My Gut Reaction: The Carters (Beyoncé + Jay-Z) - Everything Is Love (June 16, 2018)

On June 15 of this year, Nas released his eleventh solo album, NASIR. Fully produced by Kanye West as a part of the producer-slash-Trump lover’s summer G.O.O.D. Music campaign-slash-market saturation, Nas was able to experience an album promotion that in no way mirrored his previous experience within the music industry. Merely having West attached to his project gave it a nigh-mythical status that overrode any and all criticisms of either the producer’s political leanings or the artist’s then-lack of explanation of the goings-on during his now-controversial marriage to singer Kelis. NASIR featured the man spitting over a series of sometimes-interesting instrumentals, hoping to reclaim his place atop the mountain that is our chosen genre. Not even the fact that West, a notorious perfectionist, released NASIR much later in the day than was originally scheduled, could detract from Nas’ moment.

June 16, the very next day, Beyoncé and Jay-Z dropped an out-of-nowhere joint album, Everything Is Love (credited to their family name, The Carters). Given that Hova once had issues with Nas and currently isn’t on speaking terms with West, many critics, including myself, saw this as a passive-aggressive attack on both men, especially as West had been promoting NASIR’s release date for at least a month or so previously. Bey, for her part, had too much going on to give a shit about any of this. The Carters proceeded to dominate the media cycle, leaving everything else in their wake.

Couldn’t even let Nas have the weekend, Shawn?

Anyway, Everything Is Love (its very title could also be interpreted as a swipe at #MAGA ‘Ye, who’s gone out of his way to promote love and loving everybody this past year) is a collaborative album released in conjunction with the married couple’s 2018 On The Run II tour. I say it was a “surprise” album, but I mean that only in the traditional sense where nobody knew it was going to drop when it did (a feat Beyoncé has mastered throughout the years): after the success of their past collaborations such as “Crazy In Love”, “Upgrade U”, and “’03 Bonnie & Clyde” (which was produced by Kanye West, laughing emoji), in addition to their first tour together, conveniently called On The Run, it was but a matter of time before these two crazy kids got together to do the damn thing. In fact, Everything Is Love had been rumored to be a thing that existed for quite a while prior to its weekend release, mostly because of cryptic remarks that both parties had slyly revealed to the press or on social media, but also because of the albums it followed up.

Everything Is Love is the third entry in a trilogy of projects that follows the likely-real, but we can’t put anything past these two when it comes to generating interest in their solo careers, narrative of Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s marriage. Bey’s sixth solo album, Lemonade, detailed the actions of a cheating husband and how our heroine was coping with that knowledge: many listeners connected the dots and assumed Jay cheated on his wife. By the time her sister Solange Knowles attacked Jay in the elevator during the Met Gala in 2014, everyone accepted this truth as gospel, even though neither party had confirmed any of these facts at the time: it was all pure speculation, and Bey and Jay were taking advantage of the public’s insatiable appetite for gossip. Three years later, Jay followed with 4:44, his No I.D.-produced “response” album of sorts, on which he appeared to confirm the rumors while expressing regret, while occasionally offering random financial advice and allowing their daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, to rap some gibberish bars. This was timed with rare Hov interviews where he seemed to admit to infidelity, which is probably true but, again, these two know how to work all the angles: they’re not among the richest musicians on the planet for nothing, you know. Unfortunately, his admissions had the detrimental effect of causing some of Beyoncé’s hive to outwardly question why their hero would continue wasting her time married to that loser, even though the answer ranges from “people are complex” to “shut the fuck up, they don’t know you, you don't know what's really going on, and they don’t have to answer to you, so no, really, shut the fuck up”. Both Lemonade and 4:44 were met with critical acclaim and altered the pop culture landscape, Lemonade more so than Jay’s project, lest we forget that Beyonce is the much bigger name worldwide.

