By Jackson Santy ’13
THE ROUNDUP

Jay-Z & Kanye West – “Watch the Throne”
6.5

Since its release on Aug. 8 rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West’s latest album “Watch the Throne” has been the biggest topic in the music world.

The album debuted at number one spot on the US Billboard Charts, selling 436 thousand copies in its first week, plus the fact that at least another ten thousand downloaded it illegally.

The interesting aspect of the album was that Jay-Z and West made an effort to make sure that the album was not “leaked” to the public prior to its midnight release.

The album’s headline track “Otis,” features vocal sampling from soul legend Otis Redding.

Since downloading the track, I have listened to it an innumerable amount of times and am in love with it.

It’s safe to say that in my opinion this is one of the best collaborative songs made in the last several decades (behind David Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure.”)

However, my feelings were different towards the remainder of the album.

Prior to its release, I expected the album to be one of the greatest albums of the decade. In the past, Kanye West and Jay-Z’s releases have been more than impressive.

West’s previous album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” and Jay-Z’s “The Blueprint 3” were each in their own strokes of musical genius. Yet “Watch the Throne” as a whole was surprisingly mediocre comparing to their previous albums.

While listening, I found myself getting less and less interested as it progressed.

With the excuse of “Otis,” the rest of the album didn’t impress me, in other words there were no songs that made me stop and say “Wow.”

The remaining eleven songs seemed to be just like any other rap song on the radio. There is nothing that makes the album stand out.

In general, the album may have been a huge success economically but I only accredit that to the fact that two of the biggest names in hip-hop are on the cover.

It’s like if Lamborghini and Ferrari joined together to make the world’s greatest car, but it drives a maximum of 10 mph.

Moreover, I give the album six and a half out of ten for providing a few good tracks, and overall well put together, but I deducted on account of the lack of “wow” the album gives.