"Good music, it will last. It will last – it won't go nowhere." That casual nugget dropped in conversation by Jamaican dancehall stalwart Sister Nancy during the six-minute run of JAY-Z's "Bam" video almost sums up the thread on legacy and inheritance that runs his latest album, 4:44. This idea – of Hov growing up and owning up to his mistakes and transgressions, seeing himself through the eyes of his children as though clearly for the first time – permeates the record.And you can see it at work here, in the video for "Bam", which follows recent visuals for "The Story of OJ", Footnotes for The Story of OJ and "4:44". Here, Damian Marley walks JAY-Z through the Jamaican Trenchtown neighbourhood, where remnants of Marley's father's stamp on the area stick to the ground like pollen. There it is again: the idea of legacy, of what a child finds left behind of their parent when they're gone – only now instead of JAY-Z fretting about what Blue Ivy might discover online in years to come, you're watching the grown-up son of reggae's biggest icon retread his father's steps. Sister Nancy – whose hit "Bam Bam" was sampled by Kanye West on "Famous" as well as JAY-Z here on "Bam" – is seen ad-libbing a vocal too, her voice as potent and rich as ever, in the handful of scenes that aren't shot right out on the street.Watch the video in full above, and enjoy the moment about halfway through when someone recognises JAY-Z and gets so excited that Marley asks where his shoutout is, with a laugh.You can find Noisey on Twitter.
Advertisement