So if Lemonade revealed Hova’s infidelity (with “Becky with the good hair”, a phrase that hasn’t yet left the public lexicon) and 4:44 seemingly confirmed it, where do The Carters go from here? Apparently, to a reconciliation, if Everything Is Love is to be taken at face value. Its nine tracks, reportedly recorded over a series of several years (including during Jay’s Magna Carta Holy Grail era) but likely knocked out in the course of a month sometime this past spring, is produced fully by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, along with other folks who are actually known for their production work such as Pharrell Williams and Cool & Dre, among others. The Carters use this project as a way to present a united front, sending the message that their marriage will not be compromised by Beckys at any point, and besides, they have earned far too much money together to ever be bothered by what the public thinks of them. Everything Is Love isn’t all about love, of course: in between our co-hosts professing their allegiance to both one another and their ever-growing family (at one point Blue Ivy shouts-out her younger siblings), both Jay-Z and Beyoncé spit (yeah, I said spit, even though Bey also sings, obviously) boasts-n-bullshit as only folks in their tax bracket could.

Everything Is Love debuted as a TIDAL exclusive, which was the least surprising part of all of this, as both Carters own the company, but it was quickly disseminated to the other streaming services, including one that Beyoncé seems to have a personal vendetta against (more on that in a bit). It did not top the Billboard charts upon release, as it dropped on a Saturday and, as such, missed out on several days’ worth of potential sales, but NASIR didn’t hit that top spot either. Instead, 5 Seconds of Summer, a band whose name I’ve seen a bunch of times but I honestly don’t know what their shit sounds like, shocked the music industry by beating out The Carters for that number one slot. Not that Jay or Bey gave much of a fuck, though: again, they’ve got money, so they’re fine.

Still, though, they couldn’t just let Nas have this one. You have to appreciate the petty on display, folks.

1. SUMMER

Bypassing the album intro trope that Hov doesn’t seem to adhere to all that much now anyway, the track that kicks off Everything Is Love sets a tone we should all be familiar with by now: Jay and (especially) Bey only tell you what they want you to know about themselves, so the Cool & Dre-produced “SUMMER” is a straightforward R&B song celebrating lazy summers spent in the sun, or one’s lover, and not about having any further light shed on our hosts’ marital situation. Jay-Z is but a hypeman for the majority of “SUMMER”: indeed, this is Beyoncé’s domain, and she rules over it well enough, turning in a performance that will seem to be too plodding and slow at first, but grows on you as the world turns. Hov eventually gets around to spitting a verse, and his flow is already much more relaxed than what we heard on the entirety of 4:44. Not a bad way to start a project such as this, even if it doesn’t feel like Jay was an equal partner.

2. APESHIT

The first video released for the project was for the Pharrell-produced “APESHIT”, and it made a big splash online because it was filmed inside the Louvre, because of course our hosts would pull a flex like that, and also, Hov will never let anyone forget his love of art. “APESHIT” was originally a Migos song (the reference track is readily available online), which is why Quavo and Offset’s ad-libs remain in the final cut, and having Beyoncé adopt a Migos flow is the type of co-sign I’m sure none of them ever thought possible, but here we are. She speaks the words decently enough, but the constant change-ups in flow throw her off her game, and for the first time in a while, she sounds like she’s actually trying, as though she finally encountered something that doesn’t come easy to her, so while her performance is fine on this okay-to-decent track (everyone else praising this to high heaven must have had extremely low expectations for both the project and hip hop in general), it isn’t flawless. Jay-Z doesn’t even bother attempting the Migos flow, instead opting to just talk his shit like a normal human being (albeit one that speaks in a speed a tiny bit faster than most), and he comes off as the most easygoing he’s been in fucking years. Not bad for what it ended up becoming, but still, “APESHIT” is your messiah?

