Jay Z has just dropped his mysterious new album 4:44 exclusively available to Tidal subscribers.
The album is Hov’s first offering in four years and 14 album overall. Stepping away from the current trend of 20+ track listings, 4:44 is a concise 10 tracks and comes in at a running time of just 35 minutes.
The track, “Kill Jay Z”, which was teased earlier also feature some not-so-indirect shots at what many believe to be Kanye West.
The long term collaborator’s relationship broke down last year after a torrent of strange behaviour culminated in Kanye begging Jay and Bey not to put a hit out on him while performing a show. Kanye was later hospitalised for temporary psychosis but it seemed the friendship was damaged beyond repair.
“Kill Jay Z” includes the lines, “You walking around like you invincible/You dropped out of school, you lost your principles/I know people backstabbed you, I felt bad too/But this ‘fuck everybody’ attitude ain’t natural.” And “You gave him 20 million without thinkin’/He gave you 20 minutes on stage, fuck was he thinkin’?” Looks like there is still a way to go before the pair can reconcile.
As suspected, Jay takes the opportunity to respond to his wife Beyonce after last year’s surprise album Lemonade exposed his creeping ways. The album’s title track “4:44” includes the lines, “I apologise, our love was one for the ages and I contained us,” and “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 prolly die with all the shame.”
Jigga also dropped the album’s first visuals, entitled “The Story Of OJ”. The clip is an black and white animated joint featuring Warner Brother-esque characters in an old school New York setting with a focus on race and a sample of Nina Simone’s “Four Women”.
Non-Tidal users are only able to see the first 41 seconds which doesn’t even include any bars, but this beat is enough to get you hooked.
Luckily, some sneaky fans have uploaded the whole clip to Twitter, check it while it’s still there.