Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Watch the Throne"

The most impressive aspect of "Watch the Throne," the collaborative album by Jay-Z and Kanye West, is that the project actually happened. When was the last time two of the biggest stars in pop culture shared the mic, not to mention album sales, media attention, and ticket revenue from their upcoming tour? It’s the equivalent of Ke$ha and Katy Perry doing a joint album, or John Mayer and Adam Levine. What seems unfathomable for those artists, Ye and Jay made a reality.

And for that fact alone, the two men deserve tremendous credit. They’ve managed to nurture their longstanding artistic partnership – Kanye has been making beats for Jay-Z for over a decade – despite Kanye’s incredible ascent from ghost producer to full-fledged superstar. Furthermore, Jay-Z and Kanye’s collaboration has helped promote a spirit of teamwork across the entire rap industry.¹

And yet "Watch the Throne" itself is a disappointment, particularly for Kanye. We’ve come to expect more from him. Each of his previous albums, with the possible exception of "Graduation," felt like something we’d never heard before. Each expanded the scope of what hip hop could be. Wait, you can make a number one hit from a Daft Punk sample? Or a Ray Charles impersonation? You can make a hip hop album using nothing but autotune? And you can make the album of the year by probing the depths of the id and featuring Bon Iver?

In contrast to all this, "Watch the Throne" feels like the recycling of old ideas. "Murder to Excellence" is a poor man’s (and woefully out of tune²) "Power". "Lift Off" is a homeless man’s "All of the Lights." "Made in America" is an imitation of "Forever Young." "Otis" feels like it came straight off "The College Dropout." It feels like we’ve heard this album before.

This isn’t to say that the album isn’t listenable. To the contrary, it’s solid, easy, and largely enjoyable, with both rappers in good form lyrically. "Gotta Have It" in particular features memorable banter between Kanye and Jay-Z, and the beat by The Neptunes is an all-timer. And yet, "Watch the Throne" doesn’t challenge us the way we’ve come to expect from a Kanye West album. Call it murder by excellence.

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1. For evidence of this, look no further than Game’s "R.E.D. album," released this past Tuesday. The album manages to feature Southern giants (Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, Big Boi), West Coasters (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, E40), the newcomers (Drake, Tyler the Creator, Wale), and Nelly Furtado.

2. Listen closely to the guitar at the beginning of the song, before the drums enter.