[UPDATE 1/12/24]: The Book of Clarence and its accompanying soundtrack arrived on streaming services on Friday. Included on the guest-filled, Jeymes Samuel-led album is “I Want You Forever” featuring both D’Angelo and Jay-Z. News of the unprecedented collaboration was leaked by Samuel earlier this week.
The track, true to the filmmaker’s promise, is “nine minutes, thirty-three seconds of absolute soulful, Biblical bliss” elevated by a dream-like interjection from Jay-Z and plenty of characteristic soulful texture, wailing background vocals, and slithering guitar flourishes from D’Angelo. Listen to “I Want You Forever” featuring Jay-Z and D’Angelo below. Stream the full Book of Clarence soundtrack here.
Jeymes Samuel, D’Angelo, Jay-Z – “I Want You Forever”
[1/8/24] Superstar rapper/”business, man” Jay-Z and elusive neo-soul auteur D’Angelo are both featured on a nearly ten-minute song on the forthcoming soundtrack to The Book of Clarence, the new movie from musician/filmmaker Jeymes Samuel (a.k.a. The Bullitts). The film is due to hit theaters on Friday, January 12th, with the soundtrack set to arrive on streaming services the same day.
The Book of Clarence, a sort of biblical “what if?” story, follows a down-on-his-luck man (played by LaKeith Stanfield) living in Jerusalem in the year 33 A.D. Captivated by the power of a rising Jesus Christ, Stanfield’s titular Clarence proclaims himself to be a new Messiah in an attempt to attain a life of similar glory.
Jeymes Samuel, whose brother is the singer Seal, teased the release of the Jay-Z/D’Angelo track on Saturday during a panel discussion alongside Jay-Z. Noted hip-hop journalist Elliott Wilson, who moderated the conversation, later posted a clip of the exchange.
“It’s so deep,” Samuel said of the film’s soundtrack. “We got D’Angelo and Jay-Z on the same track. Like, nine minutes, thirty-three seconds of absolute soulful, Biblical bliss.” Samuel did not specify the name of the track.
While the heavy-hitting combo of Jay-Z and D’Angelo may sound too good to be true, the first single from the Book of Clarence soundtrack, “Hallelujah Heaven“, set a notably high bar on the star power front when it arrived in November. That track featured Samuel himself alongside notable names like Lil Wayne, Shabba Ranks, Buju Banton, Doja Cat, and more. Other artists due to appear on the soundtrack reportedly include Kid Cudi, Jorja Smith,
News of any new release from D’Angelo reliably sounds alarms for fans of the lauded singer, bandleader, and multi-instrumentalist. His three studio albums, all hailed as classics, have been spread across nearly three decades. Black Messiah, his most recent LP, was released in 2014. New material from D’Angelo has remained characteristically elusive in the time since. While he said in 2015 that he was working on a “companion album” to Black Messiah, few signs of that new music have materialized in the public eye. In 2018, he contributed a song, “Unshaken“, to the Daniel Lanois-produced soundtrack for hit video game Red Dead Redemption 2. In 2021, he hosted a D’Angelo & Friends Verzuz livestream at New York’s famed Apollo Theater that featured some unreleased music.
Jay-Z, to a lesser extent, has shied away from releasing much new music of his own in recent years. His last album, 4:44, arrived in 2017, while Everything is Love, a joint album with his wife, fellow superstar Beyoncé, was released under the banner of The Carters in 2018. He has remained a fixture on the charts and at industry awards shows in the ensuing years by way of notable guest verses on tracks by Kanye West (“Jail”), Drake (“Love All”), and Pusha T (“Neck & Wrist”), and earned Emmy Awards the last two years for his work on the hip-hop-focused Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show and Rihanna‘s Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show. He was also a producer on Jeymes Samuel’s last film, 2021’s The Harder They Fall, in addition to serving as the executive producer of the film’s soundtrack.
Watch the clip of Jeymes Samuel revealing the coming Jay-Z/D’Angelo track below. Scroll down to watch the official trailer for The Book of Clarence.
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The Book of Clarence – Official Trailer