Why ‘Watch the Throne’ Has Set a New Bar for Hip Hop

 
Last week saw the release of arguably the most star studded collaboration album in hip hop history, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne (WTT). The mixtape turned full length LP initially has received mostly positive reviews, yet all of it’s critiques seem to come with an asterisk,  demoting it from ever being an all-time great because of one reason or another. I disagree, and believe that WTT is a landmark work that has realigned the notoriously jumbled hip hop game and set the standard for artists to reach in the future. To understand how and why, I’m gonna have to go a little TED talk on you guys, but, trust me, it will all make sense in the end… 

There is an popular theory in higher education concerning the idea of a circle of knowledge, which details that, among a seemingly infinite amount of information, humans comprehend a finite amount of it across a variety of subjects. Think about your education; where blue represents Kindergarten, a shallow education of many subjects, and where purple and red equal secondary education, a more specialized, deeper understanding of one or a few subjects. Over time, the circle expands due to certain individuals, in the nearly unlimited subjects that comprise the circular shape, pushing at the edge of what is known in their field to produce truly original knowledge – in this example it can be earning a PHD in a relatively unknown field of study.

Stick with me on this for a second, it’ll make sense

 

While this is completely off-topic on a hip hop blog, the minimalist yet spot-on description of knowledge can be transcribed to a number of disciplines, including – you got it – hip hop. Instead of Kindergarten, equate the blue circle to Eric B. & Rakim’s breakthrough album Paid in Full, which has gone on to influence every spectrum of modern hip hop possible. As you go further out on the circle – green can be The Low End Theory by A Tribe Called Quest, pink can be Illmatic by Nas, and purple can equal The Blueprint by Jay-Z, etc. – you find more focused, specialized efforts that, while no longer completely original, still have advanced the art form in one, or many, areas. Its easy to see with this description why so much hip hop today is underwhelming, falling short within an ever-advancing circle of possibilities that has been-done-already.

 

Amidst the mass of rap artists who continue to recite Lil Wayne’s lines from 2007, every once in a while an artist or an album comes out which truly pushes the envelop of hip hop. In recent memory, Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon: the End of the Day, Kanye West’s own My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and – in the underground – Cunninlynguists’ Oneirology have bettered the genre as whole with effort and skill that make the hip hop demigods proud. Naturally, each of these albums have impacted hip hop in at least one area – be it beats, lyrics, concept, style, the list goes on – yet none have holistically made as large of a leap as West’s and Jay-Z’s super-collaboration – and aptly titled – album, Watch the Throne.

 

If you appreciate hip hop – which I’m supposing you do, unless you have WAY too much free time to scour the internet – then you have to respect a collaboration between an apprentice and his mentor, especially when the former is the hottest artist in the game and the latter easily is the most recognizable name in rap. However, with Jay’s continuous downside in lyrical astuteness, Kanye’s public displays of megalomania, and the shaky ground on which hip hop currently stands, Watch the Throne (WTT) was a volatile project that could have flopped without much surprise. Fortunately for many of us starving hip hop heads, WTT was instead a product of pure effort, both in its approach and content, from two artists who have been responsible for a great deal of the advancement within the circle of hip hop. Here’s a few reasons why:

 

 

Perhaps the longest lasting influence WTT looks to have on hip hop was meshed before Kanye laid the first sample and Jay wrote thought his first line. The concept of two of the biggest icons of rap coming together for a full-length album is surprisingly novel, yet has been so desperately needed for the pitiful last half decade of hip hop. In the past, hip hop’s elite have beefed over the top spot without a thought of sharing it, or, when on better terms, have featured each other on, at most, a song or two. It makes sense to avoid the perils of split earnings and the likelihood of damaged respect for whichever collaborator is weaker on the mic, but the true reason we haven’t seen the likes of WTT before is that it requires a perfect storm of circumstances. Among other reasons, Kanye and Jay are not only label mates, but friends and frequent collaborators with similar styles. Also, Jay-Z is nearing the end of his awesome trajectory through music and surely realized he has neither the time or need to make another solo album.

 

The most important factor for the potential success of the album, though, is that there hasn’t been a clear “king” of hip hop since Lil Wayne ruled the airwaves way back in 2007. West has certainly been on the shortlist in the time since, but his recent albums have lacked lyrical prowess and fallen too off-center of mainstream rap. Armed with the recognition of this, West – and don’t get me wrong, this IS his album –  employed Jay-Z to create a pure hip hop record with one goal made blatantly obvious by its title.  Their challenge to the rest of the game is executed perfectly; not as an aggressive attack but instead a confident, taking the high-road boast claiming Kanye as the current undisputed #1 and Jay-Z as the best ever. The video for ‘Otis’ displays this flawlessly, as it gives off the feeling that the two were laughing throughout the entire project.

