Jay-Z dropped his long-awaited new album, “4.44,” exclusively through TIDAL on Friday. The first since 2013’s “Magna Carta, Holy Grail,” it’s a 10-track mini-odyssey of introspection and newfound maturity, which frequently addresses his emotional shortcomings in his relationship with Beyoncé.
The pair officially became an item in the early 2000s, and married in 2008.
It’s the response that fans of both artists have been waiting for since Beyoncé released her groundbreaking visual album “Lemonade” in April 2016, which hinted strongly at Jay’s long-rumored infidelities. Here are the key lyrical moments on “4.44” in which the Brooklyn hip-hop legend spills the beans and owns up to the turmoil he created in their lives.
“I apologize, often womanize/Took for my child to be born to see through a woman’s eyes.” (“4.44”) Jay told iHeartMedia that the title track is the crux of the album, and described it as “one of the best songs I’ve ever written.” It’s certainly the most honest, and in this line, he admits to his philandering ways, before adding that it was the birth of Blue Ivy Carter in 2012 that finally made him change his life. “Said ‘don’t embarrass me’ instead of ‘be mine’/That was my proposal for us to go steady/That was your 21st birthday.”
(“4.44”) It seems as though Jay led with his ego rather than his heart when he and his future wife first became exclusive. Despite their 12-year age difference, Beyoncé has evidently always been the more mature half of the relationship. “And if my children knew, I don’t even know what I would do/If they ain’t look at me the same, I would probably die with all the shame.”
(“4.44”) With the recent addition of twins to the Carter family, Hova already knows he has some tough questions to answer in the future. No wonder he’s already starting to make amends in public. “Yeah I’ll f–k up a good thing if you let me/Let me alone Becky.” (“Family Feud”).
Hov tells the world his mom Gloria Carter is actually a lesbian.
“Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian,” spits Jigga toward the end of his first verse on the track. “Had to hide in the closet, so she medicate/Society shame and the pain was too much to take/Cried tears of joy when you fell in love/Don’t matter to me if it’s a him or her/I just wanna see you smile through all the hate/Marie Antoinette, baby, let ’em eat cake.”
The admission makes his mother’s outro on the song that much more meaningful: “Can you imagine what kind of life it is to live?/In the shadows people see you as happy and free/Because that’s what you want them to see/Living two lives, happy, but not free.”
