Songfacts®:

• Here, Jay-Z raps about being perceptive and seeing through the deceptions of phoneys. He explained to iHeart Radio:
  
  "'Caught The Eye' is a song that's dealing with just being aware of your surroundings. There's a line in it, and it says, 'Your body language is all remedial, how could you see the difference between you and I?' Just being so sharp about your surroundings."
• Frank Ocean croons the intro, hook and outro. The song is the fifth collaboration between the pair following 2011's "No Church in The Wild" and "Made In America" from Watch The Throne, "Oceans" from Jay-Z's 2014 Magna Carta, Holy Grail and Ocean's 2017 single "Biking."
• The song samples throughout Nina Simone's 1978 version of Randy Newman's track "Baltimore."
• During the second verse, Jay raps about a 2015 meeting he had with Prince to arrange the singer's exclusive streaming deal with TIDAL.
  
  I sat down with Prince, eye to eye
  He told me his wishes before he died
  
  In 1993, during negotiations regarding the release of Prince's album The Gold Experience, the Minneapolis singer realized his contract with his then-record label Warner Brothers meant they owned his master tapes. This led to a highly publicized dispute over his creative freedom, and ownership of his masters. After this, Prince decided that he wanted to own the rights to all of his music.
  
  TIDAL was the only service Prince allowed to stream his music during the final years of his life. He said of the agreement:. "After one meeting, it was obvious that Jay Z and the team he has assembled at Tidal recognize and applaud the effort that real musicians put in2 their craft 2 achieve the very best they can at this pivotal time in the music industry."
  
  All of this reflects a theme that runs through 4:44, of black Americans owning their own property and using their wealth to support each other.