jay to name a successful rapper who he thinks “can’t rap.”

Seeing the “negativity trap” a mile away, Jay flips the question and asks Dave to name a late night TV host who he thinks is terrible. Dave can’t help but laugh and move to the next question.

Hov, then goes on to sing the praises of peers like Snoop Dogg and Eminem when discussing what makes a rapper great.

2. Spanish Jose Put Him On

According to Jay, he was introduced to the crack game by a local bodega owner named Spanish Jose. Jose’s family owned a Brooklyn bodega, and one day he pulled Jay and a friend aside to compliment them on how they carried themselves.

Soon, Jay was running drugs from Brooklyn to Trenton, New Jersey, bringing home $2,000 a day.

Now, that’s a paper route.

3. Ms. Lowden Inspired His Lyricism

Jay’s gift for wordplay was nurtured by his 6th grade English teacher, Ms. Lowden, who encouraged him to discover new words in the dictionary.

During a class trip to Ms. Lowden’s house, he remembers being impressed by the fact that she had a refrigerator with an ice-maker in it.

Back then, he thought, “I might be an English teacher (when I grow up); She’s getting it.”

After a quick chuckle, he quickly turned his joke into a serious reminder to the live audience that, “We need to pay our teachers more.”

4. A Trip To England Saved Him From Prison

When friend and collaborator Jaz-O got signed to a record deal, he invited Jay to London, England to record for two weeks.

During that time, an indictment rounded up 30 of Jay’s friends and associates for dealing. The charges put Emory Jones, who now works for Roc Nation, behind bars for 11 years.

Jay says he’s certain that he would not be on stage with Letterman in 2018 if he hadn’t made that trip with Jaz.

5. He Made “Smile” The Day After His Mom Came Out To Him

Jay says he’d known for a long time that his mother was a lesbian, but that when she shared the specifics of her love with him less than a year ago, he was still moved to tears.

Jay quickly directed his emotions into 4:44’s “Smile,” spitting:

Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian
Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian
Had to hide in the closet, so she medicate
Society shame and the pain was too much to take
Cried tears of joy when you fell in love
Don’t matter to me if it’s a him or her

Queen Gloria Carter also added her own bars to the track.

Check out her poem about coming out of the shadows below:

Living in the shadow
Can you imagine what kind of life it is to live?
In the shadows people see you as happy and free
Because that’s what you want them to see
Living two lives, happy, but not free
You live in the shadows for fear of someone hurting your family or the person you love
The world is changing and they say it’s time to be free
But you live with the fear of just being me
Living in the shadow feels like the safe place to be
No harm for them, no harm for me
But life is short, and it’s time to be free
Love who you love, because life isn’t guaranteed
Smile

Hit the jump for more must-see clips from the talk.