Watch the Throne And Stop the Hate!

The beginning of history

Unless you've been living under a rock unequipped with a set of Beats headphones, you've heard about hip-hop juggernauts Jay-Z & Kanye West's recent release of their highly anticipated "Watch the Throne" album. Easily one of the most monumental hip-hop releases since.....ummm...ever, "The Throne" has received critical praise, along with it's fair share of haters.  No surprise, but if your album has hit #1 in 23 different countries (without any physical copies for sale) not everyone's going to have something nice to say.


That's where I come in. A Jay-Z fan/Kanye Stan coming armed with my keyboard and a healthy dosage of internet thuggery to rescue my heroes from the stones being tossed at the throne. This is in no way an album review (I could probably write a whole essay on this piece of work), but more so my response to constant criticisms that are surfacing the net. I've also added my opinion on a couple of different topics related to the album in case anyone cares. Enjoy:

The albums good, but I expected more: My rebuttal to this would be, what exactly did you expect? As one of my favorite rappers Phonte would say "Dope Beats, Dope Rhymes...what more do ya'll want?" Ok fine, but it's Jay-Z & Kanye the albums supposed to be revolutionary! You're right..and it is. One of the greatest things about this album is outside of the lead single "Otis" & bonus track "The Joy" the sounds they experimented with are not traditional "hip-hop." You can tell they took their time with this project. The subtle shifts in sounds in between songs, Ye's beat spazz out at the end of "Lift Off", the little weird circus music that plays throughout the entire album, the list goes on and on. This is an ALBUM! Not a compilation of 16 dope songs, but a complete frickin project. This type of dedication is missing from hip-hop. Nowadays artists rush to release mixtapes, songs, etc to make sure they remain relevant. Luckily Jay/Kanye can afford the luxury of being rap royalty so they can take their time to provide us with greatness.

Why H.A.M. Why Otis? Were these really single material?: I understand I'm totally in the minority since I actually liked Otis & H.A.M. when they both dropped. I remember my homie @Pbbt asking me if I felt Watch the Throne was going to be worth purchasing once it was released. I told him I had no idea what type of sound Jay/Ye were going with based off the singles so I couldn't really comment. Little did I know my comment was part of the brilliance and mystique they were going for when releasing both these records. H.A.M was weird for Jay/Ye. Hard bass, fluttering percussion, and co-production by LEX LUGER!? Difficult to comprehend when it stood on it's own, H.A.M. actually makes a whole lot more sense and sounds 1000x better in the mix with the rest of the album. "Otis" on the other hand was vintage Roc-A-Fella. Looped Otis Redding sample courtesy of Mr. West, and witty arrogant punchlines over a soulful beat. Still not necessarily "single material", this song salivated everyone's appetite for "Watch the Throne" and gave Jay a platform to spit bars on the type of track he's comfortable rapping on (I'll get into this more a little later.)

Watch the Throne Sucks! All They're Talking About is Money: This may be the argument I hate the most. Two reasons:
1. Music is a form of entertainment: Artists should not be responsible to comment on social issues. It's an age old argument, but I consider music a form of escapism. I'd rather listen to someone boasting about how they're "Planking on a million dollars" than be reminded that my bank account consists of three dollars. I have different artists who fulfill different needs, which brings me to my next point.
2. JAY & KANYE ARE NOT CONSCIOUS MC's: They never have been nor will they ever be. Even when Kanye was putting out "conscious hip-hop" it was more so related to his story and how he came up. His stories of being the "token blackie" at the GAP, and all the people who doubted him seemed like he was trying to fit into the social MC realm, but he was really just telling his story. Jay on the other hand, told tales of the hood which was relevant to his upbringing. An artists is at their best when the music's authentic and they're not forcing themselves to be a character others want them to be. Jay's not the same guy anymore. He's no longer slinging rocks and shooting pistols in Brooklyn, he's approaching half a billionare status. Kanye's no longer that hated on kid from Chicago with a dream. He's heralded as one of the best artists in music, and has the success to show for it.Watch the Throne is just a new chapter in both of their stories. If Talib Kweli or Common were making rap records about riding in Maybachs during a recession then maybe we should be concerned.
  
Top Tracks: Hard to choose but my favorites on the album are "N***** in Parris", "Gotta Have It" and "Made in America." I'm completely in the minority but my favorite track (for the moment) is "Illest Mother****** Alive." I love Kanye's verse on here, and there's something about the Oprah-esque screams in the background and overall composition of the beat that's haunting and triumphant at the same time.

Who Wins the Throne..Jay-Z or Kanye?: Although i've only listened to the album twice (once in my apartment, once in my headphones..this is my process) I can easily say Ye takes the cake on this one. I'll even go a step further and say this is a Kanye album featuring Jay-Z. Jay sounds uncomfortable on most of the tracks and you can tell he's struggling to keep up with the crazy production Kanye selected from himself, Q-Tip, RZA, Swizz, Pharrell and others. I'll never forget the moment during the "Watch The Throne" documentary where Jay was doing his typical mumbling of his lyrics to "Why I Love you" and you could see the struggle on his face. He then looked at the camera and said "Words are difficult, the pocket is difficult." (The "pocket" is what is described by Jay-Z in his book "Decoded" as the hole in between production where a rapper inserts their flow) That was the theme of Jay's struggles on the album. These tracks are so damn complex they don't even have a pocket! Jay's used to Neptunes production and soulful tracks where he can find the breaks in production and pounce on them. My assumption would be that if Jay had his way we would have had 16 tracks like "Otis", which would have been dope but nothing close to groundbreaking. Kanye probably used his passion for music to sway Jay into experimenting with the majority of the sounds on the album including the dub-step track "Who Gon Stop Me." (I'm also pretty sure Kanye used the words "dog" "fam", and "(random sound) is the illest" to further push along his argument.) Let's not forget this album was supposed to drop as an EP in November, and was re-recorded three times with the majority of original material scrapped from the final product. Two great MC's pushed themselves to new heights, and the third time was a charm for Kanye. Creating a blend of sound-shifting records that exposed Kanye at his best, and Jay-Z as Jordan i.e 2001. Still an All-Star, but a skilled Wizard opposed to a champion.

I'll leave you with this. Regardless of your opinion we should all take a second to appreciate this moment in musical history. This is like Prince & Michael Jackson doing an album together, Curtis Mayfield and Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder & Ray Charles. This type of collaborative effort between two legends rarely happens with one song, let alone a whole album. At the end of the day it's a work of art...so sit back, relax, and all hail to the throne.

Ungh!