Jay-Z First Interview Since "4:44": Family, Kanye West & More

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Jay-Z introduces Vic Mensa at Mack Sennett Studios on July 13, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.
Jay-Z gets in-depth in his first interview since 4:44 release.

Jay-Z has had a pretty solid year, much like any other year actually. With the release of 4:44 earlier this year, the album was well-received critically and commercially. While Jay himself hasn't been doing much press to promote, he's been using his TIDAL streaming service to push his album in a creative manner. Thusfar he's been dropping music videos for a good chunk of the album that premiere on TIDAL and he's also been doing little footnotes of each song, where more details are brought forth on the creative process and inception of the songs.

With TIDAL, hip hop journalist Elliot Wilson relaunched his "Rap Radar" podcast that is exclusively available on TIDAL. With his co-host B.Dot, the two have in depth conversations with some of hip hop's most talked about artist. Thusfar, they've had Cardi B, Irv Gotti, A$AP Twelvyy and more on the show. Today, they release their 10th episode which serves as part one of their an interview with Jay-Z.

In this episode, Jay-Z sits down with the two journalist to talk deeply about his album 4:44 and more. While most interviews typically talk more about a rapper's personal life, Elliot Wilson and B.Dot really dig deep into Jay's most recent album.

Off top, Jay-Z talks about how he began working on it. Especially being an older rapper, he says that he began studying timeless artists before he got into recording the project.

"Before I started this album, I studied like not just hip hop, any genre. I studied Prince, I studied Michael." Jay tells the podcast. He goes onto say "I really had to like think about what I wanted to say [on this album]. Think about what was the next thing, the next thing to I wanted to say. I didn't want to just make an album just to put out some music, I wanted it to be important. So it took me a minute to get to that point."

4:44 is definitely one of the best hip hop projects of the year and is one of Jay's most personal. Both Elliot Wilson and B.Dot do a great job at picking at his brain in part one of their interview with Hov. 

Check out part one of their interview with Jay-Z below:

About The Author
Aron A.
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.
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