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Jay Z’s response to Lemonade

Jay Z’s 13th studio album is a rare departure for the usually private rapper. It reveals an impassioned response to Beyonce’s 2016 album Lemonade, which famously exposed Jay Z’s past infidelity. On 4:44’ s( ★★★1⁄2) title track, written at 4:44am, he bares it all: ‘‘My heart breaks for the day I had to explain my mistakes.’’ Somewhere in the dark hours of that morning, he decided to publicly address the heartache we all vicariously lived through on Lemonade, and his breathy flow is heavy with regret: ‘‘Took me too long for this song/I don’t deserve you.’’ There are many parts of the album that aren’t typical of hip-hop, one of those being Jay Z’s mother, Gloria Carter, coming out as gay on Smile. The main focus is black excellence; from talking colourism on The Story of O.J. to demanding freedom from the ‘‘mental inhibitions’’ of slavery on Legacy, Jay-Z sees himself as a leader of black success in a world that refuses to celebrate it. – Kish Lal, Fairfax