It’s been nearly seven years since Jay-Z released his last album, and despite rampant rumors of a comeback, that drought will not end soon.
Word of a possible Jay-Z comeback began on Sunday, January 28, when artist and video director HidjiWorld posted two images to his Instagram story. In the first, he showed a conversation that he was “shooting” something with the 54-year-old rap icon. He also shared a video of a film slate. The production was listed as “JAY Z – 2024 ALBUM,” with Hidji directing and Leroy Farrell operating the camera.
The NFR Podcast reposted the photos on X, which quickly went viral. The images caught the attention of Roc Nation, the entertainment management company Jay-Z founded in 2008. “That’s news to us,” the company’s official X account tweeted while re-sharing NFR Podcast’s videos. With four words, the account squashed the hopes that Jay-Z might drop some new music by the end of the year.
Following Roc Nation’s reaction, Hidji posted another conversation to his Instagram Story with a “Rule #1” caption. “That’s funny,” said one of his followers in response to his comments about shooting something for Jay-Z. “Aye, man,” responded Hidji. “Don’t believe everything you see on the internet.”
Jay-Z’s last solo album, 4:44, was a critical and commercial success. Upon its June 2017 release, Pitchfork awarded the album Best New Music and called it “a Shawn Carter retrospective measuring missteps and triumphs, wondering aloud if his work will appreciate in value, and what exactly is worth valuing.”
In 2018, Jay-Z teamed with his wife, Beyoncé, to form The Carters and released Everything Is Love. The collab album’s first single, “Apesh-t,” peaked at no. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Since then, Jay-Z has been selective about returning to music. He has appeared strictly on soundtracks: “What It Feels Like,” a track featuring the late Nipsey Hussle for 2021’s Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album; “Guns Go Bang,” for 2021’s The Harder They Fall soundtrack; and “I Want You Forever,” for this month’s The Book of Clarence.
Jay-Z also had a featured appearance on DJ Khaled’s 2019 album, Father of Asahd, and on Pusha-T’s 2022 album, It’s Almost Dry.
“I’ll say I wanna make music, but it has to be something important,” Jay-Z told Gayle King on CBS Mornings in October 2023. He admitted that he thought he was retired but went back on that and has a few songs left in him.
“I don’t wanna just make a bunch of tunes. That’s not gonna serve me. It won’t feed me, first of all,” he clarified. “I have to be saying something important. It has to mean something, you know? It has to mean something to a larger society.”
