When composing his 2017 album 444, Jay-Z created a playlist, a playlist with a purpose.

On it were songs from the 60s and 70s by legends like Donna Hathaway, Stevie Wonder, and Sister Nancy.

But more than a genre or era, what unified this collection of songs was the fact that they all

contain themes that interested Jay, themes he specifically wanted to build on for his own album.

Jay gave this playlist to virtuoso producer No ID,

who incorporated many of the songs into his sample-based compositions,

creating historically rich, thematically potent musical backdrops for Jay's contemporary musings. This song, Nina Simone's four women from 1966 was the first track No ID sampled from Jay's playlist.

It's an incredibly powerful portrait of four African American women that writer Tulani Davis

described as quote an instantly accessible analysis of the damning foundation of 444 a standout track

The story of OJ. The question is what exactly was it about Simone's four women that appealed to JJ?

And how could it possibly relate to one of the most notorious figures in modern history, OJ Simpson?

From Spotify, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short digestible

episodes.

For the Four Song in our Lyrical Masters' mixtape, we're dissecting Jay-Z's 2017 track The Story of OJ.

This episode was written by FEMI Olutade and I'm your host Cole Kishner. Oh, yeah. So, you're not

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All right, let's dig a little deeper into the story of OJ's musical foundation, Nina Simone's four women.

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