444, Jay-Z message to world, America , Hip-Hop and Beyoncé
444 opens with the song “Kill Jay Z” as a way of setting up the album from the jump, with him honestly addressing all the past mistakes he’s made in his 20s to his conflict with Ye (Kanye West). In an interview with iHeart Radio, Jay-Z speaks on the importance of Kill Jay-Z “It’s really about the ego. It’s about killing off the ego, so we can have this conversation in a place of vulnerability and honesty.”
Throughout the whole album, Jay-Z describes these situations that are milestones within his life, finding clarity in his past highly publicized troubles and criticizing his handling of each situation. As a listener, you take in all the self-reflection that Jay-Z does on each track as if it’s a personal journal entrée into his mind. He is expressing what is truly on his heart, smoothly blending lyricism with the mellow sound of each beat that No I.D.
Speaking of the Chicago native No I.D who produced the entire album by himself, which was the first time that Jay-Z has worked with only one producer for an album. “This album is about Shawn Carter, Jay-Z, opening up, and me scoring that. It only came about me doing the whole album because the scoring part of the story started getting so specific that no one else knew how to do the music that fit what was going on.” Said No I.D in Rolling stone magazine.
While speaking with Rolling stone magazine, No I.D talks about how personal this album is for Jay-Z and how his job was to assist him with making this Jay-Z’s most personal album ever. By pushing HOV to go deep with his lyrics — using methods such as having Hannah Williams & The Affirmations as a simple song for 4:44, which is a track about infidelity connecting with overall lyrics of the song 4:44.
It’s the little things such as that simple which makes 4:44 a masterpiece, not just Jay-Z carrying the album with his lyrics but also the collaborative efforts from other people’s work on developing the project.
When you listen to 4:44, you hear the voices of a fantastic cast of artists and essential people in Jay-Z’s life. Those people including Dave Townsend, Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Clark Sisters with official features on the album being Gloria Carter (Jay-Z Mom), Frank Ocean, Damian Marley, Beyoncé, and Blue Ivy on the bonus track We Family.
Each person he features adds value to the album’s overall theme that gave it a sense of guidance through No I.D laying the production and with Jay-Z establishing his direction for the project. A direction at the bottom of the line is to express the criticism of his life events that he never mentioned in his public life.
In the songs Smile, Caught their Eyes, and 4:44, you get that raw emotion that Hov is trying to display in this album about some of his deepest thoughts on life. Like in Smile, you hear him describe how his mom had to deal with the pain of hiding her sexuality from the world, so much so she took drugs for that pain — bringing him to “Tears of Joy “when she finally got her freedom from social pressures against letting people be free sexual.
Then in caught their eyes, Jay-Z applies his confident flow onto a track to explain how his past experiences made him into the person he is today and sees beyond the deceptions in his life that outsiders bring to him on the daily. He speaks on sitting down with Prince before he died, expressing his discomfort with Prince’s private estate to let Prince’s privacy be destroyed after his death for making a profit off his death. “They only see green from them purple eyes They eyes hide, they eyes high, My eyes wide shut to all the lies -You greedy bastards sold tickets to walk through his house, I’m surprised you ain’t auction off the casket. “
That track leads into the title track 4:44, what seems to be an open love letter to his wife Beyoncé that discusses his infidelity to her. Apologizing for what he has done to her and created damage that could have lead to the destruction of his life because of his selfish decisions making Beyoncé feel although she didn’t matter.
Even though the phrase “I apologize” was used seven times throughout the song, it never feels overused. Especially when Jay bust out his bars in 4:44 “So I apologize I seen the innocence leave your eyes, I still mourn this death and I apologize for all the stillborns ’cause I wasn’t present Your body wouldn’t accept it, I apologize to all the women whom I toyed with your emotions ’Cause I was emotionless And I apologize ’cause at your best you are love” and Thinkin’ of all the time, you wasted it on all this basic s*** So I apologize”
Now to put this review to bed, 4:44 shows that Jay-Z still has a fantastic wordplay ability along with growth with the range of topics he chooses to address in his music. From talking about his failings to potent ruminations on black financial liberation keeps Jay-Z on top of the Hip-Hop genre with his legendary status.
Originally published at http://scubawrites.wordpress.com on May 24, 2018.