3. BOSS (FEAT. TY DOLLA $IGN)

D’Mile’s instrumental renders Bey rather lethargic, as her chorus and two verses are delivered in a blunt, lazy manner that some will chalk up to her just being a “BOSS” while others, for example myself, will choose to believe that she just didn’t like the beat all that much, but Hov did (because he snapped on here – more on that in a bit), so she compromised. She does manage to deliver a few good lines, though, all revolving around her wealth (“My great-great-grandchildren already rich / That’s a lot of brown children on your Forbes list”). Back to Shawn, though: he was clearly irked by somebody in his life (some speculate Drake, but I think it was his favorite subliminal punching bag of the moment, Kanye West), as he trashes the unnamed rival’s ability to be their own boss when they still have to report to someone above them. Aside from his lone verse, Hov doesn’t contribute much to “BOSS”, so perhaps the one listen will suffice, but he does go off.

4. NICE (FEAT. PHARRELL)

Essentially an improved-upon version of “BOSS”, one with a better beat provided by Pharrell (who also spits half a verse) and the spotlight pointed more in Jay-Z's direction. The chorus is confusing (“I can do anything” is immediately followed by the phrase “hell naw” four times, which, while catchy, contradicts the preceding statement), but Hov talks his patented shit again, somehow sounding even more frustrated with the world at large. As for Bey, “NICE” is the song where she famously attacks Spotify and quotes the flick Half Baked within the span of two bars, just like the spaced-out pothead she (allegedly) is, but for someone who has claimed to be humble about her success in the past, her delivery of the line, “I give you life” certainly doesn’t reflect that. Skateboard P sounds fine, if a bit inconsequential: he pops up halfway through a word, seemingly, as though Beyoncé grew tired of reciting Pharrell’s written lyrics and chose to fade to the reference track instead. “NICE” isn’t a great song, but its catchiness is a benefit. It was also nice to get a reminder that Jay-Z still doesn’t write down any of his bars before recording.

5. 713

Kind of bananas in the way its parts don’t form a cohesive whole. Over a Cool & Dre production that borrows a chunk of Hiatus Kaiyote’s “The World It Slowly Lulls”, Hov raps about how he and Bey first met and the early days of their relationship and how she made him feel all confused and tingly and shit. But then he delivers a bridge that has nothing to do with any of this. And then his wife jumps in on the hook, first aping Justin Timberlake’s “Summer Love” , and then flat-out ripping off (and well, I might add) the chorus from Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E.” (a song Jay-Z actually wrote, I also add), altering some of the lyrics to reflect her pride in her Houston hometown (hence the song title “713”, one of the area codes for the city). So yeah, none of this makes a lick of sense. But was it entertaining? Mostly, sure.

6. FRIENDS

“FRIENDS” runs for much longer than necessary, but the Boi-1da and Sweet instrumental is pleasing to the ear, so you two may not mind quite as much. This is another example of how Everything Is Love is a Beyoncé project that features her spouse, as Bey’s vocals dominate the nearly six minutes this one runs for, but she sounds alright, if not exceptional. Hov’s single verse is all over the place thematically, as he starts off talking about his friends (and gets off one funny line: “Tight circle, no squares / I’m geometrically opposed to you”), but then veers off into marital relations territory, claiming that he wouldn’t leave his home if he’s in mid-argument with his wife, not even if his house is on fire. He’s trying to say that he considers Beyoncé to be his best friend (surely), but it’s difficult to take him seriously when the lore tells us he cheated on her multiple times. Ah well. The beat is solid, though, and would be a perfect fit for an artist such as 2 Chainz, who should just swipe it when he gets the chance. Also, the instrumental sounds like if someone were trying to play Lil Wayne’s “Fireman” on a piano. Kinda sorta. Take that however you’d like.

7. HEARD ABOUT US

Pretty weird. Both Bey and Jey (correctly) assume that they’re famous enough that everyone already knows who they are: if you know of someone who claims they’ve never heard of either artist (not “never heard either artist”, as that’s a whole different animal), at best they’re old and don’t understand how popular culture works, and at worst, they’re incredibly fucking racist. Period. Plain and simple. Who the fuck doesn’t know who Beyoncé and Jay-Z are? But that doesn’t explain why either party felt the need to write a song about how we’ve already heard of them. Not sure who the audience was for this one, chief. Perhaps there’s a bit of curiosity around hearing Beyoncé sing the phrase, “If you don’t know, now you know, n---a”, but not so much for me. Skip!

