Chris Milne Watches The Throne
So I asked Australia’s Chris Milne to check out the new Jay-Z and Kanye record. Milne writes for the much more successful THE BUBBLEGUM GANG.
********************************
Watch The Criticism
Critics internet-wide are complaining that Watch The Throne, the collaborative album from Jay-Z and Kanye West, is full of too much luxury-rap. What’d they order? Fish fillet?
Anyone who went into the album expecting “The Beautiful Dark Twisted Blueprint” was destined for disappointment. Watch The Throne was always going to be what it is; an album about life as a rich black man, and the signs were there from the very beginning. We were given flashy singles (H.A.M. and Otis), song titles like Gotta Have It and Niggas In Paris (which isn’t about French slavery), Riccardo Tisci cover art and testimonials from those who heard it early labelling it as “castle music”. This was always going to happen.
The fact is, Jay and Ye were limited in their subject matter to begin with. While the two may work well together and be great friends, their lives are incredibly different. Jay is loved by all while Kanye is loathed by most. Jay dealt drugs and Kanye went to college (sort of). Jay is in a long-term, committed relationship while Kanye is probably on top of a Victoria’s Secret model as you’re reading this. Kanye may love his juxtaposition, but such immense differences would make creating a deeply personal, cohesive album difficult.
In spite of such restrictions, the album does get emotional at times. Kanye’s painfully honest verse on New Day rivals Runaway in terms of introspection, and the Hov-dominated Why I Love You sounds like the reflections of a king on his way out. However, these examples pale in comparison to the over-arching theme of the record. An inspection of the album art reveals the true intentions of Watch The Throne. When the physical copy, covered in Givenchy-designed, luxurious gold patterns, folds out into an all-black cross bearing photos of the two artists transformed into black (and in Kanye’s case, beaten) panthers, it’s obvious that the luxury-rap is there to both mask and compliment the album’s message of “black power”.
