One Year Later: Did Watch The Throne Really Change The Game?

It’s been exactly one year to the day that throngs of Hip-Hop fans waited with baited breath by their computer for Watch The Throne to be released by iTunes. Since the project was even announced, there was the sentiment that this album was going to be different. It had to be. Collaboration albums happen annually, but never to this magnitude.

Two of the biggest artist in Hip-Hop coming together at their collective primes for the sake of the genre. This was Queen and The Rolling Stones. This was Michael Jackson and Prince. This was the Hip-Hop version of the summer of 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. This had to live up to the hype. This had to change the game.

Nobody promised that it would, not Jay-Z, not Kanye, not the army of producers whose beats made it onto the album; but they didn’t have to. The lofty expectations that come with being at the forefront of the culture came with those unspoken promises. But we all knew that this had to be more than an album, it had to be a moment. So the question remains, did it live up to the hype? Did it live up to your expectations? Hip-Hop Wired dives in. 

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Midnight, iTunes exclusive releases

Albums have been released digitally exclusive before, albums that weren’t nearly as big as this. This was done to defend the eventual early leak that occurs when the label eventually hands over the album to distributors days before the album is set to hit retailers. Jay-Z & Kanye West, being the big artists they were felt that they were big enough artists to take the hit. Their gamble paid off as its debut week served as the second highest debut week of 2011, while its first week digital sales of 321,000 downloads serve as the second highest one-week sales tally in digital history. Since then, Watch The Throne collaborator Frank Ocean released his album channel ORANGE digitally first to avoid a leak and saw similar success debuting at #2 on the Billboard charts.

Fancy, spancy album artwork. 

When Jay-Z and Kanye West released the cover art for their joint album, it looked more like a piece of art than a compact disc. Always a stickler for details, West’s influence on the visual aspects of the album were apparent for this “luxury rap” album. Since then, artists like The-Dream, Lil B, Hit-Boy, the G.O.O.D. Music crew, and even Nike has created album covers and projects directly inspired by The Throne’s crisp golden and unmistakable cover.

Copycats 

How influential can you really be if people aren’t rushing to Xerox your swag? Although plenty of rappers will never admit it, they had to see the seismic shift that the release of Watch The Throne had to have had. People who have been much more open with their admiration of the ambitious collaborative effort include Chris Rock, who reportedly wanted to go on a Watch The Throne-inspired tour with Dave Chappelle. Much like the Child Rebel Soldier album, the Rick Ross/Drake YOLO project and the T-Wayne album, they were all talked about but never came to fruition.

The Rise Of Frank Ocean 

Frank Ocean’s a self made guy. Grabbing the attention of the industry with the head-turning  free album, nostalgia:ULTRA , Frank didn’t necessarily need to be on Watch The Throne for people to take notice. But it damn sure didn’t hurt. If you take an introduction’s importance as much as artists do, Frank Ocean having the first voice heard on this landmark album was a huge declaration. On an album extremely scarce on guest features, Ocean lands twice on this project and on arguably two of the album’s more thought provoking songs, “No Church In The Wild,” and “Made In America.”

The Rise Of Hit-Boy

Many songs came and went from Watch The Throne, but the album’s undeniable smash single was “N*ggas In Paris.” Everything from the beat to the catch phrases and to everything else it spawned since then screamed out instant classic as soon as the chopped and screwed “ball so hard” voice hit the speakers. Nobody benefited more from this song than Fontana, CA resident Hit-Boy. As one half of the Surf Club with Chase N. Cashe, he saw success producing another huge collaboration with Lil Wayne and Eminem on “Drop The World,” but “Paris” changed his life. Since then, he’s been the go-to producer in the game ranging from pop superstars like Justin Bieber to hardcore rap acts like Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky. Now Hit-Boy’s star is burning as bright as ever with his rap debut, HitStory, which hit the net yesterday to positive reviews.

Hip-Hop/Dub Step fusions.

Jay-Z and Kanye West aren’t the first rappers to mix dub step and hip-hop together. That’s been going on in Europe for a pretty long time, but like most things that Jay-Z and Kanye do, they’ve gotten the most attention for it. Since The Throne went in on “Who Gon Stop Me,” it seems like every rapper must have the obligatory “i’m-expanding-my-audience-so-let-me-rap-over-dubstep” record on every album. Once we heard 2 Chainz rapping over some pseudo dub-step records on his new album, Based On A T.R.U. Story, we knew that ish definitely had gotten real.

Daring White People To Say The N-Word

The bigger that “Paris” got, the more awkward white folks got the moment the song came on. Things got especially awkward last Fall during the Victoria’s Secret show in New York City when Jay-Z and Kanye West performed the song for throngs of seemingly endless white people. Singing the song was never really the problem, as the n-word was only said once notably and easily able to edit out. Talking about the song however was clearly when things got shaky. Most conventional Caucasians opted with just calling the song “Paris” like, Pauly D of the Jersey Shore. Gwenyth Paltrow however caused a bit of controversy when she tweeted “N***as in Paris, for real” with a picture of The-Dream, Ty-Ty and B-High while in Paris. Foul? Probably. But when you call the biggest song on your album “N***as in Paris,” you are kind of asking for it.

“Shush, Don’t Tell Anybody, But Tell Everybody.”

In the months and weeks leading up to Watch The Throne, everyone who was within a sniffs distance of Kanye West or Jay-Z was asked about this album. The answers were all pretty much the same, “I can’t talk about it much, but it’s amazing!” The reason why they couldn’t talk about it much is because they really didn’t know much. Artists that were rumored to be on the album all eventually hit the cutting room floor when The Throne eventually opted for no rap guest features, but that didn’t stop people from openly talking about nothing. Nobody knew anything until everybody knew everything and that was part of the mystique. Part of the hype to Throne was the unparalleled secrecy that the project was kept under, especially smack dab in the middle of the all important information age. No leaks, no tweeting from the listening session, not a damn bit of nothing. All you had was hearsay leading up to the album and when you finally heard it, it was nothing like you expected.

Backlash

The backlash that Kanye West and Jay-Z received for the album was unparalleled. Those who created Detox-level anticipation for this album were disappointed that it was not the greatest rap album in the history of all mankind. And it wasn’t, fair enough. The other things that caused backlash caused all types of head-scratching. For example, the duo were condemned for taking a Maybach and turning it into a jet-powered joy ride for their video “Otis.” They were accused of glorifying their riches, even though the car was eventually auctioned off for charity. Critics claimed that Jay-Z and Kanye’s constant 1% talk smack dab in the middle of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement were insensitive to those going through the struggle. What do you expect two multi-millionaires to talk about when they aren’t selling drugs or trying to move out of their mom’s house anymore? Then, there was the constant illuminati talk that Jigga and Mr. West were doing the work of Satan himself. Yes, Satan. Apparently, conspiracy theorists believed that the artwork inside the album and the messages in the lyrics were satanist and that the two were a part of an all-knowing underground cult that controlled the universe or some BS like that. Dude, get a job.

The Verdict

At the end of the day, Jay-Z and Kanye West delivered on a good album. In fact, Jay-Z and Kanye West delivered on a great album. Is it a classic album? Time will tell. Did it change the game? Marginally. We still have struggle rappers, they are just more motivated. Nobody tucked their whole summer in, as Kanye boastfully stated. In fact, Watch The Throne was bested by Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV and Drake’s Take Care as the highest selling rap album of that year. Culturally however, it’s impact can’t be understated. Kanye West and Jay-Z, as successful as both of their careers have been, went out with the intention of putting the music, the culture and the art first above everything. That mission was accomplished.

Now how about that sequel?