Jay Z's "Glory" Video Lacks Something Important

Listen, when I heard that Jay Z's music video for "Glory," which, for those who don't know, is the 2012 song he wrote about his daughter Blue Ivy, had hit Tidal, I couldn't deny my excitement. I'm not planning to sign up for the music streaming service any time soon, but everything on Tidal makes its way onto the rest of the Internet eventually. I was sure this music video would be the cutest cute to have ever cuted, perhaps along the same vein as Kanye West's "Only One." However, the music video hit the Internet the same day it hit Tidal and I can't deny the fact that I was horrifically disappointed. You see, "Glory" doesn't feature any new footage of the Knowles-Carter family. Instead, it's five minutes of behind-the-scenes rehearsal for Jay Z's 2012 performance at Carnegie Hall.

The video opens on Jay Z alongside an orchestra, the latter of whom begin playing some truly beautiful classical music before Jay Z comes in to spit his heartwarming verses about his family, life, and, above all, his beloved daughter. It ends with the performance actually beginning, with Jay Z walking out into the still empty Hall, with celebrities arriving for the performance, and the applause and shouts of the audience seconds before the show begins. Blue Ivy never once appears in the video. Never once, you guys. We were denied all of this:

I'm trying to swallow at least some of my bitter disappointment. After all, as a father, it is Jay Z's right not to spend five minutes showing off his child to the world; she's not a commodity or a movie for other people to fawn over. I just wonder what the point was in making a music video for "Glory" at all if the subject of the song was never going to appear in it. He performed many of his greatest hits during that 2012 Carnegie Hall performance, so why choose "Glory" as the song to release this footage with?

This just comes as a particularly heavy blow after "Only One," which helped me realize that, yes, I would sit down and watch several minutes of Kanye walking in the rain with a small child as long as that small child was the adorable North West. That music video had more or less nothing to do with the song, but North West was the star so I didn't ask questions. With "Glory," all I have are questions. The main question being: where's Blue Ivy?

Of course, huge Jay Z fans will be glad of the chance to get a look at the rapper's process, and to get even more exclusive content from that infamous show. Even without Blue Ivy, the video is still worth a watch. I just expected something a little different. Check out the video below.

Image: Tidal; Getty Images