Watch The Throne

First off, there seems to be some confusion regarding what Watch The Throne is. Watch The Throne is the new collaboration album released by Jay-Z and Kanye West. Their upcoming tour is named the same as well.

The album currently has a 5 star rating with over 11,000 reviews on the iTunes store. It broke iTune's 1st week digital release download record (previously held by Coldplay) with 290,000 album downloads. Kanye West's last album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was Time's Magazine's Album of the Year. 

Watch The Throne is better.

Jay-Z has said that "Kanye West is the most complete artist in the world today." What does that entail? Lyrics, beats, performances, image, hype, etc. are all covered grounds in everything Kanye does. I don't know ANY other hip-hop artist (or even pop artists for that matter) that releases albums including everything from beautifully written opera solos with supporting cellos, to the hard hitting bass that you'd ride to at 2 A.M. with the windows down and no one in the car saying a word.

From African sounding drum kits with a really wild sound (i.e. 808's and Heartbreak - Amazing), to baroque classically influenced music (i.e. MBDTF - All of the Lights Interlude), Kanye has been including elements of music from all over the world and from the past. Watch the Throne features all of this and more. The album sets the bar even higher for not only the hip-hop game, but for Kanye himself.

I know I'm not really mentioning Jay-Z in this review, but that's because this album was pretty much produced by Kanye (scroll down for producer list). Jay-Z takes care of his end on his verses.

If you are a fan of hip hop, this is an album that you don't want to just click through on your laptop. Give each track a chance (like we used to back in the day, hah).

After listening to the whole album twice, here are my favorite songs from the album in order:

1) Made in America

2) Illest Mother****** Alive

3) Why I Love You

4) Nigg*s in Paris

5) Gotta Have It

6) No Church In the Wild

7) H.A.M.