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Wale and Joey Bada$ Might Be Onto Something With This Theory About Jay-Z's '4:44'

Sorry, Illuminati conspiracy theorists.

If you’re like the majority of Jay-Z fans, you’re still spending time trying to unpack and absorb the 10 tracks of his thirteenth studio album released on Friday (June 30).

But if you’re anything like Brookyln’s Pro Era hip-hop leader Joey Bada$ or D.C.’s rap poet Wale, you may have already cracked the code on its arcane 4:44 title.  

While everyone immersed themselves in Jay’s career milestone opus over the weekend, the All-Amerikkkan Badass artist showed up to Twitter on Monday (July 3) to drop gems on his interpretation of the trio of fours.

“I think I figured it out...,” he tweeted. “4:44 is the 4th Blueprint.”

The “4th blueprint” Joey speaks of would be the fourth installment in Jay’s The Blueprint series. We received the last entry in 2009 with The Blueprint 3 and the very first in 2001 with The Blueprint. Joey feels that instead of naming his latest undertaking The Blueprint 4, Jay took a different approach.

Following up his interpretation came Mr. Folarin, who formerly shared a Roc Nation business relationship with Jay. He seconded Joey’s thoughts, but with a spin on the difference in demeanors of Jay’s The Blueprint series and his latest project.

“I said the same thing,” he replied. “But [Blueprint] all had upbeat/club s**t.. I feel like this is Jay-Z getting his ‘truthfully I [wanna] rap like common sense’ on.”

He also brought in legendary songstress and Jay’s wife of nine years, Beyoncé, reminding that the significance of the number four has way more to do with her than any of that devil talk some people have pinned on him.

“Also the number four is very important to him,” Wale added. “Beyoncé also has [an] album named ‘4’…[people] try to put the devil on him all the time, SMH.”

Not to mention Jay and Bey's birthdays both falling on the fourth of their respective September and December months, the day of their anniversary and their matching marital tattoos.

So, yep, Wale said it right: the devil is a lie.

See their decoding of Jay’s 4:44 title below.

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