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Watch the Throne
Watch the Throne is a collaborative studio album by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West. It was released on August 8, 2011, by Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc Nation, and Def Jam Recordings. Prior to its release, Jay-Z and West had collaborated on various singles, and with the latter as a producer on the former's work. They originally sought to record a five-song collaborative extended play, which evolved into a full-length album. The album features guest appearances from Frank Ocean, The-Dream, Beyoncé and Mr Hudson. It also features vocal contributions from Kid Cudi, Seal, Justin Vernon, Elly Jackson, Connie Mitchell, Charlie Wilson, and Pete Rock, among others. Samples of vocals by soul musicians Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield are both credited as guest features on the album.
Recording sessions took place at various locations and began in November 2010, with production led by West and a variety of high-profile producers, including Mike Dean, Swizz Beatz, Pete Rock, RZA, Jeff Bhasker, The Neptunes, and Q-Tip. Expanding on the dense production style of West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Watch the Throne incorporates orchestral and progressive rock influences, unconventional samples, and dramatic melodies in its sound. The braggadocious lyrics exhibit themes of excellence, opulence, decadence, fame, materialism, power, and the burdens of success, as well as political and socioeconomic critique. The album also expresses other topics, such as Jay-Z's thoughts on fatherhood, West's reflection on being deemed a social villain, and their success as performers. Many writers interpreted the subject matter to concern the plight of African Americans struggling with financial success in America.
Seven singles were released for Watch the Throne, including "H•A•M", "Otis", "Lift Off", "No Church in the Wild", and the Billboard Hot 100 top five hit "Niggas in Paris", with 3 of the singles receiving music videos. Jay-Z and West embarked on the Watch the Throne Tour for promotion that spanned from October 2011 to June 2012 and became the highest-grossing hip-hop concert tour in history. The album received highly positive reviews from music critics, who mostly praised the rappers' performances and the production. However, some reviewers found the lyrical content uninspiring.
Many critics and publications named Watch the Throne to their year-end best-of lists, including Rolling Stone and The Washington Post. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 436,000 copies in the first week, and broke the iTunes Store first week sales record at the time. It reached the top ten in 11 other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. It was also certified quintuple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 2020.
Jay-Z and Kanye West first worked together on the song "This Can't Be Life", from Jay-Z's 2000 album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, produced by West, then on Jay-Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, which showcased West's distinctive style of hip-hop production at the time. West's early production work on Jay-Z's music helped raise his profile in the music industry. While originally only viewed as a producer, West eventually was seen as both a viable rapper and producer thanks to the success of his debut album The College Dropout and its singles. West continued to be one of Jay-Z's main producers on subsequent albums such as The Black Album and Kingdom Come. Jay-Z also appeared on Kanye's first two albums, and the two frequently collaborated. Further collaborative work by the two included singles such as "Swagga Like Us" from rapper T.I.'s Paper Trail, "Run This Town" from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3, and both "Monster" and "So Appalled" from West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
During the promotional stages of West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a remix of the song "Power" surfaced featuring Jay-Z. Following this, Kanye West announced on Twitter his intention to drop a five-track EP with Jay-Z, titled Watch the Throne. Also according to the rapper, the track "Monster" was intended for the EP, though that failed to surface. It was later revealed by West that the project had been expanded into a full-length album in an October 2010 interview for MTV. He said in the interview that they planned to record in the south of France.
In an August 2011 radio interview with WEDR, Jay-Z shared the meaning behind the album's title;
"It's just protecting the music and the culture. It's people that's in the forefront of the music. Watch the Throne, like protect it. You just watch how popular music shift, and how hip-hop basically replaced rock & roll as the youth music. The same thing can happen to hip-hop. It can be replaced by other forms of music. So it's making sure that we put the effort into making the best product so we can contend with all this other music, with dance music that's dominating the charts right now and indie music that's dominating the festivals."
