Image via Complex Original
Welp, it sounds like it's really happening. The rumors that music's reigning couple planned to follow their blockbuster tour with a collab album were re-ignited this week thanks to a pre-Grammys interview with Detail, the producer who laced the power duo with "Drunk in Love," wherein he all-but confirms Beyoncé and Jay Z are working on...something. Naturally, fans of both are in a sky-is-falling panic. Your average BeyHive member couldn't give a shit about Jay Z (On the Run Tour's audience had to be split at least 70/30), meanwhile Jigga fans have sweaty flashbacks to Kingdom Come's "Hollywood" every time they see Beyoncé listed on one of his track lists.
It's time to sew that cynicism up. While we'd all much rather see the two of them drop solo projects, it's borderline insane to think that, at this stage in both of their respective careers and their status as a power couple, Jay and B would really release a brick's worth of cutesy relationship tracks and z100-ready trash. It's crazy when I, of all people, have to step up and be the optimist, but I truly believe if the game's shrewdest businessman and its most committed perfectionist are really going to do this, it's going to be done right. Here are few reasons why On the Run: The Album ('15 Bonnie & Clyde? Natural Born Killers? True Romance?) *could* actually be fire.
The last thing Jay Z wants to do is put out a pop/rap brick.
The cynics wrote Magna Carta Holy Grail off as a means to a Samsung-backed corporate synergy end, which is a trash opinion because it was clearly an attempt to re-assert himself in hip-hop's new landscape, an arena that saw Drake take the (current) crown with Kendrick hot on his heels. Your mileage may vary with regards to how successful he was, but when Kendrick declares himself the "King of New York" and months later Hov is on Ross songs (for which he always reserves some of his best bars) replying "All these niggas claiming King, but I'm still that," his mindset is clear. Call me a Stan but I have faith fam isn't going to hit us with an album full of "Hollywoods" when he's in the twilight of his career (at least as far as Long Players go) and a portion of the rap audience is already praising Drake while hitting Jay with "but, what have you done for me lately" attitudes.
They actually have worthwhile shit to talk about.
You know exactly what went down hours after this picture was taken. The Met Gala alphets are forever immortalized as the wardrobe music's first couple wore on what would become one of the worst nights of their public lives, the biggest threat to their previously bulletproof image, and one of the biggest celebrity scandals of the 2014. In the wake of ElevatorGate, the two carried on as if nothing happened. They went on tour, Beyoncé gave a brief stunt-worthy acknowledgement of the melee on the "Flawless" remix ("Of course, sometimes shit goes down when it's a billion dollars on an elevator"), and she dropped the lighthearted "7/11" which we assume was already in the stash. The marriage survived, but amidst near-endless divorce rumors from more than just gossip rags. Suffice to say, a well of personal material is teeming with topics from which to create compelling art. Bey already made an album full of introspective commentary on their relationship on her own, imagine the results when Jay's on the track chiming in with his perspective. (On a brighter side, their blog-adored three-year-old daughter should make for a cute song—or cameo!—too.)
They're friends with Kanye again.
Maybe the Throne era got us over-accustomed to seeing Jay and Ye together at all times, but in the past few years, married life separated Hova and little bro Yeezus so much that fans started to fear they'd had a quiet falling out. Welp, now that Yeezy SZN is upon us again, Kanye's out and about, and the New Beatle Clique has been spotted with each other refreshingly frequently. With the Grammy Family back in constant contact with each other, it stands to reason that Kanye would be involved in a few sessions, maybe even executive produce? A re-energized Ye in the studio would surely be focused on helping his fam create another Album of the Year nominee that he can wild out over when it doesn't win. Just imagine the studio session going up, like so:
Beyoncé's last album proves she's got a great ear.
Forget about the surprise factor. With mounting doubt and skepticism stacked against her, Mrs. Carter quietly made her fifth album her best yet, at a time when her legacy needed an absolute heater to solidify it. BEYONCÉ proves she's got a great knack for assembling a thorough body of work from top to finish, a notion reinforced by the amount of time she took recording, trimming, and cutting. Her dedication was especially apparent upon hearing that she created a Kanye-esque sleepaway camp comprised of a handful of key songwriters and producers (in Long Island) for the bulk of the sessions. Of the two artists in the Carter-Knowles household, Yoncé has the more critically acclaimed recent release. Her next project, whether it's a solo or a collab album, has to stack up to the project that a whole lot of people considered a lock for the Album of the Year Grammy. Put another way: She's got as much to lose from making tossed-off cutesy tracks as Jay does.
Detail is involved.
Detail's the whole reason this hype machine reignited, so it stands to reason that he's heavily involved in whatever this project will turn out to be. That's a very good thing, and arguably the number one reason why this might not be a blockbuster train wreck waiting to happen. Detail's work on BEYONCÉ resulted in two absolute bangers that may as well be hip-hop songs considering the response they garner in a lit spot ("Drunk in Love", "7/11").
Second, according to Drake, Detail is quietly one of the top people you want in the booth when laying a verse down: "My biggest thing this time was working with my vocal coach, just really finding a different tone. Detail is a huge influence on that as well. I’ve never had a vocal producer other than 40, and there were nights where 40 would leave the studio and let Detail vocal produce me. What’s different about Detail, I’ll do a verse in one take with 40; Detail would make me go line by line. It was annoying at first, like who is this guy to tell me I’m not doing it right? But when I listened to the finished product there’d be so much emotion in every line that it was almost like somebody different rapping."
This is exactly the kind of guy that needs to be in the studio with Jay to push him out of the comfort zone that he sometimes lapses into in this post Black Album era. Couple that with the fact that he gives Beyoncé joints that bang, that Jay can effortlessly glide over? Might have to make him an EP.