Jay Zs 4 4. 4 A Track by Track Guide. Veteran MC Jay Z dropped his 1. Tidal, the streaming service he owns. On the album, executive produced by No I. Jay Z 9Th Wonder Black Is Back' title='Jay Z 9Th Wonder Black Is Back' />D., Jay Z takes a pro black stance, addresses intergenerational conflicts in hip hop and talks about marital troubles after many had interpreted lines for his wife Beyoncs 2. Lemonade as alluding to infidelity. Heres a track by track breakdown of 4 4. Kill Jay ZAhead of the release of 4 4. Jay Z, the stylization that Sean Carter used from roughly 1. Jay Z. The fact that the first new song by the renewed Jay Z is titled Kill Jay Z, with no hyphen, is either a typographical error or pointed subtext. Impact. Thats what happened when JAYZ dropped his 13th platinum album, 444, Released exclusively on TIDAL and debuting later at number one on Billboard, the. All 274 JayZ Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best Alltime classics, unfortunate clunkers, and more. Fresh rap lyrics about life, love, money and more. Jay Z 9Th Wonder Black Is Back' title='Jay Z 9Th Wonder Black Is Back' />Is he killing off the version of himself from the last four years, the one that inspired the songs of betrayal on Beyonces Lemonade Its really about the ego, Jay said in an i. Heart Radio interview that accompanied the premiere of the album. Its about killing off the ego, so we can have this conversation in a place of vulnerability and honesty. Kill Jay Z samples the Alan Parson Projects 1. Dont Let It Show, with Dave Townsends skipping, stuttering voice repeating the words They say Im to blame throughout the track. In one long, uninterrupted verse, Jay Z zeroes in on several of the most significant conflicts in his life. He mentions the childhood incident in which he shot his own brother, memorialized in the 1. You Must Love Me and the 1. Lance Un Rivera that became his biggest scrape with the law as a celebrity. But there are two particular headline grabbing incidents that get the most intriguing references on Kill Jay Z. You dropped outta school, you lost your principles, he says as he begins subliminally, but sharply, addressing Kanye The College Dropout West, who called out Jay during a concert last November. You gave him 2. 0 million without thinkin, Jay says, supposedly confirming a rumor that he lent West a large sum of money a few years ago. He gave you 2. 0 minutes on stage, fuck was he thinkin Later, Jay brings up the 2. Met Gala incident, when Beyoncs sister Solange got physical with him in an elevator, an altercation that was caught on security camera. It was the first signal to the world that not all was well in the Carter family. You egged Solange on, knowing all along, all you had to say was you was wrong, he castigates himself. Thinking back to the time he almost lost Beyonc, Jay makes allusions to the men that famously fumbled relationships with Halle Berry You almost went Eric Benet and Ciara In the Future, other niggas playin football with your son. The Story of O. J. Jay Z and executive producer No. I. D. establish 4 4. This is the first of many beats that build around a straightforward, unfussy loop, nodding to the early part of Jay Zs career when his work was a bastion of boom bap. On The Story of O. J., a bass thunks out a few ripe notes, and a flighty piano tumbles after. Snippets of Nina Simones voice from Four Women rub against Jay Zs conversational raps. In that song, from 1. Simone famously narrates the tales of four different black women, all of whom are battling the effects of entrenched racism in American society. Jay Z uses a similar conceit for his jumping off point Light nigga, dark nigga, faux nigga, real nigga, he raps. Jay Z adds an assertion of unity across these factions still nigga. He also appears to dispute O. J. Simpsons famous statement about being able to escape the color of his skin. O. J. like, Im not black, Im O. J., Jay Z notes. He responds with a noncommittal verbal shrug OK. In the second half of the song, Jay Z focuses on amassing resources as a potential way out of a deeply rooted cycle of violent marginalization. Financial freedom our only hope, he raps, Fuck living rich and dying broke. In the i. Heart. Radio interview, Jay Z described The Story of O. J. as a song about we as a culture having a plan for how were gonna push this forward. A black and white animated video for The Story of O. J. also surfaced on Tidal on Thursday night. Jay Z directed the clip along with Mark Romanek, the man behind 2. Problems video and feature films like Never Let Me Go. The clip centers on a character named Jaybo, a tweak on the Sambo character from the childrens book The Story of Little Black Sambo, a reference thats long running shorthand for racist portrayals of African Americans in the media. The character inhabits a number of personas based on the songs lyrics a slave picking cotton in the fields, a patient in therapy and, in a coy reference to the recent rumored birth of Jay Zs twins, a man holding a baby in each arm. This is not the first time Jay Z has rapped over a Simone sample Vocals from the iconic singer formed the basis for the Watch the Throne track New Day. And Jay Z uses Simone as a muse once more on 4 4. Caught Their Eyes. Just to drive home her importance, he also includes Simones 1. Wild Is the Wind in a new Tidal playlist titled 4 4. Inspired By. 3. Smile feat. Gloria Carter. The opening notes of Stevie Wonders Loves in Need of Love Today, which No I. D. subsequently chops, loops and lays over a digital rhythm, set a tone of familial warmth as Jay Z reminisces about his mother. Mama had four kids, shes a lesbianHad to pretend so long shes a thespian, he reveals. Download Film Bakugan Battle here. Cried tears of joy when she fell in loveDoesnt matter to me if its a him or her. Each verse shows how he attempts to turn pain to triumph in his life. Observations like being that boyAnita Bakers You Bring Me Joy slapping out of the toy sound celebratory instead of arrogant. Then he reminds us that, yes, he owns the music service on which this album premiered. Respect Jimmy Iovine, he says in regards to his Beats 1 competitor. But he gotta respect the ElohimIts a whole different regime. More than just braggadocio, its a call for his fans to support black entrepreneurship the same ethos that led Prince to give exclusive streaming rights to Tidal before he passed away. Finally, Jay Zs raps give way to a poem recited by his mother. She says, Living in the shadowCan you imagine what kind of life it is to liveDuring the i. Heart Radio interview, Jay Z discussed Smile. There are gonna be bad times, and those bad times can do two things They can get you in a place where youre stuck in a rut, or it can make your future that much better because youve experienced these things, he said. Caught Their Eyes feat. Frank Ocean. Although No I. D. produced every song on 4 4. Caught Their Eyes is one of five tracks with a co produced by Jay Z credit. Historically this has meant that Jay suggested a sample to a beatmaker, as when he brought 9th Wonder the R. Kelly loop used on 2. Threat. The source material that Jay presumably suggested for Caught Their Eyes is the second Nina Simone sample of the album her 1. Randy Newmans Baltimore previously sampled by the Game and countless Baltimore MCs like Mullyman and Jade Fox. Their eyes, sings Simone, with Frank Ocean finishing her sentence with still stinging with tearsIn the final year of Princes life, he befriended Jay Z, publicly praising Tidal as an artist friendly company and giving the site exclusive streaming rights for his catalog. Since Princes death last year, however, lawyers and family members have descended upon the rock legends estate, bringing Princes albums to other streaming services.