The Must-Listens

4:44 — Jay-Z

This album is unchartered territory. For Jay-Z and for the rap game. This album represents the thoughts and emotions of a middle-aged rap mogul/superstar/husband/father/cheater. This record is all about the man, not the artist, trying to reconcile all of that. It plays as much like a therapy session as it does a hip-hop record. Dr. Dre cracked just the surface in 2015 with his Compton album in terms of being an accomplished, middle-aged, rapper who’s been to the mountaintop. What Jay-Z did was strip even more away of the facade, and what we got in return was his truest, rawest, and most emotional record yet. In his interview with the New York Times, he said, “The goal is not to be successful and famous. That’s not the goal. The goal is, if you have a specific God-given ability, is to live your life out through that”. He is living out his truth through the records on this album.

Right out of the gates on the intro track Kill Jay Z, he admits having an outsized ego which ultimately failed him,

“Kill Jay Z, they’ll never love you

You’ll never be enough, let’s just keep it real, Jay Z

Fuck Jay Z, I mean, you shot your own brother

How can we know if we can trust Jay Z?”.

The visuals for the album are incredible

On the title track, 4:44, Jay openly apologizes for the pain he caused his wife, Beyonce, and how it affected their lives, and potentially their childrens. He raps,

“Like the men before me, I cut off my nose to spite my face

I never wanted another woman to know

Something about me that you didn’t know

I promised, I cried, I couldn’t hold

I suck at love, I think I need a do-over

I will be emotionally available if I invited you over

I stew over, what if you over my shit?”

The fact that these lyrics can come from the same person that delivered to the world Big Pimpin’ goes to show his evolution not just as an artist, but as a man. He unpacks a lot on this track, and shows that the genre of hip-hop can go beyond money, clothes, hoes and club hits. The genre of hip-hop was originally created as a form of rebellion, and the greatest MC of all time took a complete 180 from that, using the sound to instead relay his devotion to his family.

Seriously, they’re incredible.

“This album is about Shawn Carter, Jay-Z, opening up, and me scoring that,” said executive producer of the album, No I.D. The beats on the album feature samples from Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder, chopped up to create hooks that are both on-the-nose, but yet encapsulating of the themes Jay is presenting. Does this album feature the catchiest beats of 2017? No. Does it feature the tightest delivery of bars? Also, no. But what it does put forth is a path forward for rappers to become mature men, that can safely step out of the lights of the club and into the bright light of the sun without being burned. Yet again, HOV has given the rap game a blueprint.

DAMN.

Play it forwards. Play it backwards. Fuck it, play it in any order you like. What you get is the story of Kendrick Lamar trying to walk the fine line between wickedness and weakness. Like Shawn Carter, Kendrick has classic albums under his belt, with good kid, m.A.A.d city and To Pimp A Butterfly, and is looking to dig deeper within himself, within his DNA. He understands his place in the rap world, owning the singular title as “God MC”, ready to battle anyone trying to capture his crown, while simultaneously battling a war within himself with his emotions. On the track GOD., he raps unapologetically,

“Everything in life is a gamble

Nothin' in life I can’t handle

Seen it all, done it all, felt pain more

For the cause, I done put blood on sword

Everything I do is to embrace y’all

Everything I write is a damn eight ball

Everything I touch is a damn gold mine

Everything I say is from an angel.”

Yet this braggadocio is also balanced by his own insecurity throughout the album, and summarized on the track FEAR. which acts as a climax for the album, and is one of his most emotionally-fueled songs in his entire discography. The track takes you on a journey through the distresses he dealt with at different points in his life, at ages 7, 17, and 27. All of them different, but all painting a picture for the listener to understand how Kendrick has become a product of his environment. The fourth verse of the song captures the essence of his battling his demons,

“I’m talkin' fear, fear of losin' creativity

I’m talkin' fear, fear of missin' out on you and me

I’m talkin' fear, fear of losin' loyalty from pride

'Cause my DNA won’t let me involve in the light of God

I’m talkin' fear, fear that my humbleness is gone

I’m talkin' fear, fear that love ain’t livin' here no more

I’m talkin' fear, fear that it’s wickedness or weakness

Fear, whatever it is, both is distinctive

Fear, what happens on Earth stays on Earth

And I can’t take these feelings with me, so hopefully they disperse

Within fourteen tracks, carried out over wax

Searchin' for resolutions until somebody get back

Fear, what happens on Earth stays on Earth

And I can’t take these feelings with me, so hopefully they disperse

Within fourteen tracks, carried out over wax

Wonderin' if I’m livin' through fear or livin' through rap

DAMN.”

He openly questions whether it’s his own feeling of inadequacy or his love for his craft that is pushing him through life. The power in these lines is that such a deeply personal feeling for one of the most successful entertainers on Earth can be so universal line to many of his fans. Kendrick is able to provide both sides of the ego coin, a trait that has been mostly missing in the rap world since early Kanye West albums (he has since lost one side of that coin). These contradictory mindsets keep the album rolling, as one wonders which side is going to prevail, wickedness or weakness.

If his first album was telling the story of his growing up in Compton, and his second was telling the story of what he learned from traveling the world and coming back, this third album is the reconciliation of the two and he will always deal with certain trauma, despite being at the peak of his powers. Despite not having as much manipulation of his vocals as on TPAB, each verse on this album is masterfully crafted, with lyrics that make you relisten to ensure you “caught everything”, and flows that can go toe-to-toe with anyone’s in history. It doesn’t have the skits from GKMC, or the poem snippets like on TPAB, but does feature the occasional ad-lips from Kid Capri which in a way ties the songs together. It is easily the most digestible body of work from Lamar, and made for the best rap project in 2017. There’s a lot to enjoy here and will have people coming back to it in 2018 and beyond.