Watch The Throne album cover - Interestingly simplistic.

So I had been following this record since the moment of it’s annoucement some time ago, and was instantly looking forward to it, although I believed it to be a little too soon after ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ which I believe to be a genius piece of art work, I was still highly anticipating this release.

It turned out to better my expectations, I didn’t expect it to be as good as Twisted Fantasy… don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it tops it, but I believe it follows the same route production wise, featuring some similar themes of the album.

     The album begins with a hardhitting song echoing the opening of Twisted Fantasy, almost sounding like a modern gospel track of the two rappers preaching about the prominent album theme of Power, ‘Whats a King to a God?’ ‘What’s a God to a none believer’ sings West, questioning peoples motives on power, and why they respect and look up to certain people. How unlike West to cause controversy. A strong opening track all the same.
     The album continues with a similar paced song ‘Lift Off’ featuring Beyonce, which is a nice collaboration and fits in with the theme nicely. N***as in Paris, although I feel the language of certain words isn’t appropriate, the song is catchy with a brilliant hook, one of my favourites off the album.
     The strongest theme on the album in my opinion is how Black artists or how Kanye and JayZ made it in a somewhat racist industry. What sells, for example sex ‘Nobody knows what that means, who cares it’s provocative.’
‘Murder to Excellence’ is another gem on the album, this really builds on the theme I talk about above. Which leads nicely into ‘Made Into America’ continuing this interesting theme. Then the album turns slightly more sensual with a melodic trrack featuring a catchy chorus and snyth pitched voices carrying the song through it’s harder verses from West and JayZ. Another strong track of the album.
     As we venture towards the end of the album, the tone takes a little bit of a slide. Although I enjoy Wests confidence and sometimes arrogance, sometimes it can take its toll, such as ‘Illest Mother Fucker Alive’ and ‘HAM’ are nice songs, but for me, they could have been left off the album. The opening single ‘HAM’ is the worst song off the album, why it was lead single I have no idea, possibly intentional?
     Thankfully, the album ends on a brighter, more conventional tone. Primetime is a mid tempo track with a nice piano melody, leading nicely into another one of my favourites of the album; ‘The Joy’ which reminded me almost of a Prince song, the falsetto opening and Jazz like theme. A solid ending.

Overall, this album is a must have for Hip Hop fans. It’s a fantastic collaboration of two of Hip Hops giants, put together to produce this brilliant, solid and at times poetic story of making it in America from the slums.


Good Times Rating: 8/10 

With Apple coming out with new products each year, debating whether it’s worth buying their things. Hmm.