Furthermore, the album’s highlight, “New Day,” found both rappers speaking to their unborn sons and, shortly after, they would both ironically go on to have daughters. Take a trip back to 2011 and relive some classic WTT moments below, from the videos for “Otis,” “No Church in the Wild” and “Niggas in Paris”(and them performing it 11 times in Paris), as well as the mini documentary detailing the making of the album.

The post Remembering Watch the Throne appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Original art by Julia Schur, (aging this photo).

For some time now, Jay Z has been rap’s most involved elder statesman. He’s been a made man since the late ’90s, and for our genre, that’s an eternity ago. Jay keeps putting out music, but once he passed the torch and completed the trilogy that began with his most highly acclaimed record (and got married), he became an old timer. Jay has certainly come to carry himself in such a way too, always giving off a stately, polished, much-too-rich-to-be-here type of presence that surpasses even the most cocksure moments of his career’s earlier eras. With this status of hip-hop tenure, it’s easy to begin to slip, which Jay undoubtedly has. But every so often, a more passionate, inspired Hova comes back and reminds everyone just why it is he’s one of hip-hop’s the world’s most powerful men, and one of music’s most respected artists. Here are Jay Z’s best verses since gaining Old Man Hov status. (Roughly, we’re drawing from everything 2010 and onward.)

10. “Heaven,” Verse 2, Magna Carta Holy Grail

Jay sounds particularly reinvigorated here. From the exasperated way he opens and delivers that clever little line about “baggage” at heaven’s gates, to the quick adoption of Chief Keef‘s flow, to that inspired image of the angel wings on his Lambourghini, Hov’s dancing all over the place in the best way possible. Also, relating religion’s dividing powers to his Maybach’s partition is just quintessential Jay Z as a philosopher / millionaire.

9. “The Devil Is A Lie,” Mastermind

After what most felt was an overall sluggish performance on Magna Carta, “The Devil Is A Lie” was what convinced many that Hov still had the fire in him, whether or not it was doused in a little D’usse (which gets a pretty terrible reference here). Jay’s nimble flow at the verse’s opening and his cocky energy throughout are what make his spot on Ross’s record special. Well, that and when he puts White Jesus in his crock pot, calling the accepted image out as bullshit, and adds soda to make Jesus (who is of course, Jay here) into his truer, blacker self.

8. “Mr. Nice Watch,” Cole World: The Sideline Story

This verse was widely overlooked, and even called “phoned in,” likely because of the seemingly repetitive nature of the first few lines. Jay does rhyme “band” with “band” and “wound up” with “wind up,” but the way he puts a new meaning on each repetition, and builds the complex punches around the theme of watches and time is pretty damn masterful. He goes on to, with quicker pacing, pull the same trick again, saying he’ll “Put the front on the back of the ‘Bach like a boss / So I’m fronting on niggas when I’m backing off.” Stunting at its finest.

7. “New Day,” Watch The Throne

The entirety of this verse’s strength comes from its second half. When Jay moves past the relatively uninteresting “Paparazzi sucks” warning to his future child, he begins to speak with true substance. Setting himself up with a great line about finding his path at 26 (which is the age he got his first record credit) and wanting to start his son out at 13, Jay gives commanding advice about speaking with conviction before showing some true vulnerability as his mind wanders to a possible split between him and the child’s mother. The last line really lets the doubt soak through, as Jay promises to never repeat his deadbeat dad’s ways. “Never repeat ’em…never repeat ’em,” he echoes, showing just how close Jay is worried he might be to his father.

6. “No Church In The Wild,” Verse 1, Watch The Throne

To properly open Watch The Throne in epic fashion, Jay bombards with vivid, dramatic images. “Lies on the lips of a priest” might have more distinct detail and tangibility than the entirety of Jay’s raps on the rest of the album. It’s moments like that that show the man still has a love for language somewhere inside him. Next, Hov quotes one of Plato’s most interesting questions: “Is Pious pious cause God loves pious?” The question is ultimately asking what humans truly bow to: the opinion of themselves or of gods, and further, who should interpret the word of god? Considering the album’s goliath nature, fewer questions could be more relevant.

5. “Glory,” Verse 2

There have been so few occasions throughout Jay Z’s career where he really wore his heart on his sleeve, but this song, and this verse in particular, might be the best and most bare example. Opening up with a line about his own subpar father, Jay pulls in that same doubt that we saw on “New Day,” but moves on to the more immediate concerns of being a (famous) father that that hypothetical on WTT could never reach, like spoiling Blue. The verse grows even more personal as Jay reveals that Bey miscarried on their first try for a child. It’s not a particularly innovative or slick line, but the joy in his voice when he says “nah baby, you magic!” is undeniably powerful and, most of all, human. Additionally, Hov closes out with those sweet lines about Blue being the child of Destiny, and while it’s a good punchline, it’s even better knowing that he really earned them by taking us through the troubling road to this glory.

