What you hear in Jay-Z's voice on the new song, "Glory," isn't bravado, or arrogance, or even the unchained joy of a new father wanting to pass out cigars to everyone in the room. It sounds more like relief, an earned exhale.
On Jan. 7, his wife, Beyonce, gave birth to their first child, Blue Ivy Carter, whose cries are sampled on the song. "Glory" is an openhearted ode to the baby - "A younger, smarter, faster me/ Saw a pinch of Hov, a whole glass of B" - but it's also about fear of the unknown, an acknowledgment of the fragility that can lurk behind flawless facades.
"Last time the miscarriage was so tragic/ We was afraid you'd disappear, but no/ baby, you magic," Jay-Z raps, seemingly pulling back the veil on the stresses and obstacles that bedeviled him and Beyonce on the path to successfully conceiving. "False alarms and false starts," he raps, "all made better by the sound of your heart."
It's humane and humble, and maybe the most naked Jay-Z song ever, though over the years he's excelled at slipping painful autobiographical details into unlikely places. He even tried out the parent role on "New Day," from "Watch the Throne," last summer's collaborative album with Kanye West, on which he rapped to his imagined child (a son, but still): "The sins of a father make your life 10 times harder/ I just want to take you to a barber."
If Jay-Z isn't at his peak flow here - think "Beach Chair," the collaboration with Chris Martin of Coldplay from "Kingdom Come" - he's at his peak feeling on this casual Neptunes production, all warm organ and easy drums. It's purposefully spare, so as to not get in the way of his emotions. Or his words, which uncharacteristically, Jay-Z is at something of a loss for, or at least has come to understand their limitations: "The most amazing feeling I feel/ Words can't describe what I'm feeling for real."
