Firstly, congratulations to Jay Z and Beyonce on the birth of their new twins. Secondly, another creation by Jay Z is expected to enter this world on June 30, 2017. 4:44 has been mysteriously advertised for several weeks, but now we finally know the rumors that it’s a Jay Z album are true. Here’s what we know about it so far:
In a pretty bold move, 4:44 will be released as a TIDAL-Sprint exclusive. Sprint, like the cell phone company Sprint, says there are more exclusives planned in the future. What we don’t know is how long the album will remain on TIDAL forever, or if the rest of society will be able to hear it. Sprint is also offering a free six months of TIDAL for people who switch to Sprint. The below trailer/advertisement is proof.
Regarding the video, 4:44 is also a movie of some sort starring Mahershala Ali, Lupita Nyong’o, and Danny Glover. The song “Adnis” appears in the video and its lyrics are suitable for a video released on Father’s Day. Also, according to Billboard, No I.D. is handling the production of the entire album. These two artists have worked together before, but this is definitely a large undertaking for No I.D.
Not much else we can do about this until June 30, unless Jay Z blitzes us with singles leading up to the release. Here’s hoping the album isn’t 4 minutes and 44 seconds long. I thought it interesting that this Forbes article pointed out that historically, Jay Z schedules important career releases that coincide with events in his family life. Never really paid enough attention to that, but I guess from now on I’ll anticipate that when things are going well for Jay Z, new music may be imminent.