5 Reasons a Jay Z and Beyoncé Album Could Actually Be Fire

Image via Complex Original

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.

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.) 

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'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.