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He talks about his personal responsibility. He talks about going to therapy on this record. GANZ: It certainly feels like these women are speaking to him or providing a voice in his ear as he's trying to grapple with these emotions. In some ways, the music almost feels like a tribute to women even though it is a Jay-Z album.
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He samples the Clark Sisters, Nina Simone. SHAPIRO: And women also make their way into this album in other ways. It feels very much like it exists as a partner to "Lemonade" but couldn't exist without it, for sure. Took for these natural twins to believe in miracles. Took for my child to be born to see through a woman's eyes. JAY-Z: (Rapping) I apologize, often womanized. And this record exists really in the aftermath of that. GANZ: I mean, she laid a groundwork in terms of opening their relationship up to the public. Slow down, they don't love you like I love you. GANZ: Well, it's impossible to think about this record as existing without "Lemonade."īEYONCE: (Singing) Hold up, they don't love you like I love you. And in some ways, this album feels like it's answering that. SHAPIRO: It's also really tempting to look at this in the context of "Lemonade," the last album by his wife, Beyonce, which was very much about their relationship. And it's getting more warmly received than anything he's put out in quite a while. He's put out four albums since he ostensibly retired about a decade ago. Jay-Z has partnered with corporations a lot in his sort of, like, post-retirement career. You had to be a subscriber to Tidal or you had to be a customer of Sprint to get access to this record. GANZ: Well, it came out exclusively on Jay-Z's streaming service, Tidal. Let's talk about the big release, Jay-Z's album "4:44." It's written like the time, "4:44." How was this released? And his tenure has been pretty bumpy, and this week it ended. They've made their way into the on-demand streaming arena, the area that Spotify basically owns, that Apple Music has been the most recent challenger to. It's been a bit of a tumultuous couple of years for Pandora. GANZ: Pandora, the original streaming service in a lot of ways, the radio site where you could plug in a song or an artist that you like and have a whole stream laid out in front of you, the guy who came up with that idea - the guy who founded Pandora, Tim Westergren, who has been with the company for 17 years - resigned this week. One, a big resignation at a major streaming service. SHAPIRO: Before we dive into this new music, two brief headlines. For more on this, we're joined by NPR's senior editor Jacob Ganz. A lot has happened in just the last 24 hours with two major album releases by legacy artists. It’s discrimination plain and simple.Let's end this hour with the latest in music news. What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love." He added, "No different than discriminating against blacks. In 2012, he told CNN "I've always thought it as something that was still, um, holding the country back. While this is the first time we've heard about Gloria Carter's sexuality, Jay-Z has been outspoken about his support of the LGBT community. Love who you love because life isn't guranteed. No harm for me.īut life is short and it's time to be free. Living in the shadows feels like the safe place to be. The world is changing and they say it's time to be free.īut you live with the fear of just being me. You live in the shadows for fear of someone hurting your family or the person you love. Because that's what you want them to see. Can you imagine what kind of life it is to live? In the shadows people see you as happy and free. "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."Īt the end of the "Smile," Carter delievers a touching spoken word outro. "Mama had four kids, but she’s a lesbian/Had to pretend so long that she’s a thespian," the rapper begins. The Stevie Wonder-sampled track reflects on Jay-Z's past and how it's shaped his future for the better. HOV's mother pops in on track 3, "Smile," to share a powerful spoken word poem about her time hiding in the closet. Perhaps his most vulnerable album yet, the Grammy-winner opens up about cheating on Beyoncé, blaming himself for Bey's miscarriages, commentary on racial relations in the U.S., and dragging everyone from Eric Benet to Kanye West. Jay-Z dropped his new album 4:44 on Tidal last night and to say it is a doozy would be an understatement.