ARTIST: Jay Z and Kanye West
ALBUM: Watch The Throne
LABEL: Def Jam
RELEASE DATE: August 8, 2011
Dynamic Duo
Photo by The Cosmopolitan
Written by Jeremy Weeden
Black excellence. Opulence. Decadence. These four words rapped by Jay-Z on Watch the Throne summarize concisely what the album is all about. Specifically the excellent, opulent, decadent lifestyles lived by Jay-Z and Kanye West. Watch the Throne, the long awaited collabo-album from the rap superstars pairs a bona fide hip-hop legend with the most likely candidate to be the next hip-hop legend and the results do not disappoint, for the most part. The album is a little gaudy and heavy on braggadocio but good beat selection and excellent lyrics make up for it to form a well-crafted hip-hop album–especially considering the pressure the two were under to deliver a quality album. Watch the Throne is a monumental pairing of two artists at the top of their games, which creates a certain standard for the album to live up to in and of itself. Best of Both Worlds, Jay-Z’s previous collabo-effort with R. Kelly failed to live up to its hype and many people wondered if Watch the Thronewould suffer the same fate. Jay-Z and Kanye can breathe easy, since Watch the Throne should meet most expectations and become one of the most popular albums of the year.
Watch the Throne is a very good album and does not suffer any of the pitfalls sometimes associated with superstar pairings in the entertainment industry. The album is not half Jay-Z songs and half Kanye West songs with the other person added on after the fact. The album feels like a true collaborative effort between the two. That said, the album’s track selection seems to heavily be influenced by Kanye West, and given that he has produced some of Jay-Z’s biggest hits, it is not surprising Hov would take a back seat and let Kanye lead on that front. Somewhat disappointing to some fans may be the fact that Kanye did not produce all of the songs, as some may have expected. However, the few he did not create are produced by hip-hop heavyweights like the Neptunes, Swizz Beatz and the legendary RZA, so there is no quality lost. The album has very few artist features, as Jay-Z and Kanye provide the star power for this album. In fact, the only credited features are Beyonce and the lesser known Mr. Hudson and Frank Ocean. The lack of artist features helps as that may have given the album a compilation feel.
The album will have its critics due to the chosen subject matter of the two. In an economy where approximately 9.1% of people are unemployed and millions more are struggling to get by, one may have expected the two to tone it down a bit and perhaps take advantage of the added attention a partnership such as theirs renders to deliver a more socially conscious message. While Jay-Z & Kanye do acknowledge people’s current struggles on some songs, their solution to it all seems to be for anyone struggling to watch them doing well and live vicariously through them to achieve some sort of peace. As Kanye says on “Who Gone Stop Me,” “This is something like the holocaust/ Millions of our people lost/ Bow our heads and pray to the lord/Til I die I’ma fucking ball.” That quote and a Jay-Z line from” Murder to Excellence,” where he says, “Power to the people/when you me, see you,” summarizes the dynamic duo’s thoughts on social issues as far as this album is concerned. For those not looking for an answer to their problems in a rap song however, the album will be given plenty of spins as it is full of good head-bobbing rap songs.
Watch the Throne is a very good album crafted by two of the best lyricist in the game today. Jay-Z is obviously the better wordsmith but Kanye is no slouch and brings a creativity to his rhymes that make them all his own. It is safe to say that while Watch the Throne may not be an instant classic, it should definitely fall no further than the hall of very good.