It's personal & political now

Jay-Z is back, and he is vulnerable. But for now, his secrets are exclusive to Tidal. This veteran Brooklyn rapper, 47, ended weeks of speculation, releasing '4:44', his 13th studio album, as a digital exclusive on that streaming service, which 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 the marriage-baring 'Lemonade' album by his wife, Beyoncé, and the recent birth of their twins.

As part of a deal with Sprint, the cellphone carrier, which bought a one-third stake in Tidal this year, '4:44' was made available only to those who had subscribed to Tidal before the album’s release, along with existing Sprint customers. Tidal, which trails in the streaming race dominated by Spotify and Apple Music, has relied largely on splashy exclusives from its artiste 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.

His choice of a platform

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-formatted radio stations owned by the broadcast conglomerate iHeartMedia. In a statement, Jay-Z, who has pulled much of his catalogue 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 try to decode which details come from the real lives of one of the most famous (and famously private) duos in entertainment. Twitter said that there had been more than 8,10,000 posts about Jay-Z and his album since it was released, plus another 2,30,000 about Beyoncé.

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 autobiographical songwriting with big-picture perspectives on black life in the United States.

The opening track, 'Kill Jay Z', sets the tone, explicitly addressing the years of tabloid reports and fan-fuelled rumours that have made up the Jay-Z mythology, including the marital infidelity that seemed to fuel 'Lemonade' and the infamous elevator incident in which he was attacked by Beyoncé's younger sister, Solange, after the Met Ball. That song, Jay-Z said in an interview that aired on iHeartMedia, is “about killing off the ego, so we can have this conversation in a place of vulnerability and honesty.”

Familial tracks

His relationship with Beyoncé and their children is also the subject of the album’s raw title track, which Jay-Z called "the crux of the album". "I woke up, literally, at 4:44 in the morning, 4:44 am, to write this song," Jay-Z, who recently became the first rapper in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, said of the track. "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 album was produced entirely by No I.D., a longtime Jay-Z collaborator who is also known for his work with West and Vince Staples. Guest performers include Frank Ocean and Damian Marley, along with subtle flourishes from Beyoncé ('Family Feud'); The-Dream ('Marcy Me'); Jay Z’s mother, Gloria Carter ('Smile'); and his and Beyoncé's daughter Blue Ivy (who asks, 'Daddy, what’s a will?' on 'Legacy').

In keeping with the couple’s extended turn toward activism, '4:44' looks outward as well as inward. The track 'The Story of O.J.', which comes with a potentially incendiary video on Tidal directed by Mark Romanek and Jay-Z is about "having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward," the rapper said on the radio. "We all make money, and then we all lose money, as artistes especially. But how, when you have some type of success, to transform that into something bigger."

The black-and-white animated video for 'The Story of O.J.' plays with racial caricatures and historical allusions to slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, segregation, lynching, the Black Panthers and more, all while turning lyrically on the assertion by O.J. Simpson that “I’m not black, I’m O.J.”

'Financial freedom my only hope,' Jay-Z raps, stressing the importance of investment — in his case, in real estate and art — and once again bringing the conversation back to Tidal. 'Y’all think it’s bougie/ I’m like, it’s fine,' he adds. 'But I’m tryin’ to give you a million dollars’ worth of game for $9.99.'