Let’s be clear about one thing: In the grand scheme of things, a mediocre Kanye beat is still a good one, and a mediocre Jay-Z verse is still very charismatic. So calling Watch the Throne “disappointing” isn’t a complete dismissal in the least. When it comes to Kanye in particular, though, the best thing you can do is give him a bad review. Tell him that he’s dropped off, that he’s not the same rapper or producer or icon that he used to be. That he’s old news. Because then he’ll prove us all wrong.
Kanye’s sense of grandeur is the source of all the petty controversies that distract us from his music, but it can also sometimes justify itself. After the poorly-received experiment that was 808’s and Heartbreak, not to mention the whole Taylor Swift fiasco, Kanye released the public relations and musical phenomenon My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. It was a comeback because Kanye made it sound like one; he filled the whole album with a glorious sentiment of re-vindication. “You thought I was done for,” he seemed to be saying. “But can you resist me when I sound this good?”
Watch the Throne has a lot of the trademark Kanye sounds that have accumulated over the years: the twisted samples of recognizable songs, the extended outros, the mix of political lyrics with self-congratulation. But it lacks the bravado of Dark Twisted Fantasy (which, mind you, is most certainly not the same thing as saying that it lacks bravado completely). Ya, Jay-Z is the other rapper on this album, but his situation is even more static than Kanye’s. He’s married to Beyonce and has already shoved his way into any conversation about the best rappers of all time. He hasn’t had anything to prove in years.
Watch the Throne shows plenty of signs of the greatness that both its protagonists are capable of: the sample that Kanye pulls from Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness,” which practically acts as melody and drum break all on its own; the intrusion of dubstep into “Who Gon Stop Me”; the hooks on “That’s My Bitch” and “Why I Love You”; the way Kanye makes an instrument out of Nina Simone’s voice on “New Day.”
But we do not expect only signs or moments of greatness from either of these two. We do not expect albums that are pretty damn good but not the greatest. And Kanye doesn’t expect these things from himself. These are high standards, I know, but little about Kanye and Jay-Z tends to fit the normal pattern.