Watch the Throne
Watch the Throne is a collaborative studio album by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West. It was released on August 8, 2011, by Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc Nation, and Def Jam Recordings. Prior to its release, Jay-Z and West had collaborated on various singles, and with the latter as a producer on the former's work. They originally sought to record a five-song collaborative extended play, which evolved into a full-length album. The album features guest appearances from Frank Ocean, The-Dream, Beyoncé and Mr Hudson. It also features vocal contributions from Kid Cudi, Seal, Justin Vernon, Elly Jackson, Connie Mitchell, Charlie Wilson, and Pete Rock, among others. Samples of vocals by soul musicians Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield are both credited as guest features on the album.
Recording sessions took place at various locations and began in November 2010, with production led by West and a variety of high-profile producers, including Mike Dean, Swizz Beatz, Pete Rock, RZA, Jeff Bhasker, The Neptunes, and Q-Tip. Expanding on the dense production style of West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Watch the Throne incorporates orchestral and progressive rock influences, unconventional samples, and dramatic melodies in its sound. The braggadocious lyrics exhibit themes of excellence, opulence, decadence, fame, materialism, power, and the burdens of success, as well as political and socioeconomic critique. The album also expresses other topics, such as Jay-Z's thoughts on fatherhood, West's reflection on being deemed a social villain, and their success as performers. Many writers interpreted the subject matter to concern the plight of African Americans struggling with financial success in America.
Seven singles were released for Watch the Throne, including "H•A•M", "Otis", "Lift Off", "No Church in the Wild", and the Billboard Hot 100 top five hit "Niggas in Paris", with 3 of the singles receiving music videos. Jay-Z and West embarked on the Watch the Throne Tour for promotion that spanned from October 2011 to June 2012 and became the highest-grossing hip-hop concert tour in history. The album received highly positive reviews from music critics, who mostly praised the rappers' performances and the production. However, some reviewers found the lyrical content uninspiring.
Many critics and publications named Watch the Throne to their year-end best-of lists, including Rolling Stone and The Washington Post. The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 436,000 copies in the first week, and broke the iTunes Store first week sales record at the time. It reached the top ten in 11 other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. It was also certified quintuple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 2020.
Jay-Z and Kanye West first worked together on the song "This Can't Be Life", from Jay-Z's 2000 album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, produced by West, then on Jay-Z's 2001 album The Blueprint, which showcased West's distinctive style of hip-hop production at the time. West's early production work on Jay-Z's music helped raise his profile in the music industry. While originally only viewed as a producer, West eventually was seen as both a viable rapper and producer thanks to the success of his debut album The College Dropout and its singles. West continued to be one of Jay-Z's main producers on subsequent albums such as The Black Album and Kingdom Come. Jay-Z also appeared on Kanye's first two albums, and the two frequently collaborated. Further collaborative work by the two included singles such as "Swagga Like Us" from rapper T.I.'s Paper Trail, "Run This Town" from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3, and both "Monster" and "So Appalled" from West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
During the promotional stages of West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a remix of the song "Power" surfaced featuring Jay-Z. Following this, Kanye West announced on Twitter his intention to drop a five-track EP with Jay-Z, titled Watch the Throne. Also according to the rapper, the track "Monster" was intended for the EP, though that failed to surface. It was later revealed by West that the project had been expanded into a full-length album in an October 2010 interview for MTV. He said in the interview that they planned to record in the south of France.
In an August 2011 radio interview with WEDR, Jay-Z shared the meaning behind the album's title;
"It's just protecting the music and the culture. It's people that's in the forefront of the music. Watch the Throne, like protect it. You just watch how popular music shift, and how hip-hop basically replaced rock & roll as the youth music. The same thing can happen to hip-hop. It can be replaced by other forms of music. So it's making sure that we put the effort into making the best product so we can contend with all this other music, with dance music that's dominating the charts right now and indie music that's dominating the festivals."