Jay-Z on kids: `It`s more important to be present than to provide`

The 42-year-old rapper, who is expecting his first child with wife Beyoncé, was left heartbroken when his own father walked out on his when he was just 11. He said that he wants to make sure that he has all the time in the world for his own kids.

'Providing - that's not love,' he told GQ magazine. 'Being there - that's more important. I mean, we see that. We see that with all these rich socialites. They're crying out for attention - they're hurting for love.

'I'm not being judgmental - I'm just making an observation. They're crying out for the love that maybe they didn't get at home, and they got everything. All the material things that they need and want. So we know that's not the key.'

Talking about the pain of being abandoned by dad Adnis Reeves, Jay admitted that it was harder to cope with because they had been so close.

'If your dad died before you were born, yeah, it hurts, but it's not like you had a connection with something that was real,' he explained. 'Not to say it's any better, but to have that connection and then have it ripped away was, like, the worst. My dad was such a good dad that when he left, he left a huge scar. He was my superhero.'

But when they finally reconciled in 2003, there was no explanation that would ever make it okay.

'[I talked about] what it did to me, what it meant, asked him why. There was no real answer. There was nothing he could say, because there's no excuse for that. There really isn't. So there was nothing he could say to satisfy me, except to hear me out. And it was up to me to forgive and let it go.'