Inside these personal revelations, one of rap’s greatest thinkers rediscovers his sharpness. Every angle he creates is informed by blackness (on “Legacy” he raps, “We gon’ start a society within a society/That’s major, just like the Negro League/There was a time America wouldn’t let us ball/Those times are now back”), as “The Story of O.J.” states outright in its hook and “Moonlight” insinuates more subtly. But, above all else, 4:44 is about legacy: how Jay will be remembered, what he’s leaving to his children, what he’s done for the culture, and what he’s trying to do for society. It only takes JAY-Z 36 minutes to create the historical artifact he’s wanted to make for years, a tell-all document to be hung in the halls of rap about infidelity and outgrowing friends, the way family shapes us and the way we carry those burdens into parenthood, and about evolving into more complete versions of ourselves. This is Hov’s gospel, a Shawn Carter retrospective measuring missteps and triumphs, wondering aloud if his work will appreciate in value, and what exactly is worth valuing.
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Fatherhood has eroded some of that cool, but 4:44 deconstructs an entire worldview. Before, he was unfadable, the supreme hustler without error.
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The album is certainly built around a betrayal, but his duplicity, the corresponding apology, and his reassessment are vehicles for his own maturation. It wasn’t until the mid-90s that we even started this concept of multiple producers on projects.4:44 isn’t JAY-Z’s Lemonade, a response to Lemonade, or a Lemonade companion piece. I think it’s something we need more of in all music. No I.D.: It was a real artist-producer relationship on a traditional level. But 4:44 marks a special moment in his career – firstly, because Jay-Z has never stuck to one producer over the course of an entire album, and secondly, the project is arguably Hov’s most personal and heartfelt to date. has crafted countless classics for rappers like Common, Pusha T, Kanye, Nas, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, and Big Sean, just to name a few. “So I just started sampling songs off of that playlist that he gave me.”Īs one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, No I.D.
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“Jay is credited as co-producer on five of those songs because he basically made a playlist of songs that he listened to at his house and it was in the spirit of the soundtrack that he wanted to capture,” No I.D.
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While Jay-Z would get co-production credits on a few songs (“The Story of O.J.”, “Smile”, “Caught Their Eyes”, “Moonlight” and “Legacy”), the bulk of the work was done by one producer, the first time ever in Hov’s recording career. So it was a big surprise for Hov fans when it was revealed that his thirteenth solo album, the deeply personal and introspective 4:44, had only one producer on the track listing: the legendary No I.D. Whether it was Timbaland’s trunk-rattling “Big Pimpin'” or creating a soulful masterpiece with the likes of Just, Kanye and Bink, Jay-Z has always been quick to spot production talent and capitalise on that. Over his 30-year rap career, Jay-Z has earned the reputation for having one of the greatest ears in hip hop.įrom Just Blaze to Kanye West, Timbaland to Swizz Beatz, Hov has always been the best at pulling out the best production from his collaborators.