A couple of hip hop royal family members have recorded an album. Power, persona and punching beats. The emperor that goes by the name Jay Z and fellow mogul, Kanye West have compiled a new record full of stadium blast offs, club anthems and dirty rhythms.
It’s an absurdly expensive (overpriced) rap exhibition, a spectacle of sci-fi synths and horns with funky bleats from characters such as Bon Iver, La Roux, New boy Frank Ocean and the empress, Beyoncé. The album also features a couple of shout outs for the president, a close friend of Jay Z. Casual. Oh and as they dictate and spit absurd ambiguity there’s a row of producers tightening up every rip and tear as they go.
West declares himself as Luxury rap and ‘the hermès of verses’ (oh that’s referring to the label by the way, not the god apparently!) It wouldn’t be a Kanye production without a pretentious pun.
It could have been a clash of the egos and apparently there were disagreements between the two during the making of the album. In the end they both agreed that they would always record together.
Jay Z has ranked second to the Beatles for chart- topping albums in the US, he’s married to a big-bootied babe and he’s incredibly financially successful yet he never takes any of it for granted. Kanye West rose to fame through his production work. Now he’s established his own name as a superstar. In comparison to Jay Z, he acts like an ass, and has a rep for public outbursts. However he is undeniably an influential musician and producer.
Keeping all this in mind, there are a lot of Kanye’s influences in Watch the Throne, making it a righteous follow up to his recent album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The style draws on the electronics, rock guitars and rave. Nevertheless top dog perceptibly knew when to yank on the leash and claim back his part of the lime light. Phew.
The whole thing is a sketchbook projection of their status, achievements past and future and their careers. The theme is multicoloured with all sorts of fist clenching or teeth flashing issues making it an expansive album. It will do favours for their empire and during recession and rioting it’s only right that these two would be gloating over their wealth.