By: Martin Rand, III
Date: August 17, 2011
A whole week has passed since Jay-Z and Kanye West released their highly anticipated Watch the Throne collaborative album. So, what's the results? Watch the Throne broke the iTunes record for first weeks sales and is projected to be number one on the billboard top 200 charts. I guess Jay-Z and West can be very proud of this album. It's a commercial success.
But, that's about it; because musically it's a disappointment.
When I heard Jay-Z and West were making an album together, I imagined an entire album reminiscent of Jay-Z's classic songs "This Can't Be Life" and "Heart Of the City (Ain't No Love)", both of which were produced by West. Or, maybe there would be songs like "Monster", which features Jay-Z, a song off West's classic album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
That's the level of material I expected: classic material. Music that would last a lifetime, or at least into next week. However, I didn't get that from Watch the Throne. No, instead what I got was a bunch of bragadocious songs about their money("Gotta Have It") and women("That's My B****"). "Made In A America" and "Why I Love You" are the only songs that actually try to convey any type of deep thought provoking meaning through the music. While the words are deep and personal, Jay-Z's and West's delivery on the songs are choppy and doesn't flow well with the beat.
Jay-Z said on his song "The Bounce", a song on his Blueprint 2: The Gift and The Curse album, "They only know what the single is, and singled that out to be the meaning of what he is about." He continues saying "But no dummy, that's the s*** I'm sprinklin[g] the album his music was all about money and woman, when in reality, his albums had a lot of deep introspective songs about his life. However, the exact opposite can be said about Watch The Throne.
The lead single off the album, "Otis", is without a doubt the best song on the album. I loved this song when I first heard it. I figured the lyrics I mentioned above would stand true; and the album would deliver the deep lyrical content and better songs, while the lead single would deliver the high album sales. Well, only the latter actually happened.
Maybe I was just expecting too much from this album. Maybe this album was just a fun project for two friends. But me being a HUGE fan of both Jay-Z and West, I not only expected classic, I wanted it. I wanted them to show why they're sitting on top of the rap game. I wanted them to show what real hip-hop music was about but they didn't.
I got into a Twitter conversation the other day with one of my followers and he said that Watch the Throne would be the sixth best rap album by year's end. I quickly disagreed. After we went through the list of albums that have been released already and those that will be released later this year, I realized there is a chance that Watch the Throne probably wouldn't even be one of the top ten rap albums of the year.
A Jay-Z and West album should be in contention for best album of the year, not barely making the top ten cut of rap albums. To me, that signifies a disappointment.
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