When JAY-Z’s 4:44 was initially announced, it wasn’t clear exactly what the Sprint-promoted, Tidal-exclusive project would be: An album? A movie? Early promotions (including a commercial that ran during the NBA Finals) went heavy on the latter, with a series of trailers touting the presence of Oscar winners Mahershala Ali, Lupita Nyong’o, and Danny Glover. Yesterday, Ali made a post on his Instagram that confirmed what was already pretty clear, given the numerous Lemonade references all over the newly released tracks: a 4:44 visual album is still on its way.
Ali’s post calls the project “A Visual Album By Shawn Carter,” making it clear that the black-and-white footage we’ve been seeing in various trailer posts will eventually accompany the songs on 4:44. It’s still not clear when the visual album will actually arrive, but you can be pretty sure that you’ll need some combination of Tidal membership or a Sprint subscription in order to view it.