8. BLACK EFFECT

Although the social injustice content you two crave is here, “BLACK EFFECT” is more about how proud Shawn and Beyonce are to be black, as Hov boasts-n-bullshits about relevant topics, birth political and otherwise, while his wife… proves she’s listened to Young Jeezy’s verse on the late Shawty Lo’s “Dey Know (Remix)”  at least once. Cool & Dre’s beat is okay, if nothing memorable, and Jay at least sounds like he Had Something To Say: “BLACK EFFECT” could have easily been a 4:44 leftover, if not for that whole “but No I.D. had nothing to do with it so it wouldn’t have fit that project” shit. The song is fine, but I don’t feel the need to listen to it again, do you?

9. LOVEHAPPY

Everything Is Love ends with Shawn and Beyoncé sitting side by side at the piano, trading lines back and forth like Archie and Edith Bunker, as they rap about their lives over a surprisingly banging David Sitek instrumental. Although “LOVEHAPPY” does sound more playful than some of the other tracks on here, it seems artificially so, at least on Bey’s part, as she tries very hard to sound personable and relatable, while Hov is just being Hov. A pretty good way to cap the evening, all in all, one that will end up on my evolving Jay-Z playlist that, come on, you two knew I had to have been maintaining, right? I mean, the first album I wrote about for HHID was Reasonable Doubt. Read between the lines, you two.

THE LAST WORD: Everything Is Love is precisely what it was calculated to be: a celebration of the union of Beyoncé and Jay-Z, filtered through the individual worldviews their chosen musical genres provide. How successful it ends up being is wholly dependent on how you feel about either artist, though. For their part, The Carters do a pretty good job of combining R&B and hip hop in a manner where fans of both wouldn’t necessarily object to anything on Everything Is Love, while the instrumentals provided are enough to satisfy heads from both ends of the spectrum. The somber Jay-Z that was prevalent throughout 4:44 has been replaced with a dude who smiles on occasion, but still raps like someone who, while not having anything more to prove at this point, likes pretending that he’s starving, so his performances are pretty entertaining for the most part. Beyoncé is more all over the place on this album, as she chooses to both sing and rap, and while her vocals are alright, her bars are much more memorable, if not conveyed quite as well as her husband’s. But she takes many more creative chances on Everything Is Love, as Hov is content to stay within his wheelhouse, and that makes her contributions that much more rewarding when they work. Together, they manage to craft an entertaining album that is almost instantly forgettable, even though a couple of the beats fucking bang. So while Everything Is Love won’t have the same cultural impact as either Lemonade or 4:44, it’s a natural conclusion to a tale that is, hopefully, finished by now, as I’d like to hear another Jay-Z project where he isn’t constantly trying to explain why he fucked around on his wife or how disappointed his children will be if they ever found out. (Which makes no sense, as Blue Ivy was on the albums where Jay talked about this shit, but whatever.)

B-SIDE YOU CAN TRACK DOWN IF YOU WANT, I GUESS: “SALUD!” (FEAT. DRE)

A TIDAL-exclusive bonus song that wasn’t considered good enough for the proper album, I guess? The vibe is a bit off on “SALUD!”, to be fair: while Beyoncé and guest crooner Dre seem to be in celebration mode (I’m guessing because she just finished recording all of her vocals for the album?), Hov is taking a melancholy look back at his life, or at least his flow makes it seem like that. The Cool & Dre beat grows much quieter during Shawn’s two verses, and is quite good during those times, but whenever Bey steps back up to the microphone, everything swells up in a generic fashion,. For a song most of you two will never hear unless you specifically go out of your way to seek it out, it isn’t bad, but it’s not really worth all of the extra effort. It’s definitely not the Holy Grail (no pun intended) of rare Jay-Z and Beyoncé tracks, anyway, although it could melt off a Nazi’s face with its sheer somewhat-pleasantness, so.

-Max

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