Arguably the G.O.A.T. emcee, JAY-Z, was in quite the giving mode yesterday the day after Thanksgiving. As after not dropping any videos for awhile from his earlier this Summer released critically-acclaimed latest album, 4:44, JAY, gave us not one, but three new visuals from the project. Dropping videos for Legacy, Smile and The-Dream assisted, Marcy Me, he was definitely trying to make up for lost time.
As between the week of the albums initially at first digital only release at the end of June and well over a full month after, JAY had dropped new visuals from the album every Friday during that span, up until the middle of August. All as TIDAL exclusives, these new three are also exclusives for TIDAL as well.
Starting with Legacy, which is a 10-minute short film starring Susan Sarandon, Jesse Williams and Ron Perlman. The Jeymes Samuel-directed and written clip, is one that tackles mass incarnation, the prison system and rehabilitation. As with Prisoner Carter leading the way, a pack of inmates tries to carry out “The Carter Escape.”
Meanwhile the video for Smile is a narrative visual starring JAY’s mother, Gloria Carter. As like the subject of the song itself, the eight minute mini-movie, follows his childhood and revealing his mother’s sexuality. Gloria herself reading the “Smile” poem about her at the end of the touching visual.
The final of the three videos, The-Dream assisted, Marcy Me, is a very striking visual that opens with a helicopter giving us a bird’s eye overlook of the “Marcy” projects JAY grew up in. As an innocent child is being watched from that view that whole time by NYPD, as he travels through the borough and sidewalks during his journey from home to a local mart and back home.