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evilradmedieval · 7 years ago

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Jay-Z - “4:44″ Review

He’s back. Nothing else can be said about hip-hop juggernaut and businessman Jay-Z. Since his inception into the game with rap classic Reasonable Doubt in the early 90′s, he’s consistently dropped a few of the most timeless albums in the genre to date. For over twenty years, he’s released hit after hit and has been dubbed as one of the greatest rap artists of all time. His latest effort in Magna Carta Holy Grail was an album that was released to fairly positive reviews, however I thought was overhyped in my own eyes as a Jay-Z fan. Despite this, I still believe him to be one of the most consistent rap artists making quality projects, despite several claims to be retiring from the rap game. With Jay-Z’s new project 4:44, I had completely no idea what he was going to do with this one, as his previous projects for the past decade have been about the similar narrative of him being at the top of the game and being “a business, man!” 4:44 came to me as a surprise, including very few features and was completely produced by hip-hop producer No I.D.. With that being said, let’s dive into each track.

The first track didn’t sound as well as I would have liked, as “Fuck Jay-Z” has one of the most outdated instrumentals on the entire tracklisting. It has this very repetitive beat that sounds like it came from one of Young Jeezy’s early 2000′s albums. The refrain by Jay-Z himself is pretty monotonous and lacking energy as well, however the aspect of the song that really takes the quality to another level is the self-aware lyrics. The song was meant to “kill Jay-Z’s ego” in a sense, in which he addresses highly publicized incidents. Among those include his current relationship with hip-hop enigma and collaborator Kanye West regarding the pulling of his music from Tidal. The track basically kicks off the album with this very un-egotistical and self-aware way in which Jay-Z fans aren’t used to.

“The Story of O.J.” follows up the opener with a piano section-sampled trap-flavored instrumental, as well as a prominent Nina Simone sample chopped throughout. From here on out, the tracks seem better mixed than the opener. On this track, Jay-Z clearly references the trial of O.J. Simpson, in which he drops many commentaries regarding race while also commenting on creating one’s own success despite any situation. His refrain is a perfect example of this, in which he names all types of people who end up in the same situation despite it all. The track probably has more subtexts within the context of the lyrics, however is a pretty profound commentary on race and success.

This pattern of soul samples and trap-flavored instrumentation follows in the subsequent track “Smile”. Stevie Wonder samples are interchanged with Jay-Z on the hook, which was interestingly mixed in. Topically, this track references the coming out of Jay-Z’s mother to being openly gay. Other than referencing his mother, the track also discusses other instances of hardship and dark times. he proceeds to elaborate upon these situations in the sense that they can build character. The track is then rounded out by a vocal epilogue by his very own mother, who makes a rather profound outro to the track. Definitely one of the standout tracks on the tracklisting.

Frank Ocean makes a quick appearance on the track “Caught In Their Eyes”, a track that topically addresses being aware of the negativity in your environment and dealing with situations at hand. The track is another soul-sampled track, yet doesn’t hit as hard sonically and is intricately chopped. This track happens to be the infamous reference to Prince and how his music camp tried to capitalize off of his music after his death on Tidal. Lyrically the song is dense and packed with dozens of detailed bars. The feature by Frank Ocean was unfortunately underutilized, as he didn’t really need to be on this track. His half-sung, half-rapped refrain was decent but could have been done by Jay-Z himself. Decent track, nonetheless.

The subsequent track has one of the more annoying vocal samples. On the title track of the album, we get these looping vocal samples in which the singer sounds like she’s giving birth. It would be fine if a variation of the vocals was present, but this same three seconds of the sample is looped over and over and it really detracted away from me paying attention to Jay-Z’s lyricism. Lyrically, Jay is at his most honest, addressing all the infidelities and doubts regarding his marriage to his wife Beyonce. There were some parts where his flow was so off key it sounded like he was just reading his lyrics from his phone. I know this is one of the more beloved songs of the albums, but I couldn’t get into the annoying sample and weird flow towards the latter end of the track. It just didn’t work well for me.

We get another soul-sampled instrumental in “Family Feud”, which is essentially a better version of the title track. The samples are looped, but aren’t annoying as fuck. I especially love when the trap-flavored drums and high hats kick in after the one-minute mark. Here, Jay-Z raps with more charisma and cynicism, addressing the various disconnects in hip-hop culture and the community. He drops a couple clever bars in here as well, saying how the old and new generation are bickering and looking for everyone to come together as one. Oh, and it turns out his wife is on the backing vocals sampled on the instrumental. Not a bad track at all.

One of the more harder hitting tracks sonically appears on the Damien Marley collaboration “Bam”. The track is a reggae-infused, trap-flavored lowkey banger with horn sections and an awesome vocal section by Marley himself. Lyrically, Jay-Z comes through with one of his more aggressive flows, in which it’s essentially a flip on what he did with “Fuck Jay-Z”. Here, he’s more egotistical and comes through with a lot of braggadocious bars that we’ve all come accustomed to. Again, not another bad track by Hov himself.

The Fugees sample on Jay-Z’s “Moonlight” was seen recently on DJ Khaled’s collaboration with Nas “Nas Album Done”. However, I thought the production on this instrumental didn’t match up to the quality of the sample on the Nas version, ironically enough. However, this instrumental has a more distinct sound separate from the sample itself. Interestingly enough, the song references the 2016 Oscar-winning film of the same name, in which the “Oh lalala” sample is a ironic reference to the mistakened winning movie La La Land. Simply enough, the song is a comment of the culture and the direction that it’s currently headed in.

We kick it back a little sonically with a simplistic piano-sampled instrumental in “Marcy Me”, which has a decent vocal hook sung by The-Dream. The track is beautifully produced, and especially changes up when The-Dream’s appearance on the hook comes on. Lyrically, the track deals with Jay-Z growing up in the Marcy homes in Brooklyn and the struggle. He then relates this to everyday struggle and being able to attain dreams. Again, his exceptional display of wordplay and flow is definitely evident here. This might be one of my favorite tracks on the album as well.

We come to an end with a small vocal appearance by the very own Blue Ivy. Jazzy horns and saxophones then kick in nicely in this smooth, soulful instrumental. Jay-Z’s flow is ridiculously laid back, spitting about leaving behind a legacy for his family. It comes to a point where he starts getting lazy with his flow and just lets it roll however he wanted. Despite that small hiccup, the album came to a close, leaving us with the conclusion of Jay-Z’s thirteenth album.

This one was a big pill to swallow. It’s honestly been a while since I’ve heard Jay-Z do something that wasn’t a bullshit feature on a pop-driven single (i.e. “I Got the Keys” and “Shining”). However, the follow-up to Magna Carter Holy Grail is finally here in all its glory. Jay-Z doesn’t necessarily rap with the most aggression or variance in his voice, but what really is the selling point of the album is his insane wordplay and ability to paint a vivid picture with his lyricism that has been refined for over twenty years in the making. The instrumentals are slightly indistinguishable, as they mainly feature soul-sampled trap-flavored tracks. However, it makes for a safe bet sonically for Jay-Z to really spit his bars and put things into perspective, as opposed to more experimental sounds. I really appreciated the direction he went on this album lyrically, as it shows an ability to accept what has already been said and comment upon other things. We wanted to know what Jay-Z has been up to, and 4:44 is the ultimate catch-up. Laidback beats, exceptional wordplay and relevant song themes make for this album to be a solid release by Jigga.

RATING: 7/10

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