Review Summary: Exclusive gold.
Jay-Z’s perseverance with the ever-failing Tidal service is surprisingly admirable. After the mess that was the lead-up and subsequent release of Kanye’s
The Life of Pablo, the album brought an incredible amount of traffic to the service, and paved the way for exclusivity for album releases on specific streaming services. Of course, this is easily counteracted by the fact the album was torrented 500,000 times within the first twenty-four hours, but nonetheless the album performed far better than one would have perhaps expected, regardless of the association with an unhinged character. So, with the return of another infamous character, should you fire up that Tidal app once again?
Hell
fucking yeah you should.
It wouldn’t be surprising to find Jay-Z furthering his sound after the mess that was
Magna Carta…, but seeing as the rap game has progressed immensely since 2013, Shawn Carter embraces the changes, and creates something entirely his own. The stop-start samples flow smoothly in-between the crisp quality of his vocals, and prove his omnipresent style and substance. Although it doesn’t have quite match the character of his contemporaries, his laid-back delivery settles the listener in from opening track ‘Kill Jay Z’ and proves further his ability to craft fantastic songs. Additionally, much of the beat work ebbs and flows seamlessly, never particularly stealing the spotlight but rather staying low enough in the mix to maintain a sufficient backbone. Songs like ‘The Story of O.J.’ particularly live and die by the beat, and thankfully, despite the less than stellar lyrics (love hearing Jay-Z continually say ‘African American’ to further his point), the beat doesn’t let up and plays an integral part later in the album on songs such as ‘Family Feud’.
The samples littered throughout
4:44 also contribute to an already fantastic album. ‘Smile’ seamlessly intertwines Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today” and continues to prove both the song and the sample's staying power even as an afterword from Gloria Carter winds the song down. ‘Family Feud’ also centres itself perfectly around its sample, “Ha Ya” by The Clark Sisters, and sounds even more fantastic as Beyoncé enters the frame for a moment. Throughout, the quality maintains a high attention to detail, and sounds even better with the minimalist approach of the beats. Even when the feature detracts from the track, such as on ‘Bam’ with Damian Marley, the double samples of “Bam Bam” by Sister Nancy and “Tenement Yard” by Jacob Miller stop and start with ease, and help to carry the lacklustre vocal performance. As the album winds down, so too does Jay-Z; ‘Marcy Me’ is beautifully carried by his flow, with a Hamlet quote somehow working perfectly with the song: “Lo, we know who we are/We know not what we may be/Maybe I’m the one or maybe I’m crazy”, and closer ‘Legacy’ samples the fantastically low-key “Someday We’ll All Be Free” by Donny Hathaway as Jay-Z winds down; “Black excellency/Baby let em’ see”.
And it’s an appropriate way to sign off
4:44, as the album sees a rap legend come back to a forever changing sound and make it his own. The minimalist beats that filter their way through the album play an integral part of the progression of songs, and always play perfectly into the hands of Carter. His large array of samples keeps an ever-present laid-back listening experience for the thirty-six minute runtime, and shows that even if your dog old, you sure as hell can teach him new tricks.
4.44/5
Seek Out: Smile, Family Feud, Marcy Me, Legacy
Avoid: The Story of O.J
