Watch the Throne

Jay – Z and Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne” is arguably one of the most anticipated albums in recent memory. We got a taste of the highly guarded album when they released Otis, to wet the palettes of desperate fans. I for one love the song and it definitely left me tapping my foot in anticipation. The next teaser came with the release of their short documentary, which was quite artfully done and left me appreciating the art of creation and salivating on the forthcoming lovechild from two of hip-hops best artists.

The way the album is being released has never been done before and is all done to avoid leaks, perhaps J could’ve given a lesson to B on how to not let your album leak. Jay in an interview with Angie Martinez explained that by doing a digital only release first, the physical album isn’t shipped out way before the release date, which usually allows for leaks. I must say the strategy proved useful. On August 8th, we were finally graced with the album in its entirety.

On first listen, the first two songs did not draw me in and left me feeling that this would be the biggest let down in history but track three and beyond left me at my desk with my door closed, bobbing my head and smiling at the beautiful production dancing on my eardrums. I have detailed a few of my thoughts on specific songs below.

• No Church in the Wild. At first listen this song through me off of the whole album. After a few more listens it is ok, but definitely not one of my favorites.
• Lift Off. The highly anticipated song featuring Beyonce leaves a lot to be desired. For me it is reminiscent of the Good Friday turned album track ”See Me Now”. Eh, just really not feeling it.
• Ni***z in Paris. The production on this song is heavenly and causes an uncontrolable bounce in my soul. Jay-Z rides the beat, the only was he knows how and delivers what I think is one of his best performances on the album. This track single-handedly put my faith back in the album.
• Welcome to the Jungle. Am I the only one that gets annoyed when songs produced by Swizz Beatz are too distinguishable?
• New Day. What happened to the death of autotune? It has a chill vibe to it, but the autotune threw me off.

Overall, the production of Watch the Throne is often times better than the lyrics. Kanye remains one of the best producers of our time and these two music moguls had access to any producer that they wanted, to fill in the gaps.

My favorite tracks

• Ni***z in Paris
• Otis
• Gotta Have It
• Who Gone Stop Me
• Murder to Excellance

Honorable mention goes to Made it in America.

So what are your faves?