Jay-Z knew it was time to reveal another side of himself. He just needed a palette.

More than two decades and 12 albums into one of the most storied careers in hip-hop — and after the seismic pop event that was his wife Beyoncé’s visual album “Lemonade” — the Brooklyn rapper born Shawn Carter tried something new: He worked with a single producer to realize his vision.

On “4:44,” the focused, revelatory 10-track album he released on Friday, Jay-Z found a partner in the veteran Chicago producer No I.D. (real name Dion Wilson), who served as the architect of every beat. Mixing samples from some of Jay-Z’s favorite artists — Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, the Fugees — with live instrumentation, the producer hit on a rich, grown-up soul sound that allowed Jay-Z, 47, to look inward and address his much-analyzed marriage, fatherhood, generational trauma and the black experience with believable rawness.

Image Jay-Z’s 13th album, “4:44,” is the rapper’s most personal record yet. He created a playlist of songs for inspiration, many of which were sampled on the album. Credit... Chad Batka for The New York Times

“It was a real artist-producer relationship on a traditional level,” No I.D. said, stressing the rarity of an intimate, album-length collaboration in rap. “I think it’s something we need more of in all music. It wasn’t until the mid-90s that we even started this concept of multiple producers on projects.”