that $hit cray…
As a lover of hip-hop, I cringe at the state it is currently in. Hip-hop for me use to be the way that Black America saw the world. The music infused the struggles and challenges of growing up in this country that we love, but sometimes does not give that love in return. Hip-Hop has now become full of songs about strippers and money; there is little to no depth left.
I divorced Hip-Hop about two years ago. I was just fed up with being inundated with nonsensical words and the decrease of artistic expression. But like many divorcees, I often returned to check what Hip-Hop was up to…I needed it to still be okay after my exit. The interludes were brief, the conversation short, the listening sporadic. Yet I still held out hope that one day, it would return to the form I fell in love with.
Watch the Throne embraces everything I love about Hip-Hop. It is brash and witty, consistent and engaging, and the words enter your brain begging you to hear it. It is not loose rhymes over tight beats; Watch the Throne is an experience from beginning to end. Do I even have to say that I am a fan of Jay and Kanye? Even as a fan, or because of it, I am most critical of these two artists. I expect excellence, and when they don’t deliver it, I am disappointed. ‘Ye redeemed himself with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, the CD that was my favorite of last year. I’ve been relying, however, on old Jay-Z CDs to keep him inside my circle of favorites. I get the whole “I’m retired” thing; but if you are going to continue to rhyme, make it good. That’s all I ask as a fan.
Listening to Watch the Throne, I realized something: Jay and Kanye don’t have to be what we want them to be. They are quite fine just the way they are. Two very rich and very big Hip-Hop stars who hold the world in their hands. The argument that they do not introduce ideas and situations that the every day person can relate to is bullshit. If your dream is not bigger than you, then you need to get another dream…I think Deion Sanders said this during his Hall of Fame induction. And that is the absolute truth. Watch the Throne is about a life that we may not know, but it is so interesting, so compelling, that we should want to know what that life is like. Watch the Throne is about dreams, and achieving them, and dealing with the repercussions of that achievement.
My only gripe with Watch the Throne is the song New Day. Nina Simone should never be auto-tuned…ever. I don’t care if the world was ending and the only way to save it was to put that beautiful voice on auto-tune to sing to the world. It is blasphemous to wreck Ms. Nina’s voice with a vocoder that takes away from the sheer beauty of hearing her honey around the words she sings. New Day has an excellent idea and the words are poignant; I wish they would’ve just left Ms. Nina alone.
All in all, Watch the Throne meets my expectations, even exceeds them. It won’t get me and Hip-Hop back together again, but maybe it will push me to stay in touch more often.
I just want my racks (racks on racks on racks),
~ M
Tags: Jay-Z, Kanye West, Watch the Throne