You’re a child of destiny
You’re the child of my destiny
You’re my child with the child from Destiny’s Child

4. “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” (Remix)

While it was largely overshadowed by Kendrick‘s show-stopping third verse, Jay let off a pretty dope verse to cement his cosign of K.Dot as, already, one of the greats of his time. Jay’s a little slow getting started, but he does exude a solid distillation of that above-it-all Jay Z cool, as he feigns frustration with gossip and wind pockets: “Up in the clouds, me and my spouse…Turbulence, shit, I almost spilled my drink.” When he speeds up to a more rapid-fire flow, his writing gets denser. The “million dollar baby” punchline is great, but it leads to possibly the best one-off line of this entire era for Jay: “Sittin’ next to Hillary smelling like dank.” Jay Z tells truths (or at least plausible lies) that not only could no other rapper pull off, but few could even dream something that good.

3. “Shiny Suit Theory,” Pre-Act II

Much like that destiny’s child line from “Glory,” one of the best moments on Jay’s “Shiny Suit Theory” feature is a play with homophones and homonyms. Kicking off the theme of the “insanity” of how far Jay’s come from his humble beginning, he contrasts his time “warrin’ with undercovers” to landing on “covers with Warren Buffet.” It’s “warrin’ to Warren.” Jay Z’s genius has always been delivering wisdom and wit with slogan-like slickness. Jay only makes you work a little bit to understand him, and is always sure to make that work well worth it. By the time we reach the verse’s end and Jay Z is wedging the picture of his inexplicable success into a larger, societal frame, we truly understand the “insanity” theme. “Since when did black men become kings,” he asks. Well, those who see the truth and future are often pegged as crazy.

2. “Oceans,” Verse 1, Magna Carta Holy Grail

Right off the bat, Jay is making distinct use of a powerful pallet: white and (vs) black. He still smells like the dope he left behind, and, because of the white echoed in his robe and boat, he still looks like it too. Hov then jumps from one past that can’t be forgotten (his) to the grander past that’s also hard to ignore as we stand with him on his yacht: “the oil spill that BP ain’t clean up.” Few lines in Jay’s career have been darker or sneered harder than that one. Another great example of Jay’s gift for slogans comes soon after: “The only Christopher we acknowledge is Wallace.” Wrapped up in that one small moment is an entire movement of reclaiming America as black culture and black culture as American, complete with the recasting of heroes and villains. Next, Jay continues to wield his palette wisely, contrasting his black card with the white cotton of Hermés. Both black and white are found in wealth here; we see how similar opposites can be, and how close the distance between “old” and “new” money (touched on later in the album) can feel.

It’s hard to believe that the same rapper who spits that terrible Ocean’s 11 line (twice!) is capable of producing such thought provoking material for the same verse, but we’ve known Jay’s complex for some time now.

1. “We Made It” (Remix)

There is  something about pressure of diss records that often bring out the lyrical best in them. “We Made It” is certainly a lot more complex than just being a warning to Drake, though. Even when Jay fires his real “shots” at Aubrey, he is light to medium teasing at best, calling him “Mrs. Drizzy,” before turning Drake’s (and many others’) complaints about Magna Carta on their head the way only a business–man could. Jay confronts the storied issue of what do street rappers write about once they’re rich and safe? by facing it head-on. He’s just rapping about his life in that moment, he argues. Further, in fact, he taunts, “Silly me rappin’ bout shit that I really bought,” as if going by any other model would be ridiculous. That’s the way a good Jay verse makes you feel–as if any other pick for the GOAT would be ridiculous. To paraphrase: you could have been anywhere else in the world right now, but you’re there with him.

Jay exhibits another great moment of condensing in the verse’s opening, as he wipes aside all previous shackles-to-jewelery punchlines with ease, painting the transition with refreshing crispness. The brevity of his motion–from slave ship to jeweler’s–somehow makes it all the more triumphant. From the very start, it’s a victory lap. Jay puts himself “onstage after 12 Years A Slave” with an Oscar-like bottle of champagne before going one step further, inserting himself in biblical times with an amazing stretch of lines. “Showed up to the last supper in some brand new J’s” might be the only line in Jay’s recent catalogue that can touch the Hillary line mentioned earlier.”You’re blind baby, blind to the fact of who you are, maybe,” stings with unbelievable precision considering how vague the actual wording and target are. Regardless of bearing in the real world, of which he often has tons, it remains that Jay Z is just on another level when it comes to saying the most piercing thing with the fewest words.

