Kanye West's last album scored a prestigious 10.0 from the popular music rating content farm Pitchfork Media. Kanye decided to let Jay-Z on his album, even though Jay-Z only cares abt selling shit and making money and hasn't been 'fresh' 4 years, and every1 is only nice 2 him bc he is married to Beyonce but ultimately he is just a 'corporate ass sellout.' The move was a HUGE disaster, as Kanye downgraded to an 8.5, which is basically like a 1.0 on the Kanye scale.

Have yall heard "WATCH THE THRONE"?
Is it any good?
Is Kanye's career 'in a free fall'?

This paragraph says that they are 'at the top of their game.' Kanye is 'more respected' than Jay-Z, though.

The album comes hot on the heels of career-landmark albums from both artists, but the few months they spent recording it on multiple continents were practically vacations compared to the way they usually work. Kanye's opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, still less than a year old, won across-the-board critical raves for its lush, prog-rap expansiveness; to create it, Kanye sequestered himself in Hawaii and flew in an endless stream of creative-peak collaborators. Jay, meanwhile, is still cruising on the momentum of The Blueprint 3, an artistically flat but commercially massive grab for continued relevance that did everything he wanted it to do. Watch the Throne brings little of Twisted Fantasy's boundary-melting ambition or The Blueprint 3's commercial acumen. It's just two of rap's biggest figures and best friends getting together to make some of the swollen, epic music that comes so naturally to them.

Basically, the album is like 'the Ocean's 11/12/13' of rap.

Listening to it is sort of like watching George Clooney get all his movie-star friends together for a party at his Italian villa, and, along the way, maybe dream up Ocean's Twelve. (I liked Ocean's Twelve.)

Do yall prefer Scott Caan in Entourage or the Ocean franchise?

They are also 'humble' even though they are really rich and considered 'the best rappers alive.' I guess they are just trying 2 appeal 2 'the common man' or something.

But one of the striking things about Watch the Throne is how often Jay and Kanye address matters beyond their bank accounts. On "Why I Love You", it's Jay's dismay at past crewmates' betrayals. On "Murder to Excellence", it's black-on-black crime and the scarcity of people of color at society's highest seats. On "Made in America", it's the hardships of youth and coming of age. "New Day" is framed as a letter to the pair's imagined sons, a device that mostly gives them a chance to soul-search and self-criticize. On "Welcome to the Jungle", Jay, never a tortured pop star, actually says, "I'm fuckin' depressed." Despite all the triumphant bravado these two bring to practically everything they do, they work overtime here to bring a sense of empathy to this enterprise. Once in a while, they even sound vaguely humble.

Apparently there is a song called "Niggas in Paris." I wonder what that song is abt. Seems unchill... Maybe it should be called "Bros hangin out in Paris, eating some baguettes."

Yay! So exciting! 2 heavy weights! Let's enjoy and cherish these 2 gifted and talented humans coming 2gether to give us something 2 rate.

So: two long-reigning titans make a relatively quick album which, despite their best efforts, still winds up being a monument to their own grandiosity. Should we care? Well, yeah. Kanye doesn't have a cruise-control switch, and when he's around, neither does Jay. On Watch the Throne, they push each other and have fun doing it, and the result is a stadium-sized event-rap spectacle that still sounds like two insanely talented guys' idiosyncratic vision. That's worth celebrating.

Is this a 'massive disaster' for Kanye West?
Should Kanye West blame Jay-Z for this step backwards?
Is Jay-Z a 'lamestream Kanye West'?
IS this album 'amazing' or 'just any other rap album'?
R u watching the throne? What does it look like?
DO u miss the 10.0 era?
Will we ever see another 10.0?

Kanye West

Alternative Celebrity, Buzzband

Kanye West is the famous mainstream rapper who controversially got a 10.0 from Pitchfork.

Lists: received above a 9 from Pitchfork, received a 10 from Pitchfork, rappers, designer, critical darlings, blipsters, annoying ppl, African Americans

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Jay-Z

Alternative Celebrity, Alternative Entrepreneur

Jay-Z is a rapper who indie people like 2 consider authentic.

Lists: blipsters, rappers, Brooklyn-based buzzbands, African Americans

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