JAY-Z Came for Kanye West On '4:44'? (And More Quotables)

Image credit: Roc Nation/TIDAL

At midnight, 4:44 — JAY-Z‘s 13th album — debuted to the world, and the first track (“Kill JAY-Z”) seems to show Hov coming at his one-time prodigy Kanye West.

As we all know, West had a very public meltdown in November, during which he claimed that Hov never checked on him and his wife Kim Kardashian following a well-publicized Paris robbery. Ye then abruptly cancelled the tour (there were some Pro-Trump moments in there as well) and went into treatment seeking help. Flash forward to the present (7 months later) and Jay has a response:

You dropped outta school, you lost your principles
I know people backstab you, I felt bad too
But this ‘f*** everybody’ attitude ain’t natural
But you ain’t a Saint, this ain’t KumbaYe
But you got hurt because you did cool by ‘Ye
You gave him 20 million without blinkin’
He gave you 20 minutes on stage, f*** was he thinkin’?
“F*** wrong with everybody?” is what you sayin’
But if everybody’s crazy, you’re the one that’s insane

It’s been only 6 years since Watch the Throne debuted; will the two stars get past this and fix their friendship? Or will things just get worse?

Adding to that moment was the self-titled track, which — as many expected — saw JAY-Z openly apologizing to his wife Beyoncé for his infidelities, a revelation that first brought the world to a halt when Bey released Lemonade. He even addresses Bey’s stillborn(s?!) during past pregnancies:

I’ve seen the innocence leave your eyes
I still mourn this death, I apologize for all the stillborns
‘Cause I wasn’t present, your body wouldn’t accept it

Like the men before me, I cut off my nose to spite my face
I never wanted another woman to know
Something about me that you didn’t know
I promised, I cried, I couldn’t hold
I suck at love, I think I need a do-over

TIDAL (and now Sprint) subscribers can enjoy 4:44 in its entirety here.