It’s been widely acknowledged in many corners that this is Beyoncé‘s world and we’re just living in it.
For at least the past three years, that fact has been truer for no one than it has been for Jay-Z.
Without his wife of nine years and overall partner since 2002, sure, he’s still one of the most successful, critically acclaimed rappers of all time and a savvy businessman whose empire has expanded to include at any given time a record company, clothing, restaurants, liquor, the Brooklyn Nets and, most recently, the streaming service Tidal.
An enviable life, indeed, one that in most cases would be enough for him to be deservedly known for the rest of his life as a pioneering talent and beacon of by-the-boot-straps prosperity. There, epitaph written.
But thanks to Beyoncé, we know that 47-year-old Shawn Carter is also just a guy, one who was subjected to the most average of human temptation and utterly failed the test. A regular man who proved he was no better than any unfaithful husband, billion-dollar business acumen notwithstanding.
So isn’t it refreshing that on 4:44, Jay-Z’s 13th solo studio album, he admits that?
The narrative bookend to 2016’s Lemonade, Beyoncé’s culture-impacting bombshell of an album, 4:44 arrived last night and was immediately torn open and gutted for parts.
In some Bey-centric circles it’ll be considered mainly the long-awaited “response to Lemonade,” the one that was first rumored to be in the works days after Lemonade‘s April 23, 2016, release. On the flip side, as a real conversation-starter it’s the standout track “The Story of O.J.” and its accompanying gut-punch of a video that deserves all the attention this fractured world has to offer.
But there would not be the across-the-board hype that there was for 4:44 if Jay-Z hadn’t been expected to answer for himself—as a husband, as a father and as a flawed human being—on it, and he didn’t disappoint.
And as Beyoncé ripped the veil off the lie that you can be too famous, too talented, too beautiful or too fierce to be hurt and end up suffering for another’s sins, Jay Z has now shown that there’s strength in admitting that you screwed up.And in so doing, he offers up his own case for redemption, as well as takes the introspective, so-called sensitive or love-song hip-hop performed by the likes of Drake and the self-flagellating game heretofore mastered by Kanye West to a whole new level.
Jay-Z also took pains to remind us that neither Lemonade nor the elevator started anything. He started it, years ago.
“You egged Solange on / Knowin’ all along /All you had to say you was wrong,” Jay raps on 4:44‘s opening track, “Kill Jay Z,” recalling how Bey’s sister started swinging away at him while the three of them were in a NYC hotel elevator together after the 2014 Met Gala that May. “You almost went Eric Benét / Let the baddest girl in the world get away / N—a, never go Eric Benét.
“I don’t even know what you woulda done / in the Future, other n—as playin’ football with your son / You would’ve lost it / 13 bottles of Ace of Spade, what it did to Boston.”
Eric Benét has admitted to cheating on then-wife Halle Berry, and Future‘s ex-fiancée Ciara is now married to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, now Future Jr.’s stepdad. Also, Jay owns a piece of the company that makes Ace of Spade champagne—famously chugged by the Boston Bruins’ Stanley Cup-winning team in 2011 and the recipient of multiple mentions on the album—and the 13 is seemingly a reference to this being his 13th album.
But such is the creative joy inherent in making rhymes, even gut-wrenching ones. More artful that than your average apology, isn’t it?
Bey’s self-titled 2013 album painted a most attractive picture of her marriage, “Drunk in Love” pointing out just how hot a couple she and Jay still were after, at the time, 12 years together and the birth of their daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. Fresh off their lucrative On the Run Tour, they were sitting comfortable on top of the world in 2014.
So Solange going after her brother-in-law just a few months after Jay and Bey opened the Grammys like royalty was the family squabble that launched a thousand theories (despite the family itself quickly putting a lid on it with a joint statement professing their support of each other). For a couple that till then did their laundry in utmost privacy,…
The post How Jay-Z Wisely Threw Himself at Beyoncé’s Feet and Raised the Bar for Hip-Hop Introspection—and Apologies appeared first on FeedBox.