by Alexander O. Onukwue

The lyrics of Jay-Z’s new album have flooded the internet and like leaked exam papers, everybody is binging on them.

One particular song has evoked the most comments and it has to do with his wife, Beyoncé.

2016 had been the year of the Lemonade, the album where Beyoncé threw it all out on the apparent infidelity of her husband, subliminally shedding light on his extra-marital deviance in almost all the songs, especially “Sorry”. Back in 2014, her sister, Solange, had a moment of rage against Jay-Z in an elevator while leaving the Standard Hotel, and it was supposedly about the affair which threatened the continuity of their marriage.

Now, Jay-Z, in ‘4:44’ has bared his thoughts on the matter. He’s not denied it, or tried to play the blame game. He’s apologised, publicly.

In the title track of the album, which he says he wrote in the middle of the night, Jay-Z calls himself out for cheating on his beautiful and famous wife. With super deep lyrics, Jay-Z paints pictures of what his loss of Beyoncé would have resulted to, making references to not being able to face up to the shame and the questions that would have come from his children. A poignant line says, “You did what with who? What good is a ménage a trois when you have a soulmate, you risked that for Blue?”, apparently referring to the role the thought of his daughter, Blue Ivy, played in getting him back to his senses.

Amongst many things, the song, and the album by extension is very much a tribute to the way Beyoncé handled the issue of Jay-Z’s affair(s). It would have been much pain to her to have had to endure it, knowing that she was an icon of female independence. Even as the truth has come out, some have questioned her decision to stick with him through the infidelity. However, the couple rightly sought the proper method of not scrubbing their linens in public but keeping it in the bedroom. Last year’s Lemonade was probably her way of just venting a little, but also to show her husband that she was hurt.

In hindsight, Lemonade was an act of vulnerability, but why not? Jay-Z’s comments on the other tracks on the album show just how much he believes in the idea of vulnerability. For instance, for the track ‘Kill Jay-Z’, the rapper notes, “It’s about killing off the ego, so we can have this conversation in a place of vulnerability and honesty”.

4:44 was his own act of vulnerability, revealing the weakness of himself as just an ordinary man, as against the invincible icon regarded as the greatest rapper of all time. He showed that he understood the pain of she who was giving all for him, even if she chose to not say all that she had had to bear. It was the apology and the album Beyoncé deserved, for though she was entitled to rage more than just blowing up public water pumps, she kept it all in and worked on her marriage.

That’s Love. That’s not all there is to the album 4:44, but that’s one we should always remember.

Editor