Jay-Z is back, and he is vulnerable. But for now, his secrets are exclusive to Tidal.
The veteran Brooklyn rapper, 47, ended weeks of speculation near midnight on Thursday, releasing “4:44,” his 13th studio album, as a digital exclusive on the streaming service he bought in 2015. The album — Jay-Z’s first since “Magna Carta ... Holy Grail” in 2013 — features 10 intensely personal and provocative tracks that, yes, include a few references to his wife Beyoncé’s marriage-baring “Lemonade” and the recent birth of the couple’s twins.
As part of a deal with Sprint, which bought a one-third stake in Tidal earlier this year, “4:44” was made available only to those who had subscribed to Tidal before the album’s release, along with existing customers of the cellphone carrier. Tidal, which trails in the streaming race dominated by Spotify and Apple Music, has relied largely on splashy exclusives from its artist partners to encourage sign-ups, making itself the first — and in some cases only — place to hear new music from Kanye West, Rihanna and Beyoncé, whose “Lemonade” has remained a Tidal exclusive since its release in April 2016.
For “4:44,” there was a populist twist to the exclusive release: The album also debuted in its entirety at midnight across 160 pop, rhythm and urban radio stations owned by the broadcast conglomerate iHeartMedia, and it will continue to be played all day Friday on select stations.
In a statement, Jay-Z, who has pulled much of his catalog from rival streaming services, called the release strategy for “4:44” a “perfect storm of sharing music with fans.”
Whether the album leads to more Tidal subscribers or just more online piracy, it is sure to be a talker. Already the lyrics are being dissected and pored over across social media and beyond as listeners attempt to decode which details come from the real lives of one of the most famous (and famously private) duos in entertainment.
Coming in the wake of “Lemonade,” an ambitious multimedia project that was simultaneously Beyoncé’s most personal and most political work to date, “4:44” finds Jay-Z in a similar mode, weaving confessional and biographical songwriting with big-picture perspectives on black life in the United States.
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