Watch The Throne
8th of august 2011 we got one of the most hard-to-believe collab albums in modern hip-hop history. Yes, Kanye and Jay-Z are long time collaborators: first beats he produced for Jay-Z was 2001’s “Izzo“ and “Heart of the City“, and since then they got a good rollout of features from College Dropout's "Never Let Me Down" to MBDTF “So Appalled“ and hip-hop Avengers equivalent “Monster“. It is easy to imagine now as we live in the era of collabs - in fashion, music or pretty much anything. Now it is normal to have Future and Drake joint tape, or have Young Thug working with Future, Chris Brown or his whole record label. But before in the era of beefs and rap battles it was hard to imagine two biggest hip-hop stars jump on a tape together. Album production includes our all-time favourites Mike Dean, Swizz Beatz, Tyler Pase, Pete Rock, RZA, Jeff Bhasker, The Neptunes, and Q-Tip. But it’s not about that.
I remember the day they dropped Otis - I physically couldn’t stop playing the video. It is a directorial genre masterpiece directed by Kanye’s long time collaborator Spike Jonze (who directed the brilliant “Flashing Lights“ and "We were once a fairytale“ - a short film featuring Kanye in 808 era, if you never seen it, go watch!) (and who also never replied to my Raya dm request and I’m still mad about it). Otis sampling “Try a little tenderness“ by Otis Redding produced solely by West himself made us directly think they didn’t come to play.
The album starts with frank Ocean vocals and Jay-Z jumping on the beat produced by 88-Keys, Kanye West and Mike Dean. Music video as well deserve the mention: the cinematic excellence directed by french filmmaker Romain Gavras - year after his feature film “Our Day Will Come“ with Vincent Cassel - and same year he directed one of my favorite music videos of all times “Bad Girls” by M.I.A. Kanye’s opening verse is still in my head til this day. You can’t remake the greatness. Lift Off was the only one skip for me, I do not understand the concept and the message of this song and I never will. It just doesn’t sound right to me, even though it is co-produced and co-written by Pharrell. “Gotta have“ is produced by West and Neptunes and I really love the rap style on this one - they do line after line and no separate verses. “Who gon stop me“ got dubstep production influences and is another example how genius is Kanye with production trends and waves. I wish I heard this one on the show, it must go crazy. Jay-Z went so hard on his last verse it should be illegal. Maybe because I just love when he namedropping Picasso Rothko and Basquiat.
“Murder to excellence” was praised by critics and earned a nomination for Impact Track at the 2012 Bet Hip Hop Awards, and ultimately lost to "Daughters" by Nas. My favorite lines are “I dress in Dries, and other boutique stores in Paris” by Jay-Z (I still say Dries with this accent” and Ye one:
New crib, watch a movie
'Cause there ain't nothin' on the news but the blues
Hit the mall, pick up some Gucci
Now ain't nothing new but your shoes
Sunday morning, praise the Lord
You the girl that Jesus had been saving me for
“This ain't no fashion show, motherfucker, we live it“ quote from “Made in America” brings me to another part of the whole WTT era. Both album art and merch was designed by Riccardo Tisci, then creative director of Givenchy. Givenchy had a tight grip on everyone those years and was arguably the most hyped brand in hip-hop, of course not without Kanye influence. You couldn’t go nowhere without seeing Rottweiler sweatshirt ( I HAD to buy one but my 18 years old self could only afford it with a giant discount from a friend who worked in Givenchy store in Moscow, the perks of working in fashion since adolescence). Shown in 2011 menswear show alongside with male tights, leather skirts and luxury high-top sneakers became the start of the whole era of layers, prints, black on black and face mask trends.
In 2012 spring menswear and 2012 resort women’s collections Riccardo Tisci shown prints slightly similar to what we see in WTT graphics - they were everywhere. I feel like fall 2012 menswear collection was even inspired by Kanye and of course worn by him on most of the WTT tour shows, with leather star-printed sweatshirts and skirt looks. Full red suit was definitely a reference to MBDTF era and no one can tell me otherwise.
Paris track deserves the special mention. There was no party without this song playing. Now imagine - you in a fashion week in Paris, this is one of your first times in the city, you somehow dancing in front of Kanye and Virgil at some afterparty, and this one starts playing. I would just say “YOU WASN’T THERE“. Screaming “What's that jacket, Margiela?” with whole chest because the jacket was, in fact, Margiela. It was everywhere, it was my ultimate Parisian soundtrack, we played it on every party, in cars driving fast at night with Eiffel Tower views. The song won Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards and is currently close to BILLION streams on Spotify alone. In an interview, Kanye West revealed that the song was inspired by his travels in Paris:
I am where art meets commercial. The sweet spot between the hood and Hollywood. Having a conversation with Karl Lagerfeld and Jay-Z within the same hour. When we're in Paris dressing all crazy at fashion shows, we listening to Jay-Z. Jeezy in Paris, that's what it is.
On June 1, 2012 during their first date in Paris, at the Bercy, they actually broke the record, performing the song 11 times. They claimed themselves that the record was held by Los Angeles, when Jay-Z said: "The record is held by L.A. with ten times. It was really “wish I was there“ moment - as told by friends who was, mostpits went crazy and the crowd just didn’t let them switch the beat. One of my favorite part is that it was actually recorded at Hôtel Meurice, in the middle of Paris.
10 years ago you bump WTT reminiscing about this beautiful era, ready to build the new one on your own. Here, in Paris, “If you escape what I escape you’d be in Paris gettin fucked up too“. I add up a fire bonus, short WTT doc that I am sure not everyone saw yet. Sometimes I quote my art as NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IT MEANS BUT IT’S PROVOCATIVE, and it makes all the sense.
