Anais Gutierrez
Friday marked the releasement of Jay-Z’s new album ‘4:44,’ and the rapper is really not holding anything back. The album addresses political and personal subjects, such as the infidelity rumors and the infamous fight with Solange.
Tidal subscribers got a treat by the streaming service owner, as he decided to release his new album exclusively.
Raising the bar for apologies
Just a few weeks after welcoming the anticipated twins to the family, Jay-Z drops his 13th solo album which is rather personal.
In ‘4:44’, Jay-Z meditates on his fame, wealth, troubled upbringing and experience as a black man in America. But before he gets to all that, he has a certain elevator fight and rumors to address.
And he does, several times.
The album opener, ‘Kill Jay-Z’, directly references the incident from the 2014 Met Gala when Beyoncé’s sister Solange Knowles and the rapper infamously got into a fight.
At the time, there was much speculation linking the fight to his affair. Over time rumors grew and grew, and Beyonce’s ‘Lemonade’ was kinda a confirmation, as the singer aired a lot about the issue.
On the song, he raps, “You egged Solange on / known’ all along / all you had to say was wrong.”
Later in the song, he also calls on himself to be a better man by saying, “But you gotta do better, boy, you owe it to Blue.”
The song also speaks about infidelity by referencing Eric Benet, who cheated on Halle Berry saying, “You almost went Eric Benet / let the baddest girl in the world get away.”
The rapper has stated that the title is not to be taken literally, but rather a killing of the ego.
Jay-Z makes references to the infidelity in two more songs
In ‘Family Feud,’ Jay references ‘Lemonade’s most notorious lyric halfway through the track.
“I’ll (expletive) up a good thing if you let me / Let me alone, Becky! / A man who don’t take care of his family can’t be rich” he raps, referencing to the mystery “Becky with the good hair” from Beyonce’s ‘Sorry’.
Wrapping up with the infidelity subject, Jay-Z delivers quite an apology to his wife in ‘4:44’ which is also the title of the album.
According to the rapper, the song is “the crux of the album.” The title of the song comes as he woke up at 4:44 to write the song.
“‘So, it became the title of the album and everything,” Jay-Z told iHeartRadio.
“It’s the title track because it’s such a powerful song, and I just believe one of the best songs I’ve ever written.”
As for his infidelity, he rapped, “And if my children knew / I don’t even know what I would do / If they ain’t look at me the same / I would probably die with all the shame / ‘You did what with who?’ / What good is a ménage à trois when you have a soulmate? / ‘You risked that for Blue?'”
The rapper also mentioned Beyoncé’s miscarriages and the recent birth of their twins.
“I apologize, often womanize / Took for my child to be born / See through a woman’s eyes / Took for these natural twins to believe in miracles / Took me too long for this song / I don’t deserve you,” Jay-Z rapped.
Raising the bar for hip-hop introspection
Coming in the wake of ‘Lemonade,’ an ambitious multimedia project that was simultaneously Beyoncé’s most personal and most political work to date, ‘4:44’ finds Jay-Z in a similar mode, weaving confessional and autobiographical songwriting with big-picture perspectives on black life in the United States in 10 intense tracks.
The trailer for the album featured cameos from Oscar-winning actors Mahershala Ali, Danny Glover and Lupita Nyong’o.
The album features tracks with Beyoncé (who is also a co-writer), Frank Ocean and Damian Marley—as well as the rapper’s mom, Gloria Carter. There’s also a cute participation of the power duo’s daughter, Blue Ivy.
There’s really no unexplored subject in ‘4:44.’ In ‘Caught Their Eyes’, the rapper opens up about growing up in Brooklyn. ‘Marcy Me’ it’s about hopefulness and the desire of making dreams come true.
‘Legacy’ explores family and family history, it even has a little Blue-Ivy participation. And talking about family participation, in ‘Smile’ the rapper’s mom, Gloria Carter, takes on and raps about her sexuality.
“Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian / Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian / Had to hide in the closet, so she medicate / Society shame and the pain was too much to take”
On a lighter note, In ‘Moonlight ‘Jay-Z addresses the winning of ‘Moonlight’ as best motion picture.
“The hook is ‘We stuck in La La Land/Even if we win, we gonna lose,'” he said. “It’s like a subtle nod to ‘La La Land’ winning the Oscar, and then having to give it to ‘Moonlight’. It’s really a commentary on the culture and where we’re going.”
Going political
In keeping with the couple’s extended turn toward activism, ‘4:44’ looks outward as well as inward. O.J. Simpson, the former football player who was accused and acquitted of killing two people, served as Jay-Z’s inspiration.
“O.J. like, ‘I’m not black, I’m O.J.’ / OK / House n—a, don’t f–k with me,” he said. “I’m a field n—a with shined cutlery / Gold-plated quarters where the butlers be,” he raps.
“The Story of OJ’ is really a song about we as a culture, having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward,” Jay-Z said.
“We all make money, and then we all lose money, as artists especially. But how, when you have some type of success, [we can] transform that into something bigger.”
The track ‘The Story of O.J.’ comes with a potentially incendiary video on Tidal directed by Mark Romanek and Jay-Z.
The black-and-white animated video for ‘The Story of O.J.’ plays with racial caricatures and historical allusions to slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, segregation, lynching, the Black Panthers and more, all while turning lyrically on the assertion by O.J. Simpson that “I’m not black, I’m O.J.”
Source: Business Insider
