4:44 is released

Why it matters

4:44 came out on Roc Nation/Tidal on June 30, 2017, originally as a Tidal exclusive. It is Jay-Z's thirteenth studio album. No I.D. produced the entire record. The combination of one producer across one album was a stylistic choice Jay had not made before; the result is the most musically focused Jay album of the late-career period. The album is structurally a response to Beyoncé's Lemonade (2016), which had publicly addressed Jay's infidelity. 4:44 is Jay's most directly confessional and apologetic record: "4:44" itself is a four-minute address to Beyoncé about the affair, "Kill Jay Z" is a reckoning with his own behavior, "Smile" addresses his mother's coming-out, "The Story of O.J." is an extended financial-literacy treatise. Jay was 47 when he made the album. The writing is the writing of a mature MC in self-examination mode, which is rare in commercial rap of any era. You should hear it after Lemonade if you have not. The two albums function, intentionally, as a couple's conversation. The conversation has aged.