Jay-Z's '4:44'; Classic!, Dope, Regular, or Garbage?

Jay-Z has gotten much praise for his verse on DJ Khaled’s “God Did.” With that being said, I think it’s a perfect time to revisit his 2017 4:44 album.

Check out what I had to say upon it’s initial release.

From Jigga to Hova, from Jigga Man to H.O.V.; it really didn’t matter which name you got, you were pretty much going to get the same “flashy n***a bragging on a song.” Well, not quite, but you definitely weren’t going to get the Jay-Z you got in his recent release, 4:44.

Honestly, I prejudge the project off it’s title alone. With numbers in the context, I figured it would be much similar to “22 Two’s,” a track from his debut, Reasonable Doubt, where Jay shows off his lyrical ability while incredibly mentioning “Two” 22 times. And basically that’s it; nothing more, nothing less. However, 4:44 was more than that, and not just from a numerical standpoint.

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On his 13th solo, Jay shows the fans a side he had not shown–a side that consists of imperfection, empowerment, and education, among other things. That same side resulting in an apologetic Jay reassuring Beyonce’s fans via title track that it was him whom she was talking about in, “Sorry.”

“He only want me when I’m not there, he better call Becky with the good hair.”

Jay touched on other personal issues as well. For example, he told his side of the story concerning the misunderstanding between him and Kanye West. Personally, I thought he was a little late on that, but that’s Jay-Z for you; he moves at his own pace.

Jay confessed to a lot of other closed-door topics, but he wouldn’t ride the Usher–“these are my confessions” wave for long. “The Story of O.J.” was just what it was: success in America as a man of color won’t change their perception.

“Rich n***a, poor n***a, house n***a, field n***a; still n***a,” Jay reassures.

For a rapper that has bragged on numerous songs about living the lavish lifestyle, ironically he reaches back — sort of — to educate and inform the youngins’ the importance of things other that just having lots of cash within arm’s reach.

“You wanna know what’s more important than throwin’ away money at a strip club? Credit.”

As I aforementioned, Jay would speak of empowerment.

“I’ll be damned if I drink some Belvedere while Puff got Ciroc, ya’ll need to stop.”

After listening to the whole album, I put my earphones down and walked away as a pleased Jay-Z fan. As he approaches 50, it seems as if he’s getting better with time. Which in turn, makes me ask: why hasn’t Jay rapped like this already? Technically, he reached O.G. status a few years ago.

Anyways, I take my hat off to No. I.D. for the prodigious production and pushing Jay to knew creative boundaries.