For an album like this, the music is always going to be overshadowed by the event and the story behind it. There’s a lot going for the music though. Beyoncé indulging in triplet raps is worth the price of admission alone and Jay manages to sustain this second wind of his career. This really comes together in things like the fantastic “APESHIT”. It’s a high energy song with a stunning video and Migos ad-libbing beautifully in the background.
While that song is the clear standout, but there’s quite a lot of solid work besides it. “NICE”, for instance, also sees Beyoncé with some interesting bars. She’s spent a lot of time in this area before and after they finish mining their relationship, I hope Beyoncé takes an album to give her rapping the space it deserves.
Jay-Z does some work of his own, if seemingly the smaller share. The strong “713” is all him and is all about her. His verses on “FRIENDS” make the song, but Beyonce’s singing is excellent here and her bout of vocalization is extremely good. This interplay is reversed a little on “BOSS”, which is completely run by her singing but Jay still gets an interesting verse in there with an intriguingly skewed flow.
It’s an unquestionably solid album and it’s good to see the Carters both acknowledge their flaws and their recent history as well as stunt all over everyone. An album like this was guaranteed to be a hit no matter what, it’s good to see it back that up with something of the excellence you would expect.
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