 

 

A great concept is only as strong as its execution. A ridiculous production team including West, NYC producer 88-Keys, Mike Dean of dirty south fame, RZA, Pete Rock, and others create a varied but loosely cohesive sound chock full of a mix of vintage James Brown samples – like in ‘Gotta Have It’ with harder, progressive mixes- like ‘Who Gon Stop Me’, which features, of anything, a dubstep sample – and horizontal, out-of-this-world ones – like the fabulous RZA-produced ‘New Day’. Altogether, WTT outputs a smorgasbord of sounds in a similar fashion to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, except for that it is holistically much closer to the heart and feel of hip hop. Between these two heavyweight albums, you can find some of the best beats heard in years – or maybe ever.

 

“Wait, wtf did you just say?”

 

Lyrically, the album tells a different story. If you would have told me that Kanye would become a better rapper than Jay-Z a few years ago, I would have laughed. But, throughout WTT, West – whose slower, catchphrase-filled lyrics fit perfectly in 2011 – beats Jay on nearly every track, often with quips that make you say ha! Example:

 

“This beat deserves Hennessey, a bad bitch and a bag of weed, the Holy Trinity”

 

Jay-Z, on the other hand, spits lyrics that are sometimes clever, sometimes with a good flow, but never seem to come altogether at once. He sounds awkward at times trying to rap shorter and simpler than his days from Reasonable Doubt, but at least he gives it a try. As a ghost of his old-self, the hottest Jay gets is when he delivers verses that he, and only he, can get away with. Ergo:

 

“When I say it then you see, it ain’t only in the music
Basquiats, Warhols serving as my muses
My house like a museum so I see ‘em when I’m peeing
Usually you have this much taste you European ”

 

Basquiat was a graffiti artist in NYC who died at 27. Pretty cool shit.

 

Though many of the lyrics are hedonistic and mirror the duo’s highly inflated egos, their shit-talk – often surrounding money – is done well, largely because they are telling the truth. When Jay mentions his status in music regarding #1 albums; “Elvis left the building, now I’m on the Beatles ass“, it sounds just a little more authentic and dope than Drake ignorantly foreshadowing “last name Ever, first name Greatest“. And although they got heat for tearing up the $300,000 Maybach in the ‘Otis’ video, they at least have the consideration – and business sense- to put it up for auction.

 

Intelligently, Jay and Kanye balance their luxury rap with proactive lyrics concerning the politics of race, gender roles, secularity vs spirituality, and being a father that are peppered throughout the album. Concerning the ‘circle of hip hop’, Jay and Kanye make stops on their way out to the periphery, quoting lyrics from EPMD, Audio Two, Outkast, and Biggie, while showing mad props to RZA and Pete Rock on the songs they produced.

 
  

I’m not saying Watch the Throne is going to ‘bring hip hop back’, and I’m not going to call it a classic yet – I think both Kanye and Jay-Z have hit higher heights – but it is the best example in recent memory of a mainstream rap album that meets or surpasses its lofty expectations. Sure there are irrelevant tracks like ‘Made In America’, and that inexplicable 3 minutes of silence before ‘Illest Mother Fucker Alive’, but overall this album manages to be rock solid while pushing the envelop with so many varied songs. Let’s be honest, there’s not a rapper out there who isn’t going to hear WTT and realize that the ceiling just got higher. The circle of hip hop, built a history of classic albums and songs that form tree rings expanding outward, has been utilized, sampled, and rearranged by Jay-Z and Kanye West to create a new and improved sound posed to become the precedent for other artists to follow for years. (Aka, it just got a little harder to drop a shallow mixtape  all about your cars, clothes, and hoes, sorry Lil B…)

 

Kanye proved with WTT that, at least for now, he is the king of hip hop. If he hadn’t proved it on MBDTF, a probably better album but more off-center in regards to hip hop, Watch the Throne is a knockout punch. For Jay-Z, he proved, in a more indirect way, that his taste in hip hop is perhaps unparalleled, and his business and style savvy has carved at yet another niche in the game which surely will be copied.

 
Now, its up to someone to challenge throne… Nas is planning to drop his new album Life is Good sometime this year – the first single is ‘Nasty‘ – which should definitely shake some things up. I can’t wait. 

    Consider Yourself Peeped!

   
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