JAY-Z is continuing to release Tidal-exclusive footnotes for the songs on his recent 13th opus, 4:44. This time, the Jigga Man’s “Kill Jay Z” is the latest track to get the visual background treatment.
At the end of the clip, Hov geared up fans for his next release: the video for “Adnis” featuring Mahershala Ali, which drops on Friday (Jul.28) at 4:44.
Stars such as Trevor Noah, Anthony Anderson, Michael Che, Charlamagne Tha God and political commentator Van Jones discuss the question “when has your ego hurt you and when has your ego helped you?”
In the clip, which accompanies the “Kill Jay Z” music video, Jay discusses the importance of managing our egos, as they are slightly necessary to get by.
“Jay Z, the public persona, couldn’t have this conversation, so he has to be eliminated, he has to be removed,” he says. “So it’s really Shawn Carter speaking Jay Z, and he has to convince him to move aside.”
However, a little bit of that ego still resides in Carter.
“You walkin’ around like you invincible, but…I did bring us here,” he boasts. “You need a bit of your ego at some point.”
Throughout the clip, different stars give their pros and cons of ego. The Daily Show’s Noah says that ego is something that scares him “as a human being,” while SNL‘s Che says that ego makes it difficult to enjoy the simple things in life, like dressing up for Halloween.
“[Ego] is something we can keep in check, but we can’t kill it,” says black-ish‘s Anderson.
“I think your ego is always your best friend and your worst enemy,” says Jones in the clip. “If you’re an African American man…you have to have [ego] twice, because the grade is steeper, the obstacles are bigger…”