MUMBAI: When it came to fatherhood, Jay-Z was happy to dive right into the deep end—literally, that is.

The "Empire State of Mind" rapper shared on HBO Max's series The Shop: Uninterrupted that he made the choice to learn a new skill after his wife Beyoncé gave birth to their first child Blue Ivy Carter in 2012.

"It's amazing. It's a very grounding thing," he said of becoming a dad. "I didn't learn how to swim until Blue was born. There goes everything you need to know. This is a metaphor for our relationship. If she ever fell in the water and I couldn't get her, I couldn't even fathom that thought. I gotta learn how to swim. That's it. That was the beginning of our relationship."

Jay-Z and Beyoncé are now also parents to twins Rumi and Sir, who were born in June 2017.

The music producer previously opened up about his insecurities around parenting in a 2013 ad for his album Magna Carta Holy Grail.

"It's most obvious on the song 'JAY Z Blue,'" Jay-Z explained. "And it deals with—you know, my pop left when I was young, so he didn't teach me how to be a man nor how to raise a child or treat a woman. So, of course, my karma, the two things I needed I don't have, right? And I have a daughter. It's the paranoia of not being a great dad."