Jay-Z, Beyonce in collaboration

Rapper Jay-Z and singer Beyonce, pictured in 2014 with their daughter Blue Ivy Carter, marry their two musical styles on a surprise joint album, Everything is Love

The album, a long-rumoured collaboration, celebrates their marital passion and black identity. They announced it from the stage in London as they wrapped up the British leg of a global tour.

The album came out on Saturday on Jay-Z’s fledgling Tidal streaming service and is not available on Spotify – a far larger platform, which Beyonce disses on the album in a string of F-bombs.

The couple also put out an elaborately choreographed video that takes place inside the Louvre Museum in Paris for a song, Apeshit.

The video opens with the couple standing regally in front of the Mona Lisa – Jay-Z in a light-green double-breasted suit, Beyonce in a lavender pant suit – and features a squad of scantily clad dancers moving sensually in front of Jacques Louis David’s The Coronation of Napoleon.

Driven by warm, sultry soul with a largely hip-hop cadence, Everything is Love marries the styles of the two artists but is more consistent with the recent direction of Jay-Z.

The album shatters any lingering innocence from the early days of Beyonce, with the singer of Say My Name and Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) generous in the details of her sex life with Jay-Z.

The two have recorded together previously, notably on the Beyonce-led single Drunk in Love. – AFP