The post Old Man Hov: Jay Z’s 10 Best Verses Since Becoming A Rap Elder appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Thrones inherently have a limited view. Intentionally cloistered from the pedestrian world outside of the palace, thrones are characterized by seclusion and exclusion. Accordingly, when Jay-Z and Kanye West released Watch the Throne, the result was distancing. In fact, distance seemed to be its point: as indicated by their excessively lavish lines and expensive samples, Jay-Z and Kanye wanted us to know that they were on a “whole ‘nother level,” one occupied only by the elite, the royalty: The Throne. Unlike “The Throne,” Run the Jewels (composed of Killer Mike and El-P) sends a different message, one that is much less condescending and much more engaging.

The half-hour project starts with the title track, which begins with a windy echo that grows more menacing as it is quickly joined by coin-like jingles and looped ad-libs. Once the dystopian bass drops, the tone of the project is clear: the throne is in danger. El-P then growls out a frantic verse and is followed by Mike, who threatens poodle owners and pearl clutchers. The chorus is bare yet effective: Killer Mike simply snarls “Run the jewels” while an organ lets out a death moan. After some more fierce lyrical acrobatics and a repeat of the hook, the track concludes with some loopy digital wobbles  and a telling soundbite: “The goblins have been awakened.”

“Banana Clipper” maintains the dystopian ambiance, but Mike and El-P switch things up by trading alliterative and multi-syllabic bars. Big Boi brings up  the rear delivering an off-kilter verse in which he interestingly brags about his “obese” bank account. Such a boast should be out of place in Mike and El-P‘s refreshingly non-materialistic world, but somehow it fits right in, probably because he pairs it with proud boasts about actually owning his belongings and some criticism of radio stations (which largely overlooked his somewhat experimental last album).

The dystopian theme peaks with “DDFH,” which stands for “Do Dope Fuck Hope.” Both Mike and El-P deliver, balancing braggadocio with thoughts on serious social matters. Two moments on the song stand out. Despite the nihilistic title and chorus, at one point El-P reveals a glimmer of hope by saying, “Even a satellite sees at one angle.” Given the increased paranoia in response to the ongoing NSA scandal, it’s a thoughtful line that suggests that mass surveillance isn’t as crippling as it seems.  Mike‘s standout line comes during a discussion of police hostility toward black males: “If you’re not Jigga of Puff, you’re doing time/ And even then, you might get ten: Word To Shyne.” In one bar, Mike demonstrates more political awareness than Kanye does throughout Yeezus. Whereas Kanye overwhelmingly ignores class when discussing race (ex. “Black Skinhead“), Mike acknowledges class and notes how race can trump class.

Why is this important?  Let’s go back to Kanye‘s line from “Gorgeous:” “Face it, Jerome gets more time than Brandon.” It’s a clever line, but where does Kanye himself fit into that? By calling attention to Puffy and Jay-Z, Mike forces us to think about how money and privilege factor into racialized encounters. In other words, Mike is saying, “Face it Jerome gets more time than Brandon, but less time than Kanye (if Kanye gets time at all).”

If this comparison between Run the Jewels and Watch the Throne seems forced, it isn’t coming from this writer. On the bawdy track “Sea Legs,” Mike encourages it saying, “There will be no respect for thrones” and “Niggas will perish in Paris.” El-P does some similar encouragement on “Job Well Done.” Detailing how the world will respond to Run the Jewels, he mentions worker ants killing their queen and emperors feeling compelled to acknowledge their hidden vices. These guys are clearly interested in questioning royalty in all realms, even the animal kingdom.

But beyond this refreshing spirit of peasant rebelliousness, the real appeal of the pair is their earnestness. Even when they’re discussing bizarre topics like fucking in church shoes (“Twin Hype Back“) or psychedelic lapdances (“Never Come Down“), the lines never feel lazy in delivery or conception. With the exception of its excellent production, Magna Carta Holy Grail as a whole is characterized by laziness. El-P and Killer Mike are certainly paid, but their net worth doesn’t seem to be the point of the music: the music itself feels like the point.

