No stranger to heartbreak at the hands of black men, I, for one, found the apology to be a breath of fresh air. On 4:44’s eponymous track, Jay apologizes to Beyoncé and all the women he’s hurt because of his immaturity. On the album, Bey opened up about her struggles with her husband Jay-Z’s infidelity, her father’s infidelity to her mother, and how impossible it is to try to convince a man who’s treating you wrong to love you right. By “ Lemonade moment,” I’m referring to the cultural reckoning that Beyoncé made possible with the April 2016 release of her hit album Lemonade. Blue here is obviously Blue Ivy, the couple's daughter, who at five is likely sheltered from the rumors surrounding her parents' relationship for now.Black men of the Hip-Hop Generation are having their “ Lemonade moment” after the release of Jay-Z’s album 4:44 two weeks ago. My heart breaks for the day I had to explain my mistakesĪnd the mask goes away and Santa Claus is fakeįor Blue's tooth, the tooth fairy didn't payĪn acknowledgement and what appears to be repentance for the infidelity Bey suggested he committed in Lemonade. What good is a ménage à trois when you have a soulmate? "Īnd if my children knew, I don't even know what I would do I will be emotionally available if I invited you overĪ likely response to Bey's closing line in "Don't Hurt Yourself: "Uh, this is your final warning/You know I give you life/If you try this shit again/You gon' lose your wife.
The lyrics include: "You ain't trying hard enough/You ain't loving hard enough/You don't love me deep enough/We not reaching peaks enough/Blindly in love, I fucks with you/'Til I realize I'm just too much for you/I'm just too much for you. Perhaps an acknowledgement that what Bey sang in "Don't Hurt Yourself" (presumably about him) is right. Like the men before me, I cut off my nose to spite my face They're also made a habit of posting their lavish vacations on social media.Īnd then we in a space where the dark stops We're supposed to laugh 'til our hearts stopsīey and JAY-Z are music's highest paid couple. We're supposed to vacay 'til our backs burn Not meant to cry and die alone in these mansions I apologize, our love was one for the ages and I contained usĪnd all this ratchet shit and we more expansive Thinkin' of all the time you wasted in on all this basic shit Your eyes leave with the soul that your body once housed I apologize 'cause at your best you are loveĪnd because I fall short of what I say I'm all about
Toyed with you emotions because I was emotionless 'Cause I wasn't present, your body wouldn't accept it Literally the week before I went to the doctor, everything was fine, but there was no heartbeat." I flew back to New York to get my check up, and no heartbeat. I envisioned what my child would look like, I was feeling very maternal.
"About two years ago, I was pregnant for the first time, and I heard the heartbeat, which was the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life. I still mourn this death, I apologize for all the stillbornsīeyoncé opened up in her 2013 documentary Life Is But a Dream, sharing that she'd had a miscarriage. That was your 21st birthday, you mature faster than meĪs Genius notes, a reference to how Bey and JAY-Z first started going steady at her 21st birthday party. Said: "Don't embarrass me," instead of "Be mine" Took for these natural twins to believe in miraclesīey just gave birth to twins, the couple's second and third children. "When Lisa Bonet was Beyoncé of her day, I had divas, y'all," he rapped on 4:44 track "Marcy Me". Before he settled down with Beyoncé, JAY-Z called himself something of a player. Perhaps a reference to the cheating rumors around the couple (and that Bey herself called out in Lemonade, particularly its track "Sorry"). You can stream 4:44 here on Tidal if you have a subscription. so it's possible their own experiences also influenced the lyrics. "It's the title track because it's such a powerful song, and I just believe one of the best songs I've ever written." The rapper co-wrote the song with Karan Keeney and No I.D. "So it became the title of the album and everything," JAY-Z continued.