The Story of O.J. is here.
Jay-Z dropped his new music video, The Story of O.J., on TIDAL earlier today. The 4 minute and 16-second piece is the latest "visual" to come out from the rapper's 4:44 album, which has already gone platinum in less than one week out, according to TIDAL.
The music video is animated and takes on racist cartoons from Fleischer Studios, Warner Bros., Disney, and others.
"'The Story of OJ' is really a song about we as a culture, having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward," said Hova to iHeartRadio after his new album’s premiere. “We all make money, and then we all lose money, as artists especially. But how, when you have some type of success, to transform that into something bigger."
On Monday, Jay gave his a sneak peek of the vid and what it was motivated by when he took to TIDAL to release an 8-minute mini documentary, Footnotes for The Story of O.J., which focuses on the black experience in America.
Footnotes for "The Story of O.J.," includes interviews with Hov and other prominent stars, like Mahershala Ali, Michael B. Jordan, Christopher Darden, Van Jones, Kendrick Lamar, Trevor Noah, Chris Rock and Will Smith. Each interview was set to "The Story of O.J.," one of 10 new songs included on Jay-Z's 13th studio album.
"Being black in America is like being in a tiny, compressed box anchored at the bottom of the ocean with like 10,000 lbs. of pressure on you at all times, you know?" Jordan said in the video. "And not really feeling like you can be who you are or speak your truth without being criticized with 1,000 opinions and pointed fingers telling you what you're not and what you're not doing."
"Success is still in many ways a synonym for white. And so once you attach successful to the black man, there's a little key that has been given to you that may give you access to the white world," said Noah, who was born and raised in South Africa. "The key can be taken away: [Bill] Cosby, Tiger, etc.—the key can be taken away. But at least you have a key for the time being."
Jay-Z said in the doc, "As black people—because we never had anything, which is understandable—we get to a place, and we just think we separate ourselves from the culture."
"O.J. would get to a space where he's like, 'I'm not black, I'm O.J.' Like Tiger Woods would get to a space and think, 'I'm above the culture.' And that same person when he's playing golf and playing great, you're protected. When you're not, they're gonna put pictures of you drunk driving and, like, embarrass you. That world will eat you up and spit you out…I understand it, because the psychological damage is so real. It's so real. It's going to take for the way showers to do it and then not get to that point and turn into, like, 'I aint black! I'm O.J.' Like, he made it! Like, he made it. Then it was like he cut all ties. Now the next generation of guys can't come with him."
The 47-year-old musician's latest album is now available to stream for all TIDAL subscribers, courtesy of Sprint.
Now anyone who joins TIDAL can experience Jay-Z's innovative new work," Marcelo Claure, Sprint CEO, told E! News in a statement Tuesday. "Of course, Sprint customers and those who switch to Sprint can continue to enjoy a six-month trial of TIDAL HiFi on us."