In the end, despite this review’s emphasis on how Run the Jewels trumps Watch the Throne, RtJ is is great beyond such comparisons. Driven by two dedicated emcees and one very talented and focused producer, the album is both progressive and preservative. In name and execution it nods to the past (“Run the jewels” is an old LL Cool J line), but it is focused on the future, especially production-wise. Jay-Z may have referenced Oceans 11 on “Oceans,” but El-P and Killer Mike seem to have actually watched it, crucially noting how a thief, even a rich one, is always more compelling than a businessman.

Download the project here.

The post Album Review: Run the Jewels > Watch the Throne appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Watch The Throne has already been deemed a classic and secured spot as one of the greatest albums of all time, but now we get a chance to see behind-the-scenes of its creation– Jay-Z and Kanye in their purest form, creating a masterpiece. The movie gives an inside look at Kanye’s passion and Jay’s recording process. Robert Lopuski created the intimate and inspirational documentary and according to him, “In the world of hip-hop, anybody who does something different is a genius, anybody who does something successful is making history; you know it all becomes these exaggerated, bombastic endeavors. And so, for me, I was not interested in that; I was more interested in the smaller moments. The quiet power of talent.” Enjoy the video as you experience Watch The Throne in a new, deeper, magical way.

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YeezusShuttlesworth released the 10th episode of the VOYR behind the scenes series that covered the entire Watch The Throne tour last year. Check out some of what goes into preparing for a show at The Garden below:

The post Video: Kanye West VOYR – The Garden appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Well, this is what we’ve all been waiting for and The Throne did not disappoint. During the Paris, France stop of their Europeon tour, Jay Z and Kanye West broke their own record, previously held by their L.A. show, and performed “N*ggas in Paris” 11 consecutive times. Watch it all unfold below. Cray.

Props to RapRadar for the footage.

BONUS: Want to see the entire 54-minute hysteria? You can do just that:

The post Video: The Throne Perform “N*ggas in Paris” 11 Times in Paris appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

On “Illest Motherfucker Alive” Jay-Z asks you to imagine how Beyonce, Kanye, himself, and RiRi, (aka Rihanna), will look at the Grammys. Whelp, the Grammys came and went, and like most serious hip-hop fans, we missed the show. Instead we vented our anger over breakfast the following morning, when we browsed the results on the Internet. Chris Brown for Best Rap Performance by a Group? Bruno Mars for anything? Katy Perry was there? These are just some of the thoughts that likely raced through the brains of devout hip-hoppers the day after the big show… the same devout hip-hoppers whom the producers of Battleship (yes, the film) purposely crossed.

Indeed that was a giant leap in our thesis… but so be it. Rihanna is a giant in the pop music game. And Battleship is a giant in the Hollywood film game. On the surface the two go hand-in-hand, just like Kanye and Kim Kardashian.  The story here is that Rihanna is a respected artist in the hip-hop community. She has sung the hooks for some serious anthems (“Run This Town” “Love the Way You Lie” “All of the Lights”) and by association – she associates herself with Bey Bey, Ye, and Jay – she is expected to be a real artist. RiRi, to be Roc-ready, needs to be trill.

And that’s where the film, Battleship, comes into play. That shit tanked. Rotten Tomatoes lends the synopsis, “It [Battleship] may offer energetic escapism for less demanding filmgoers, but Battleship is too loud, poorly written, and formulaic to justify its expense — and a lot less fun than its source material.” All true. Yet the true crime in Battleship, what makes it hazardous for Rihanna, is its blatant propaganda for the U.S. Navy – how it is suggested that any misguided youth will find his way via enlistment. This kind of bureaucratic, from-the-top-down, implicit brainwashing defies the most prevailing instinct in all of hip-hop: to rebel. Battleship, above all else, is a film about submission.

Rick Rubin, the mind behind Def Jam and Run-DMC, would have drank his own piss before he let any of his acts jeopardize their artistic credibility over some Hollywood film. So why on Earth would the Roc-La-Familia not dissuade Rihanna from making her Hollywood acting debut in Battleship? The film is an obvious antithesis to everything hip-hop stands for – freedom, liberty, creativity. Hip-hop is what America claims to be, while Battleship is what it really is: Poorly-constructed fireworks aimed at your noggin.

And so, to answer Jay’s question, about how Ye, Beyonce, himself, and Rihanna would look at the Grammys, assuming we could go back in time, and actually watch the Grammys, we would say they look real good. Too good maybe. Good enough that Jay might overlook a small role in a Hollywood film and not see how it could affect Rihanna’s credibility. After watching Battleship, it’s hard not to see Rihanna as some sort of tool. After all, she’s back in the cesspool of capitalist shit – pungent enough to make anyone lose their appetite, even the most resilient of fans.

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