Streets is watching. Jay Z’s next album has already been in the works for months—producer The Dream said back in January that Jay’s first reaction to his nine Grammy nominations was, “Let’s get to work”—and rumor has it that the rapper is crafting a new album, which he may unexpectedly drop overnight (ala his wife), or announce and release in the span of just a couple of weeks (ala… himself). A snippet of a new song, “Everything is Blue,” hit the Internet today. The quality sucks. The “I Can Sing A Rainbow”-sampling beat, though, is kind of insane.
Anyway, if Jay is in promo mode, this would mean his recent increase in visibility is no accident. He does to be publicly defending himself, and more specifically his musical and lyrical bonafides, more than usual.
There was the Hot 97 incident, where Jay recently called Paul Rosenberg to “talk his ish,” slamming the radio mainstay for a few negative comments. (I listened live while Rosenberg detailed the conversation—because Hot 97 is literally a top-3 reason to live in New York—and the video is delightful if you like Rosenberg, and equally delightful if you hate Rosenberg.)
Then there was the verse on none other than Soulja Boy’s newest song, “We Made It,” alongside Jay Electronica (who is expected to release his album sometime in the 23rd century). And there’s been the quasi-exchange of words with Drake over each’s last few songs. Drake even went right at ‘Hov on this week’s “Draft Day.”
Anyway, the most intriguing info yet comes from the Reddit user who first posted the “Everything is Blue” audio clip. He used a throwaway account—to cover his ass legally, you have to guess—and he captioned his post, “‘Ye ain’t the only one dropping soon ;).”
July release date. COUNT IT.
[H/T: Smoking Section, HipHopHeads]