The Grammy-winning musician opened up about wife Beyonce and daughter Blue Ivy in the November issue of Vanity Fair. The magazine threw back to the 2001 issue in which he and his wife both landed the cover, and Hova revealed that's when they "were just beginning to try to date each other."
"Well, you know, you've got to try first. You got to dazzle . . . wine and dine," he told the mag's Lisa Robinson, who wondered if he would have been as successful with Bey had he been a gas station attendant. But he was "fiercely confident" in his swagger.
If I'm as cool as I am, yes," the 43-year-old said. "But she's a charming Southern girl, you know, she's not impressed … But I would have definitely had to be this cool."
He also joked that the pop diva was a "good girl" until she got involved with him. "She's gangsta now," he added.
Which brings us to Blue Ivy and the whole fake baby bump and birth ordeal, which irked the rapper.
"It's just so stupid," he said. "You know, I felt dismissive about it, but you've got to feel for her. I mean, we've got a really charmed life, so how can we complain? But when you think about it, we're still human beings.... And even in hip-hop, all the blogs — they had a field day with it. I'm like, 'We come from you guys, we represent you guys. Why are you perpetuating this? Why are you adding fuel to this ridiculous rumor?' "
Rumor also had it that their 18-month-old preferred his mother's booty-shaking music to her dad's lyrical throwdowns, which he insists isn't true either.
"She does like her mother's music — she watches [Beyoncé's concerts] on the computer every night," he said. "But my album came out and I don't know if Blue ever heard any of my music prior to this album — she's only 18 months old and I don't play my music around the house. But this album was new, so we played it. And she loves all the songs. She plays a song and she goes, 'More, Daddy, more.… Daddy song.' She's my biggest fan. If no one bought the 'Magna Carta' [album], the fact that she loves it so much, it gives me the greatest joy. And that's not like a cliché. I'm really serious."
Hova said he and Beyonce also had no plans to make products bearing their daughter's moniker, explaining that they had her name trademarked only so it couldn't be exploited by others for profit.
"People wanted to make products based on our child's name and you don't want anybody trying to benefit off your baby's name," he said. "It wasn't for us to do anything; as you see, we haven't done anything."
Despite the discussion of money and the fact that the A-listers were recently named the highest-earning celebrity couple by Forbes -- making a cool $95 million combined last year -- Jay Z dismissed the number as a "guesstimate," saying that money isn't what motivates him.
"I'm not motivated by that. ... I don't sit around with my friends and talk about money, ever. On a record, that's different."
In the full interview, which hits newsstands Oct. 9, he also talks about his childhood in Brooklyn, his past as a crack dealer and thoughts on President Obama's reelection.
