New album from Jay Z

– Rap mogul Jay Z, pictured, will release his latest album at the end of this month, the Tidal music streaming service said yesterday, confirming weeks of rumours that the artist was preparing a new project.

The album, titled 4:44, will be available on June 30, exclusively to Tidal subscribers and to customers of Sprint, the telecom giant that this year bought a onethird stake in the music streaming platform.

The announcement comes on the heels of highly anticipated reports that Jay Z’s pop diva wife, Beyonce, recently gave birth to twins, making their superstar family a party of five.

A 30-second trailer released late on Sunday featuring lyrics from the rapper hinted at the prospect of an album – which was then confirmed just after midnight by Tidal and Sprint.

“Jay Z is a global icon and we’re giving customers an incredible opportunity to be among the first to experience his new album, 4:44,” Sprint chief executive Marcelo Claure said in a statement.

Enigmatic promotion efforts began appearing for the project this month when cryptic banners reading 4:44 popped up online and in New York’s Times Square.

The signs turned out to be advertisements for a mysterious film available on Tidal featuring the actors Mahershala Ali, Lupita Nyong’o and Danny Glover, for which a black-and-white trailer featuring Ali as a boxer was later rolled out.

The latest clip includes similar visuals and the same soulful electronic score – and closes with four lines from Jay Z.

It remains unclear whether the album and film will be separate entities or a visual album akin to Lemonade by Beyonce. –

New York