The internet has been buzzing since music video director Hidjiworld posted a couple of snaps in his Instagram Story from what seems to be a production set for a possible project involving one of the biggest rappers in the culture.
The highly sought-after director posted a DM between himself and a friend on Sunday, Jan. 28. In the message, Hidjiworld wrote to the friend, “Shooting today. Wya?”
The person responded, “I’m home bro who you shooting bro??”
Without much pomp, HidjiWorld wrote, “Jay Z.”
The following image in Hidjiworld’s Instagram story was of a slate that read in the production slot, “JAY Z— 2024 ALBUM,” with “HIDJI” as the director. The image seemed to commemorate the first shot of the day. With an erasable marker, someone wrote ROLL A01, Scene 1, and Take 1. It also identified Leroy Farrell as the camera person/ director of photography.
Once fans caught wind of Hidjiworld’s Instagram posts, Jay-Z began to trend on the X platform, with fans eagerly anticipating a new project from the Brooklyn native. Many were hyped to finally get an entire body of work, especially considering he hadn’t released a solo album since “4:44” on June 30, 2017.
This is coupled with his 2023 interview with Gayle King, where he talked about returning to the studio to make music only when he had something important to say.
“I don’t wanna just make a bunch of tunes,” he said to King. “That’s not gonna serve me. It won’t feed me, first of all. I have to be saying something important. It has to mean something, you know? It has to mean something to a larger society.”
“‘4:44,’ for example, was a personal story, but the amount of vulnerability in there allowed for a lot of people to explore the space,” he continued.
However, Roc Nation acted swiftly to squash the rumors, leaving rap lovers heartbroken.
While retweeting a post from NFR Podcast that read, “A NEW JAY-Z ALBUM IS BEING TEASED FOR 2024,” Roc Nation said, “That’s news to us.”
That’s news to us https://t.co/19LGtkhtlN
— Roc Nation (@RocNation) January 28, 2024
“Ffs can’t even get excited for 24hrs Lmaoo,” another person wrote. Others felt the same way, posting memes and GIFs to express just how petty they think Roc Nation is for draining the gas from their engines so fast.
Yall ain't let nobody get hype or nothing pic.twitter.com/5QMqVz7Qhr
— the-visuals (@big_virgo911) January 28, 2024
Another X user commented, “Make him do it (with a series of crying face emojis and red exclamation points).”
Out of the hundreds of fans that commented, a few said that Jay-Z pulled a “Bey” on us by “not telling management.”
Some X users were clueless about who the director was, questioning his credibility.
According to his website, Hidjiworld has done work with rappers like Nas, Future, A$AP Rocky, Pharrell, and more.
On social media, Hidjiworld has not deleted the posts or cleared up the speculation. Instead, he has let the posts in the stories rock and keeps referencing his rate — which will probably reach Lil X, Hype Williams, or Benny Boom circa 2000 levels if he indeed shot a video for Jay-Z’s highly anticipated 14th studio album.
