To say that I have been tripping on Jay Z's 4.44 would be a gross misstatement of facts. I find myself living inside the track; inhabiting the spaces between samples, between nuance, and everything it cumulatively evokes. I know I'm late to the party. But I had to arrive at this song.

It took me too long, maybe. And now that I've had my run-in with it, I seem to be carrying it with me, not just in my head, but in my pulse, my blood-beat. Hannah Williams' voice in the introductory sample track, "Late Nights and Heartbreaks" sets me off on the tailwind of a feeling. When she is done crooning, "Why do I keep on running away?" you hear the staccato-like break with the onset of the next sample; a few bars from Tyler, the Creator's ZIPLOC. And each time I think it can't get any better, when Jay Z begins to rap, I fall into pieces a little bit.