4:44 (2017)

Synopsis

Centers on two performances; in the first, dancers Storyboard P and Okwui Okpokwasili twist and twine their bodies in a moving two-part dance of desire, pain, and regret. In the second, present-day hip-hop royalty Beyoncé and Jay-Z serenade each other as part of a live performance. The work accompanies Jay-Z's track of the same name, widely viewed as an apology to his wife, Beyoncé for his infidelity and emotional failures as a husband. A collaboration between Arthur Jafa, Malik Sayeed, and Baltimore-based Elissa Blount Moorhead, the video uses cinematography, choreography, and found footage to explore complex and constricted notions of masculinity in an insightful and moving tapestry of Black love and life.