Jay-Z has been invited to the White House "a couple of times", he said this weekend – he just hasn't had the time to take President Obama up on the offer. The celebrated rapper is, after all, a busy man, making albums, recording guest appearances and, er, convincing Lily Allen to come out of semi-retirement.
"Barack [Obama] loves hip-hop," Jay-Z told Jonathan Ross. "When I called him he was playing Blueprint in the gym." Though we're not sure why the President of the Free World would give Jigga his mobile number, at least Jay-Z isn't monopolising his time. "I've been invited to the White House a couple of times," he said. "Hopefully, we'll keep him in for eight years so I'll have time to get there."
At the moment, Jay-Z is too busy planning a summer tour to waste away an afternoon in the Oval Office. In addition to concerts in Manchester and Birmingham, the rapper will perform alongside Pink and the Ting Tings at London's Wireless festival, for which he is apparently trying to rope in Lily Allen.
"I know her for a minute," Jay-Z told BBC Newsbeat. "I think she's a great artist." Allen and Jay-Z were both winners at last week's Brit awards, but the Smile singer has said that she is retiring – or at least taking time off – from the music business. "I just don't really want to go on the road for another three years," she told BBC 6 Music. "I'm moving on to pastures new."
This doesn't seem to have fazed Jay-Z. "I spoke to Lily Allen," he said. "Hopefully that goes through. I bum-rushed them in the corner where they can't say no." Perhaps Obama ought to try that "bum-rushing" tactic.
