Jay-Z, the hip hop and rapper mogul and star, had not released a music video for quite some time. Hence, no wonder why  his new album 4:44 has garnered widespread attention.  On the album is one song: The Story of O.J. The new music video of the song, The Story of O.J., in which Jay-Z turns  himself into a blackface cartoon, sends a charged civil rights and political message.

Jay-Z's  The Story of O.J. draws from a song by Nina Simone, the famous Civil Rights activist and great soul diva. Nina Simone's Four Women tells the struggles and fate of four women, based on the color of their skin: black, yellow, tan, and brown..

Rhiannon Giddens is a singer and multi-instrumentalist best known for her unparalleled mastery of the banjo. According to Rhiannon, in America, "in the first 100 years of its existence, the banjo was known as a plantation instrument, as a black instrument."