4:44 is the long-anticipated thirteenth album from JAY-Z. It arrived after a four-year hiatus, and just 15 days after his historic induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 15, 2017. The entire album is produced by No I.D. 4:44 was available exclusively on TIDAL in a joint-promotion with Sprint; the telecommunications company’s CEO Marcelo Claure announced that every customer is set to receive a six-month trial of TIDAL for free. The partnership is set to support the 1Million Project, which aims to connect low-income high school students to the internet. The album’s promotion started off with mysterious “4:44” subway posters all over Los Angeles and New York. On June 7, 2017, a trailer was released, and 4:44 seemed to be an upcoming Tidal-exclusive film starring Mahershala Ali, Lupita Nyong'o and Danny Glover. About two weeks later, on Father’s day, a similar but shorter trailer was released. However, this new trailer also featured lyrics from a prospective song titled “Adnis.” The trailer confirmed the speculation that the film would be related to JAY-Z’s album on its release date of June 30. Originally intended to come out on April 4th, No I.D. shared that the album’s concise 10-track form was a purposeful decision: A lot of the thought process was, I held up classic albums and said, “What were the good parts and what were the mistakes?” Sometimes these classics, the continuity is what makes them classic, and then you have these examples of reaching for the single or the radio record. Albums I was pointing to were like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On, Confessions by Usher, [Jay-Z’s] The Blueprint, [Nas'] Illmatic, [Kanye West’s] My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I analyzed the mistakes and tried not to make those mistakes. We wanted 10 really good songs where at no point are you like, “I know what you’re trying to do, you could’ve kept that one.” Sometimes you look back 10 years later and you go, “I see why you did it then, but ‘No, thanks’ today.” By March, we were into that [process]. It was also tailored to be more personal than his previous outings: I saw that he, from our initial conversation, wanted to say more and wanted to say some things that he hadn’t said. I knew he wanted to [say those things]. I don’t want to take credit for what he wanted to do in the first place. I helped push him by saying, “Hey, this is what you said, this is what we know. And I don’t think people need to hear it. I think people need to hear what they don’t know.” Meaning: You wanted a Picasso, but why? You’re with Beyoncé, but what is that really like? What’s the pressure? What’s the responsibility? What’s the ups and downs? I wanted him to not be over people’s heads. The number 4 actually has great significance in JAY-Z’s life: JAY-Z’s wife and fellow celebrity Beyoncé was born on September 4, while his own birthday falls on December 4. Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, also celebrates her birthday on January 4. There are 4 months between September and January. Barack Obama was the 44th President of the United States. The Carters have enjoyed a close relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Obama throughout the eight years they lived in the White House. JAY referred to “44” as the “greatest rapper of all time” in a recent tweet. Beyoncé and JAY-Z got married on April 4, 2008, making their wedding anniversary 4/4 every year. On April 4, 2017, the Mrs. posted a video montage to Instagram of their life together. The second half of of Bey and JAY’s first daughter’s name, Blue Ivy, can be broken down to ‘I-V,’ which is the roman numeral for “4.” In 2011, Beyonce released her fourth studio album, which is titled “4”. July 4, 2017 also marks four years since JAY’s last album, 2013’s Magna Carta Holy Grail. JAY-Z and Beyoncé both have matching “IV” tattoos on their fingers. In an interview on iHeartRadio, JAY-Z revealed the following on the albums titular track “4:44” (And) I woke up, literally, at 4:44 in the morning, 4:44 AM, to write this song. So it became the title of the album and everything. It’s the title track because it’s such a powerful song, and I just believe one of the best songs I’ve ever written. According to RIAA, on July 5, 2017, 4:44 went platinum in sales less than a week after its release.