This album was released on June 16th this year (2018). The Carters are literally a dream come true; two icons of black America coming together to start a family of wealth. If you followed my Jay-Z marathon, you know I have mixed feelings on the dude. I think Beyoncé’s fans are annoying as fuck too. I’m just gonna say it… The girl I was fuckin’ with before I got sent to a mental hospital was WAAAAAAY badder than Beyoncé. I’m not saying I wouldn’t go balls deep in Jay-Z’s wife, so don’t misconstrue my words. Don’t ever misquote anything we say here at Focus Hip Hop. Anyway, I was actually expecting a decent project before listening to this album. It’s the perfect length, and the production credits looked promising enough. I gotta mention one thing though… As a Nas fan, I found it kind of annoying that The Carters stole ALL of his shine only ONE DAY after dropping his latest record. The beef is expired though, so it doesn’t really matter. Every song is self produced.

Summer co-produced by Cool & Dre & El Michels
Apeshit co-produced by Pharrell Williams
Boss featuring Ty$ co-produced by D’Mile, Mike Dean, MeLo-X & Derek Dixie
Nice featuring Pharell Williams co-produced by Pharrell Williams
713 co-produced by Cool & Dre, 808-Ray & Fred Ball
Friends co-produced by Boi-1da, Jahaan Sweet, Nav, Sevn Thomas & Fred Ball
Heard About Us co-produced by Boi-1da, Jahaan Sweet, !llmind, Vinylz & Fred Ball
Black Effect co-produced by Cool & Dre
LoveHappy co-produced by Sitek & Nova Wav

The breezy production on the first track is pretty nice, and Beyoncé sounded decent singing the first verse. The verse from Jay was fine too. I don’t know. The song was decent, but it just didn’t really stick out that much to me. I don’t have anything to say about it honestly. It’s decent. I guess.

Yeaaaah… Not really feelin’ APESHIT either… I’m not impressed by the glitzy production, nor do I care for the Migos-y delivery utilized by Beyoncé. It sounds like Offset is responsible for the ad-libs. This music is really trendy. I’m really bored listening to this shit. The third track is definitely a step up from APESHIT, but I still doubt I’ll be returning to it in the future. I like the incorporation of horns in the production, and the lyrics about spreading wealth are cool I guess. I don’t know. Something about this shit just isn’t doing anything for me. It just sounds kinda generic to me. Absolutely nothing about this project is exciting me so far. We’re off to a rough start. NICE is highlighted as a single by Apple Music, so I was hoping it’d be one of the more enjoyable tracks on the album, but after I heard the first verse I said out loud, “Yeah, no. I’m not feelin’ it.” I don’t know why the fuck I felt the need to say that shit out loud. I’m literally sitting out in my backyard alone. The beat is really wack to me. I’m not feelin’ those staggered piano keys, and the hook from Beyoncé is boring as hell. Jay crammed a few too many syllables into his verse. It sounded awkward. This is easily the worst song on the album so far. I’m not feelin’ this shit at all. The feature from Pharrell did absolutely nothing for me. It’s wack. 713 is the first glimpse of true dopeness in my opinion. The hook is inspired by Still D.R.E., and the piano driven beat is actually pretty good. It DOES kinda sound like a leftover from Magna Carta Holy Grail though. I don’t know what area 713 represents. It doesn’t really matter though. Jay goes in about how him & Beyoncé started dating. It’s cool I guess. I think it’s the best song on the album so far, but it’s not gonna blow anyone away. It’s a good song though. I fuck with it. The beat on FRIENDS was kinda cool, but I didn’t really care for Beyoncé’s lyrics about how much she loves her life. Good for her. I’m not tryna hear that shit though. I can’t relate. Her friends are apparently better than mine. You know how I know I’m a bad friend? I think she might be right. Jay’s verse was fine I guess. The song just doesn’t really stand out that much. It’s not bad, but it didn’t excite me at all. It’s pretty average. Same goes for HEARD ABOUT US. The production’s decent, but I’m never gonna be interested in hearing celebrities brag about how famous they are. That line from Jay about how people call him Dad was kinda interesting. That shit is annoying as fuck to me. I hate people who idolize celebrities. BLACK EFFECT is a step up from the track it follows, but it still lacks replay value for me personally. It’s yet another average song. I have pretty much nothing to say about it. It didn’t move me in any way. It’s boring. LOVEHAPPY flips the same sample as Morning Sex by Joey Purp. I’d much rather just listen to that song. It’s the only track on the album in which the vicissitudes of their marriage are acknowledged, which is pretty disappointing. I wasn’t really expecting them to have a group therapy session in the style of BROCKHAMPTON, talking about how hurt they both were, but it would’ve been nice to have some more introspection on this project. The outro is boring as hell. There’s a bonus track on the Tidal edition of this album, but considering how unenjoyable the standard edition of this project was, I didn’t care to listen to it.

This album kinda sucks. To me, it’s pretty much everything I dislike about commercial Hip Hop. They really played it safe with the production, and they didn’t really say anything that interested me. It’s just super stale to me. There’s nothing creative or groundbreaking about this project. It doesn’t feel like there was really that much effort put into this album. They played it safe. This shit is mediocre.

Favorite Song: 713
Least Favorite Song: NICE

D+

Watch the videos below for more thoughts on this album.