Jay-Z dropped his new album "4:44" today, and the internet is having a field day with it.
Instead of the usual collection of producers, he's only worked with No I.D., who previously produced Jay's tracks "Run This Town" and "Holy Grail".
There's also no sign of Kanye West, and some are even reading into some of lyrics as an attack on his rap-BFF. On album opener "Kill Jay-Z", you'll hear the following:
"I know people back-stab you, I felt that too / But this f*ck everybody attitude ain’t natural / But you ain’t the same, this ain’t Kumba-Ye / But you got hurt because you think Kumbaye / You give him $20 million without blinking / he gave you 20 minutes on stage, f*ck what was he thinking? / 'F*ck wrong with everybody?’ is what you saying / But if everyone is crazy, you’re the one that’s insane."
This may or may not have been a response to Kanye's rant about Jay-Z during one of his Saint Pablo gigs last year, when West called out Jay for what essentially sums up to being ghosted:
"I’ve been sitting here to give y’all the truth. Jay Z, call me, bruh. You still ain’t calling me. Jay Z, call me. Aye, bruh, I know you got killers. Please don’t send them at my head. Just call me. Talk to me like a man. I’m not trying to be the man. I just am a man, the same as anybody here. I ain’t above, below none of y’all. We all equal. We all equal. This is the vibes, bro. This is the future."
Anyways, as juicy as that is-it-or-isn't-it goss may-or-may-not-be, we're all really here to see if Jay responded to those accusations on Beyonce on her "Lemonade" album last year, and he does. A lot.
First up, we reckoned "Becky with the good hair..." was just an off-the-cuff remark by Beyonce, but Jay name-checks her directly on his track "Family Feud" (which features Beyonce on additional vocals, FYI), with the line "I’ll f*ck 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 / I watched Godfather, I missed that whole sh*t."
Back on the opening track "Kill Jay-Z", he raps (to himself) about THAT elevator moment: "You egged Solange on, knowin' all along all you had to say you was wrong / You almost went Eric Benét, let the baddest girl in the world get away / I didn't even know what else to say. Never go Eric Benét / I don't even know what you woulda done, in the future, other n****rs playing football with your son".
And finally, on the title track, he states: "If my children knew, I don’t even know what I would do / If they ain’t look at me the same, I would prolly 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?”
So there you have it.
Should we take it as confirmation? Maybe. There is just as much chance that this is a very famous couple airing their dirty laundry in the most public way possible, as it is likely that this is all a very clever way of getting people to listen to your albums.
Either way, the album is a Tidal exclusive (much like Lemonade was), so it might be an even smarter way to get folk to sign up to their streaming service...
