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Thursday, July 6, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
TIDAL
New album ‘4:44’ brings us back to ‘Lemonade’
Four-bar looped soul samples, oh
how we’ve missed you.
4:44 opens with the dense,
layered “Kill Jay-Z.” While a siren
reminiscent
of
“Workinonit”
recursively spaces in and out, Hov
recounts
shooting
his
brother,
stabbing
someone
over
album
bootlegs and his intoxication with
fame, among other things. Faint
strings gently weep between his
lines,
swiveling
around
gentle
piano and alternating, distorted
vocals. “We know the pain is real /
But you can’t heal what you never
reveal.” The track is cleansing,
and the admission of weakness
and wrongdoing sets the album’s
apologetic, confessional tone.
This is the leanest project of JAY-
Z’s career. Nearly half the length of
all his other records, at 36 minutes,
every cut on 4:44 feels essential. Yet,
the record’s length is misleading
because the real richness and
complexity only unpacks itself
after many listens. The album
pioneers a cohesive, distinct sound
that is largely a callback to the
sample-heavy hip hop of the early
2000s. Where looped vocals lay
foundational points of contact, the
drum arrangements are subtle,
often sitting distant in the back
behind piano segments or sections
of brass. JAY-Z is innovating in
his own creative vacuum rather
than looking to compete with
newcomers. He’s sold more records
than all of them combined, at points
mocking their contrived artistry,
making flat-footed “skrrt” noises on
“Moonlight,” for one.
In the era when artists trade
and rip beats on the internet
without ever meeting in person,
the
one-rapper-
one-producer
method of this LP is
particularly curious.
There is a chemistry
here
that
some
proclaimed
duos
never attain. The beats don’t just
back Hov’s bars: they mesh and
intermingle with them. JAY-Z’s
verses don’t just fill out the track:
they extend the possibilities of No
I.D.’s canvases.
“The Story of O.J.” is the most
politically charged track of the
project; it’s no wonder that it’s one
of the album’s two tracks to tout
a Nina Simone sample. He chants
almost meditatively: “Light ni**a,
dark ni**a, faux ni**a, real ni**a /
Rich ni**a, poor ni**a, house ni**a,
field ni**a / Still n**a / Still ni**a.”
Pitch-shifted vocals are thinly
sliced, rounding out the percussive
melody. Hov discusses black values
in modern America and proposes
investing in their own communities
rather than blowing money at
the club. He opens up on his own
personal experience, recounting
how he should’ve bought property
in gentrifying Brooklyn. Brilliant
piano arpeggios are tucked behind
some of the best flows we’ve seen
from him in a while: “I turn a two to
a four, four to an eight / I turn my life
into a nice first week release date.”
With the dampened hi-hats sitting
in the distance, the beat’s bread-
and-butter
(Read:
kicks
&
snares)
doesn’t
beg
for
attention — instead
the real brilliance
of the track shines
through in its tiny
details: the meaty, trashcan-bashing
couple-second drum break that
pops up only a couple times between
low, indistinct revving noises.
Even
though
the
album’s
cohesive sound revolves around
soul, the aesthetic stretches into
reggae/dancehall
on
two
cuts:
“Caught Their Eyes” and “Bam.”
As Frank Ocean continues to make
his case as an extremely versatile
vocalist on the former, the latter
sees Hov reprising his traditional
braggadocious rap between Damian
Marley choruses: “I was moving
them kilos, help you move your
peoples / Sometimes you need your
ego, gotta remind these fools.”
JAY-Z composes an open
gripping letter on ‘4:44’
Politically charged and soulful new album is JAY-Z at his best
AARURAN CHANDRASEKHAR
Daily Arts Writer
MUSIC REVIEW
4:44
JAY-Z
Streaming on Tidal
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
‘Despicable Me’
proves chaotic
Fun for the kids, not for the discerning
FILM REVIEW
I went into “Despicable Me
3” with the hope that in the
best case it would surpass my
expectations for a third movie
in a series. In the worst case, it
would ruin the “Despicable Me”
franchise for me. Predictably,
the movie lingered in between,
neither pleasantly stunning me
nor falling completely flat.
One of the centralized themes
that made the “Despicable Me”
franchise so charming was its
focus on love and parenting.
The first movie was charismatic,
captivating audiences as they
watched
Gru’s
life change with
the love of his
adoptive
girls.
“Despicable Me 3”
attempts to mimic
this by focusing on
Gru’s relationship
with his long lost
brother, Dru, and
Lucy’s
struggles
as a new mother to the girls.
Not only does the movie use
the same tired “plot twist”
of a secret twin sibling, but it
doesn’t give either relationship
the attention they need to
fully evolve. We see very small
amounts of tension between Gru
and Dru or Lucy and the girls,
and then the relationships are
perfect in the end with little
time reserved for the characters
to face the consequences of
their actions. The most touching
moment we see relationship-wise
is when the minion Mel pines for
Gru in prison, remembering how
affectionate and selfless Gru was.
“Despicable
Me
3”
tries
to pack too much in at once,
introducing
Gru’s
long
lost
brother while Agnes searches for
a unicorn and villain Balthazar
Bratt uncomfortably shimmies
around everywhere. The movie
is distracted by the action and
these side plots, hoping to find
something that will appeal to
everyone. Balthazar Bratt proves
to be a moderately entertaining
villain, with a unique backstory
as an 80s child star who became
a villain after his show was
cancelled when he hit puberty.
Yet his character becomes too
much to handle because he
demands so much attention,
much like the rest of the subplots.
“Despicable Me 3” still has
some funny moments. It relies
on slapstick humor for the
children and 80s references for
the parents. There is no lack of
comedy in every action scene,
ranging
from
Dru’s
failings
as a villain to the dance fights
between Balthazar Bratt and
Gru. Margot, Edith and Agnes are
cute and funny as they each deal
with growing up,
but even Agnes’s
cuteness is subdued
by
too
many
of
her high pitched
screams.
One of the only
redeeming qualities
of
the
movie
is
the antics of the
minions.
Their
dance routines choreographed
to Pharell Williams songs are
entertaining
and
refreshing
against the chaotic plot of the
movie. Likewise, the animation of
these scenes is visually stunning.
However, switching back and
forth between the minions and
the rest of the characters adds
further confusion to the plot,
highlighting the lack of focus on
any one centralized theme.
“Despicable Me 3” has a
lot to live up to, coming from
such a successful franchise.
It is difficult for the third
— or fourth if you include
“Minions” — movie to surpass
its predecessors. The movie
still entertains, but not with the
charm or fluidity of “Despicable
Me.” Instead, it struggles to
find its way and overstimulates
at times. It may disappoint
adult fans of the franchise
who yearn for the delightful
characterization and love in the
first movie, but it will still be an
amusing watch for children.
NITYA GUPTA
Daily Arts Writer
“Despicable Me
3”
Rave Cinemas,
Quality 16
Universal Pictures