Jay-Z wants to start a family.

 The 40-year-old rapper would love to have children with wife Beyonce Knowles after being inspired by close  friends  Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow  who have kids  Apple, five, and four-year-old Moses together.

 He said: “They are a really cool family with beautiful kids, who happen to be good at the jobs  they do.”

 Asked if he wanted something similar himself, the ’99 Problems’ star – who says Apple and Moses call him ‘Uncle Jay’, said : “Kids? Of course.” They are a really cool family with beautiful kids, who happen to be good at the jobs they do.

Though the music mogul – who dealt drugs in his native Marcy, New York, when he was 13 – is now close friends with the privately-educated  Coldplay  frontman, he admits it wouldn’t have been the case if they had met earlier in life.

 He said: “What would I have thought of Chris at 16? That’s a different scenario. He couldn’t have walked through Marcy. I was a different person then – I wasn’t open to the world and different cultures.

“I would have been, ‘Yo! Who are you? Give me your money.’

 You couldn’t have a guy like Chris walking through Marcy. He’d have got robbed. At best.”

Beyonce  has also admitted she wanted to try for a baby this year.

 Last July, the ‘Crazy in Love’ singer hinted she may get pregnant once her year-long tour was over.

 She said: “I think I’ll have a child when it’s supposed to happen. Right now, I’ll be on tour for a year and, you know…”