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When Kanye West and Jay-Z first announced the Watch The Throne project I was pretty hype at the thought of the music and concert that would result.
Dudes delivered on both.
I’ve been to a lot of concerts over the last few years and this one just blew them all away. Kanye seemed genuinely happy for the first time in a while and Jay was, well, Jay.
Oh, and we set the N*ggas in Paris record at 10. No big deal.
I thought I’d be over it after a few plays but that never happened.
Check out a few of the pictures I took.
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Kanye gives you a history lesson as he consciously raps about how the crack epidemic—which was an attempt to truncate various black social movements and uprisings—took over the black community in the United States during the 1980’s. As a result, the heroin-sticken people developed an artform that not only brought exposure to the epidemic, but also was an avenue they used to express the pains brought onto the community by crack. And they “cook[ed] it, cut it, measur[ed] it, [bagged] it, [and sold] it” to the millions of fiends waiting to hear their crack music.
How we stop the black panthers? Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer. You hear that? What Jill Scott was hearin’, when our heroes and heroines got hooked on heroin. Crack raised the murder rate in DC and Maryland. We invested in that; it’s like we got Merril-Lynched. And we been hangin’ from the same tree ever since. Sometimes I feel the music is the only medicine so we cook it, cut it, measure it, bag it, sell it. The fiends cop it. Now-a-days they can’t tell if that’s that good sh*t.
“We ain’t sure man.”
Put the CD on your tongue.
“Yeah, thats pure man.”
That’s that crack music, that real black music…
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In My Lifetime Vol. 1 - Where I’m From
(WATCH THE THRONE COUNTDOWN)
Beat sound a little familiar? No it isn’t Diddy-Dirty Money’s Angels that came out last year. This R&B turned track was once a hardcore rap produced by one of the best, Jay-Z. Where I’m from defined Jay-Z’s early career as a Brooklyn street rapper. Within this song he discusses everything from drug dealing, to prostitution, and gun-violence. In 5 minutes he paints a picture of the Marcy’s Projects of Brooklyn.
Favorite Lyrics from the Song“I’m from where the beef is inevitable, Summertime’s unforgettable
Boosters in abundance, buy a half-price sweater new
Your world was everything, So everything you said you’d do
You did it, Couldn’t talk about it if you ain’t lived it”(Source: toushay)
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The countdown for Watch the Throne at the Staples Center starts now!
For the next 11 days I will countdown some of my favorite Jay-Z and Kanye West songs…
Feel free to comment if you would like!
