On the heels of his historic induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (and amid unconfirmed rumors of new arrivals to his family), Jay Z has announced his thirteenth solo studio album, 4:44, to be released on June 30.
The album was announced jointly through a Sprint promotion in partnership with Tidal and will be initially exclusive to that streaming platform. Jay Z purchased Tidal and unforgettably relaunched it in early 2015. Earlier this year, Sprint bought a $200 million stake in the streaming service, which Jay Z purchased for $56 million.
Little is known of 4:44 outside of a promising 30-second-long promotional video for the song "Adnis," below, which stars Moonlight's Mahershala Ali playing a boxer shot in high contrast, while Jay Z laments:
"Letter to my dad / that I never wrote / Speeches I prepared that I never spoke / Words on a paper that I never read / Proses never penned they stayed in my head."
The beat under Jay here is steadfastly Los Angeles, a wobbling time signature and twinkling, lush-and-frenetic instrumentation, anchored by a Lynchian vocal line. (No need to rush to Sprint and Tidal just yet, however — "Adnis," both the song and video, are still only available as a sample even to subscribers.)
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