Brooklyn-born artist Jay-Z has released the video for “4:44,” his most personal single from his album of the same. Reflecting Sean Carter’s love of conversation-generating contradictions, the visual is a mash up of of clips, highlighting the over-worldly amazing, the funny and the horror of black American life in the 21st century.
Entertainers shown in the video include Eartha Kitt, Nina Simone, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Al Green plus Beyoncé and Jay performing together (over Green’s song “Judy”). As well, there is video of two dancers, a black man and woman, performing an interpretive dance, plus an array of viral news clips like the heart-warming one covering an alleged leprechaun sighting in a predominately black neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama.
The visual closes with an adorable clip of Carter’s first-born daughter, Blue Ivy, which says so much about where things begin and end in terms of priorities for the Brooklyn-born rapper.
Jay-Z has also released the visual for “The Story of O.J.,” which you can also watch below.
“4:44”
“The Story of O.J.”
