Jay-Z, "4:44"

Is it even possible to listen to ANY of these songs outside of Tidal?

Go to your neighborhood high-end streetwear store. Just heard a few songs there while browsing Visvim jackets.

this sounds really good to my ears. low key but good.

He already retired. Not sure what this is

twins trust fund

This is actually really great

Fuck this shit that line about jewish ppl is gross

He could have at least renamed himself before this release

JMZ for example

The "atonement" shit here is some make-yourself-feel-better showy cringey garbage. And Shakey OTM.

deray mckesson has 4:44 in his twitter display name now so you know this album must be good

so messy re eric benet

this albums kinda...mellow

re: the judaism line this thread has some context

To jay z's jewish people own property line: if he had said in Brooklyn rather than in America I would've found it accurate.

— AirDaniel (@AirgoDaniel) July 1, 2017

click through though for the full thread

Rmde at that bullshit

"Some people of this ethnic group did this one thing in a specific context ergo the broader generalizatipn is excusable" is bad logic with bad consequences

Where is mordy

But i like how he puts the argument out there and then notes its irrelevance at the end, cool tactic bro

Ok i'm going back to vacatipn now

Vacation even

how do you even listen to rap music

angrily

I agree with Οὖτις, it's a bad and dumb line and even quasi-rationalizing it is bullshit

the prosperity gospel / progress-through-wealth-accumulation shit is also bad and dumb. I think this of anyone but it's doubly nauseous to hear it from such an obscenely wealthy person

i didn't want the thread to be all about that line but it literally was the first song (only!) song i heard and i was kind of low-key getting into it and suddenly i'm like THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY

D-40 that is some bullshit. If you need five (lol) tweets to try and get away with blatant anti-semitism you are doing it wrong. Shakey and Simon H otm. It's dumb, it's bullshit quasi-rationalizing. Most of all this dude is passé; never thought Jay-Z would be so bad at being a rapper but here we are...

Tbh i'd be more inclined to give him a pass if he was just some dumb ignorant kid from the projects, but this is Jay-Z, intelligent middle aged multi-millionaire.

The "he doesn't know what he's talking about because of his limited frame of reference" defense doesnt hold any water at this stage in his career.

Plus he's in the Illuminati

shakey otm

fwiw i think this is the smartest response i've seen to the line + gets at some of my feelings about it
https://jewishphilosophyplace.com/2017/06/30/jay-z-jews-and-all-the-property-financial-independence-444/

Oh ffs you guys

i don't think his point was that jay z should be "excused" for it, the last tweet of the stream wasn't a mea culpa it was part of the overall line of thinking

Anyway this is good too

Please can someone Black AND Jewish write about Jay-Z's "Jews own all the property in America" mess before the wypipo get to it 😑

— Rebecca Pierce (@aptly_engineerd) June 30, 2017

oh give me a fucking break. corny whites didn't make the line bad.

to be clear we have made a loooot of things bad, just not this.

Haha, Jay Z is a fucking idiot.

does deej not know that he's like one of the whitest ppl around

I said read the thread dumbass not the individual tweet

This selective outrage is weird, that's all. Have you guys listened to jay z before? One of his biggest hits is called "big pimpin". His catalog is full of misogyny and casual violence. im not saying this excuses what he said, it's an ideologically stupid statement, but you could swear you've never heard a rap album before

thread was solid, also confirmed that the jay line was bad

Did I say the line was good?

you're kind of wasting a lot of time defending it!

Mordy engages with rap was just as useless but much funnier on the kitty pryde thread

like i appreciate the perspective shared by that last twitter thread but i thought the line was bad before and still think it's bad, what are we even arguing about

you're kind of wasting a lot of time defending it!

