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In this photo taken June 26, 2017, a New York City bus with an advertisement for Jay-Z’s anticipated new album “4:44” turns a corner in midtown New York City. Earlier this week, Jay-Z announced that official listening parties will take place across the US on June 29. Guest hosts will play the album in specific Sprint stores located in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and more ahead of its June 30 release. / AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images
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Daily Dose: 6/30/17

It’s not about Jay-Z being back, it’s about never leaving

Clinton Yates @clintonyates
Topics:
All Day Daily Dose Jay-Z BIG3

9:57 AMI got to ride bikes with an X Games gold medalist Thursday, so that was superfun. I also happen to be really falling in love with the city of San Diego, but that’s a different story for another time.

There was only one way for Jay to go with this new album. He’d done the gimmicky “look at my new partnership deal” already. He’d done the luxury rap nonsense with more than one project. Listening to Shawn Carter stunt on people about how rich he was had already gotten old before he had gotten old. He had to come with some actual dad rap, as in, with the wisdom of a man with kids. He did it. He nailed it, and 4:44 is a fantastic album. Listen to him break down every song and its meaning. Deacon Hov is very much in the building.

When you got a lot going on in your life, you get sleep where you can. If you take public transportation, that can mean sleeping on the bus or the train. For me, this life started back in middle school. After I stayed up all night talking to girls on the phone, the commute across town was definitely sleep time. I’d miss my stop sometimes, but not usually. Somehow I’d trained my brain. As an adult, it served me well too. The question is, how does that actually work? And can you actually get decent sleep that way?

In India, cows are sacred. As a result, many people do not eat beef, and if a cow decides it wants to sit in the middle of a crowded street, you basically just have to deal with it, in your car. Also in India, like pretty much everywhere else in the world, women do not get the respect they deserve. And violence against women is rampant. Various gang rapes have occupied the headlines in recent years, leading to the question: Are cows treated better than women in India? One photographer is raising awareness about this with an incredible picture campaign.

Let me take a wild guess. You don’t spend a lot of time watching polo. You know, the sport where the riders wear white pants and long boots on horses and hit a small ball with a mallet? Aka, horse croquet? To call it old school is a major understatement, and as a result it’s not something that very many black people do. Never mind black women. So when Shariah Harris takes the field at the Greenwich Polo Club’s Silver Cup this weekend, she’ll be the first black woman to play that tier of the game. Good for her.

Free Food

Coffee Break: I’ve been telling you all about 3-on-3 basketball for a while. It’s fun, it’s quick and it’s not gimmicky, which is why it’s coming to the Olympics in 2020. The FIBA U18 World Cup is happening as we speak, and half the fun is a guy named Kyle Montgomery, who’s handling the broadcast. This is worth your time on a side screen.

Snack Time: The likelihood that I ever actually buy anything from Supreme is extremely low. But I’ll definitely be checking for these collaboration drops, and the latest with Louis Vuitton is super fuego.

Dessert: Yeah, this fight won’t even be close. Enjoy your holiday weekends, kiddos. Safety first.

Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.