Jas: Watch The Throne Tracks: Tastemakers Pick Their Faves

Friday 2 September 2011

Watch The Throne Tracks: Tastemakers Pick Their Faves

From 'Otis' to 'New Day,' experts weigh in on which Jay-Z and Kanye joint stands out from the rest.
By Rob Markman

Kanye West and Jay-Z
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage

From upbeat dance-floor bangers to low-key concept songs, there is quite a bit of variety on Watch the Throne. On the day of its digital release last week, Kanye West and Jay-Z's tag-team album saw a handful of its tracks become trending topics on Twitter. "No Church in the Wild," "Gotta Have It" and "Who Gon Stop Me" all stood out as fan favorites, at least initially, but it seems that no matter who you ask, everyone has a different favorite from WTT.

"My favorite record off the album is 'New Day,' produced by the RZA," said New York's Power 105 morning-show host Charlamagne Tha God. "The record about Kanye and Jay rapping about their unborn sons, that's ill to me."

Read what the critics thought of Watch the Throne.

On "New Day," Kanye express his life's regrets in a lyrical letter to his future son. Over RZA's twinkling keys and somber soul sample, 'Ye raps, "And I'll never let my son have an ego/ He'll be nice to everyone wherever we go/ I mean, I might even make him be Republican/ So everybody knows he loves white people."

Jay takes a similar approach and spits a verse to his unborn, amid persistent rumors that he and wife Beyoncé are planning to have a child.

AllHipHop CEO Chuck Creekmur puts the energetic "Who Gon Stop" at the top of his list. The track samples Flux Pavilion's dubstep track "I Can't Stop." The chest-pounding album cut finds Hov and Yeezy putting their wealth on full display, despite facing insurmountable odds, with bars like, "Beat the odds, bet the feds/ It wouldn't be wise to bet against the kid/ State me broke, I bet I get rich/ Night shift '66."

See what radio DJs thought of WTT's unconventional radio rollout.

" 'Dudes in Paris' is awesome," Jeff Rosenthal, from the sketch comedy team It's the Real, said, censoring the song's real title, "N---as in Paris." He is particularly impressed by the song's instrumental which was constructed by Kanye and newcomer Hit-Boy. "The beat is insane, just everything about it."

What is your favorite Watch the Throne track? Tell us in the comments!

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