― k3vin k., Sunday, July 2, 2017 11:58 AM (twenty-two seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm not fucking defending it you dumbass

like i appreciate the perspective shared by that last twitter thread but i thought the line was bad before and still think it's bad, what are we even arguing about

This

That jay's reference isn't an empty recitation of anti semetic stereotypes but has a context in which it's meant to be understood that is different than white ppl being anti semetic or conspiratorial ? The original thread I linked said the same. Yes, its still wrong, but it's wrong in a different way

I think taking this point in is meaningful when posting that jay's line about Jewish people is "gross" etc

So let's call this gross shit out, but keep the perspective that Jews could own property in the US at a time when Black people WERE property

— Rebecca Pierce (@aptly_engineerd) June 30, 2017

the point is jay does not have license to say that you don't need to show me your work, is basically what i'm saying

I just think it's weird when ppl get selectively mad about rap lyrics when jay built his career on prosperity gospel bs & misogyny, his is not an ideology that is right or good but ppl can draw on it for its emotional & motivational power in metaphoric terms & I don't see how this undercuts that any more than all the times he's said "bitch"

Or argued that capitalism is redemption

"this is bad but those other things from the past were also bad so wtf?" is not a good argument. and I think it's fair to criticize/scrutinize people extra when they come to occupy a position of incredible wealth and influence.

if you stream it on Tidal, you won't have to!

lol

it's a confessional album with good rapping, solid beats, infinitely better than Magna Carta, a most pleasant summer surprise

also, since it's sonically very accessible and the lyrics are completely straightforward there is no need for explanatory thinkpieces plzzzz

otm

https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/07/album-review-jay-z-444/

I finally did a 30 day Tidal trial w/an older burner hotmail acct to listen to this

I really like it! No ID did an amazing job w/the beats, really great old school soul/jazz feel.

It's not going to knock any of the classics off their perch but at least it feels like Jay's just being Jay and trying to make an album that says something and holds together without trying to be relevant or following modern hip hop.

def some o_O lyrics but you know...it's Jay.

I listened a lot to it when it came out (downloaded it on slsk) but since I mostly listen via Spotify it's not been in my rotation much since

def a good album

lol can't believe no one has revived thits thread since July.

The buzz from being a Tidal Exclusive!

https://www.nytimes.com/video/t-magazine/100000005574909/jayz-interview.html

so this is probably his best album since black album, perhaps leaning a bit too old school to be very relevant as a 2017 release, but all the same I can't help but think that if it had been available on all streaming services it would have been on a lot of EOY lists

really love No ID's work, it's very interesting how he managed to take the hyper edited digital chopping feel of some electronic and dance music w/jazz and soul samples

but yeah I think it holds up, I just got back on Tidal with this Best Buy deal where you could get 6 months free w/CD purchase and listened to it again

really love No ID's work, it's very interesting how he managed to take the hyper edited digital chopping feel of some electronic and dance music w/jazz and soul samples

otm, it really gave new life to some super obvious and well-known samples, particularly "Four Women" in "OJ" and "Love's In Need of Love Today" on "Smile"

mix is interesting though, with Jay's voice far above the beat, as if he wanted to make absolutely sure that everyone could hear him

surprised this isn't being released on streaming (like actual streaming) in anticipation of year end lists; money is a funny thing.

Yes, I'm sure Jay-Z is more concerned about whether Consequence of Sound thinks he's better than Slowdive opposed to monopolizing the entire market on the streaming service that he owns

truly selling a lot of subscriptions to a doomed service because of his exclusive stranglehold on a single six month old album from america's favorite 50 year old rapper

all the services are probably doomed

I guess except Apple and Amazon

I hope so

xp i've been assuming spotify gets bought by apple/amazon/google so count them in too.

if (more likely really when) the bubble truly bursts through the end of net neutrality or "hey anybody noticing this shit isn't making money" or whatever, i wonder what's next. perhaps you can just charge your tidal giftcard to sit at jay-z branded listening stations.

if only there was many other ways for people to hear a Jay Z album oh well

can't hear you over my state issued iphone earbuds

whiney I think everyone itt are able to hear the album

slowdive called in to talk shit about jay on ebro in the morning

fwiw i did a month of tidal to listen to 4:44 and i think i'm going to switch to it full time, it sounds so much better than spotify

I bought my copy on CD #oldtimer