Let's get the issue of expectations out of the way right off the bat: Even if they had produced the finest album in the history of rap, Jay-Z and Kanye West - the genre's most celebrated figures over the past decade-plus - would have only just met what was anticipated from them by a wide swath of hip-hop nation.
Out-of-control hype aside, Watch the Throne is far from deserving of that lofty designation - hell, it's not even the best rap disc released this year - but with the outsized players involved, it's rarely less than intriguing.
If the album is remarkable at all - aside from being a summit of two rap legends - it's due to the state-of-the-artform production from West and an A-list of producers of both the established and on-the-come-up variety, including Q-Tip, the Neptunes, RZA, Swizz Beatz, Mike Dean and Sham (Sak Pase) Joseph.
The first single, the Westproduced Otis, takes its obvious sample source - Otis Redding's mighty Try a Little Tenderness - and transforms it by chopping and screwing it to the point of being nearunrecognizable. The menacing bass line and brooding hook (courtesy of R&B upstart Frank Ocean) on the album-opening No Church in the Wild provides another standout, as does the hypnotic drum-and-bass assault of Who Gon Stop Me.
Lyrically, the punchlines come as furious as ever from the coolly calculating Jay and the constantly improving Kanye - particularly on such intense statements of superiority as That's My Bitch and Niggas in Paris - but there is a sense of roteness that creeps in. As clever as the pair are, there are only so many ways to say you're rich and famous, and Watch the Throne exhausts pretty much all of them. (And while I don't doubt the authenticity of Jay's back-in-the-day drug rhymes, it's starting to ring more than a little hollow from a guy who now vacations in St. Barts with Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow.)
But what's most starkly absent from Watch the Throne isn't lyrical inventiveness. In pre-release interviews, Jay-Z telegraphed the album's uncommercial sound - including his initial desire to not even release any singles from it - so the pop-unfriendly hooks permeating it are true to that vision. But a defining single, whether more indieleaning fans care to admit it or not, is crucial to attaining "classic" status, particularly in the world of rap, and there isn't a track here that approaches those heights. The most blatant attempt at doing so is the Beyoncé-assisted Lift Off, and even that is only a fraction as memorable as some of the past collaborations between hip hop's First Couple.
Of course, not giving the people what they want is a perfectly valid creative choice, but one that prevents Watch the Throne from being the landmark it should and could have been.
Podworthy: Who Gon Stop Me
Watch the Throne is available now in digital format for $11.99 via iTunes. A deluxe edition with four extra tracks (Illest Motherf---er Alive, H*A*M, Primetime and The Joy) is also available on iTunes, for $14.99. The digital version will be available at other online retailers beginning Friday, and the CD will be available in stores Tuesday, Aug. 16.
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