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Watch The Throne
Def Jam VP of A&R Bu Thiam breaks down the tracks on Watch The Throne with MTV News Since Kanye West first announced Watch The Throne on Twitter in August 2010, the tag-team LP with Jay-Z had been shrouded in mystery. In the months leading up to the album’s August 8, 2011 release, details remained sketchy. There was no loaded press run, super radio push, music video or album leaks leading up to the drop. In fact, “H.A.M” and “Otis” were the only songs released to the general public; beyond that there was nothing. A few were in the know, like Def Jam VP of A&R Bu Thiam who, was there throughout the recording process and helped Hov and Yeezy achieve their sonic goal. “As an A&R it’s a process of trying to bring out the artist’s creative ideas and their visions,” Thiam told MTV News of his general job function in an exclusive interview.
However, when dealing with such accomplished artists like Kanye and Jay, who both have classic works under their belts, Thiam’s role wasn’t that of a traditional A&R rep. “When it comes to big artists like Jay-Z, Kanye West, Rihanna, a label can’t just assign you to a project like that,” he said. “You can’t just be like, ‘Yo Kanye we’re gonna have such and such be your A&R.’ He’s gonna be like, ‘Who the f— is that? Hell no.’ So they have to really rock with you off [general principle] and that’s how the whole process goes.” And rock they did. From start to finish, Bu Thiam was there, lending his professional opinions, helping to build tracks and carry them from concept to a fully mixed and mastered product. There aren’t too many people who can break down Watch The Throne Breakdown track-by-track, but then again there aren’t many people in the game like Bu Thiam.
“Lift Off” featuring Beyoncé (Produced by Kanye West, Jeff Bhasker and Mike Dean)
” ‘Lift Off’ was definitely one of the earlier records [recorded for the album]. [Putting the sound effects on the record] is a process because initially a record might just be a beat, a chorus and a hook and as [Kanye] hears things he adds and takes things out.”
“Gotta Have It” (Produced by The Neptunes and Kanye West)
“It’s like a beat battle. ‘Ye might play something and then Pharrell might play something. They go back and forth man and then they come to a point where they come with one beat.”
Although Kanye West’s production imprint looms large on the Watch The Throne LP, he isn’t the only big name to grace the production credits. “Gotta Have It” is a track produced by The Neptunes and their signature sound is just the platter Jay and Kanye need for their back and forth verses where the stars talk up their riches with braggadocious flair. The short track is peppered with somber piano stabs and a cleverly placed James Brown sample which lasts throughout, giving the song a full feel even with is brief length. The crisp drums and eerie vocal samples help enhance the Kid Cudi-assisted track.
Yesterday the track began to trend worldwide on Twitter, continuing the current theme of the day on the social networking site. Fans have debated, discussed and flat-out argued the merits of the tracks on Watch The Throne all day long. Odd Future production team and group Jet Age Of Tomorrow tweeted from their @TheSuper3 account, “”gotta have it” is the so great. pharrell killed it..” while user @FlyGuyTray said the song, “might be my fave thus far.”
The track is a surprising favorite amongst Twitter users, considering the pace of the song isn’t notably upbeat. Although the song doesn’t lack energy as a result of its lowered tempo, it definitely stood out amongst fans – especially those familiar with The Neptunes sound. “The Neptunes are my ni**as!!! What they came up wit for “Gotta Have It” on #WTT reminded me why they are still among my favorite producers!” tweeted a hyped @TyDruma. What did you think of “Gotta Have It?” Did The Neptunes do their thing on this one?
The Throne – Gotta Have It (The Neptunes) (11′)
The Throne’s ‘Watch The Throne’ is now available on iTunes. After eight months of work, we’ll finally get to hear this masterpiece of hip-hop right here with more than 100 people invovled on the album (only in production credits from LMFAO to Seal and many more). According to the digital booklet, Pharrell wasn’t only invovled on The Neptunes produced ‘Gotta Have It’ (samples three James Brown Tracks ‘Don’t Tell A Lie About Me & I Won’t Tell The Truth About You’, ‘My Thang’ and ‘People Get Up & Drive Your Funky Soul’), nope he also Co- Produced ‘Lift Off’ featuring Beyoncé and I’m pretty sure you would recognize what exactly Pharrell did on the tune right after the ‘lift off’ in the tune (break beat), it’s a pretty dope album though, I would give it a 8/10, so Make sure to cop it on iTunes and if i’m remember correctly this is the first time since Nas’ 1994 Illmatic that an album didn’t leak right before the official release!
The Throne – Watch The Throne (2011)
01 – No Church In The Wild feat. Frank Ocean (Kanye West)
02 – Lift Off feat. Beyoncé (Kanye West, Mike Dean, Jeff Bhasker, Q-Tip, Don Jazzy, Pharrell Williams) (Add Vocals. By Seal, Mr Hudson, Don Jazzy, Bankulli and Ricardo Louis)
03 – Niggas In Paris (Hit-Boy)
04 – Otis feat. Otis Redding (Kanye West)
05 – Gotta Have It (The Neptunes) (Add Vocals. Kid Cudi)
06 – New Day (The RZA)
07 – That’s My Bitch (Q-Tip)
08 – Welcome To The Jungle (Swizz Beatz)
09 – Who Gon’ Stop Me (Sham ‘Sak Pase’ Joseph)
10 – Murder To Excellence (Swizz Beatz, S1)
11 – Made In America feat. Frank Ocean (Sham ‘Sak Pase’ Joseph)
12 – Why I Love You feat. Mr Hudson (Kanye West)
13 – Illest Motherfucker Alive (Kanye West)
14 – H•A•M (Lex Luger)
15 – Primetime (No I.D.)
16 – The Joy feat. Curtis Mayfield (Pete Rock)
Production Credits
Lift Off feat. Beyoncé
(K. West, S. Carter, J. Bhasker, M. Dean, P. Williams, B. Mars, S. Samuel) (BMI/ASCAP) Produced by Kanye West for Very Good Beats/Hip Hop since 1978, Jeff Bhasker, and Mike Dean for Dean’s List Productions. Co-Produced by Q-Tip and Pharrell. Additional Production by Don Jazzy. Orchestral engineering: Pawel Sek. Recorded by Noah Goldstein at Barford Estate, Sydney, AU. Additional programming by LMFAO, Anthony Kilhoffer and Hit-Boy for Very Good Beats. Mixed by Noah Goldstein, Mike Dean, LMFAO and Anthony Kilhoffer at (The Mercer) Hotel, New York. Additional vocals: Seal, Mr Hudson, Don Jazzy, Bankulli and Ricardo Lewis. Beyoncé appears courtesy of Parkwood/Columbia Records. Seal appears courtesy of Warner Bros. Records.
Gotta Have It
(K. West, S. Carter, P. Williams, J. Brown, J. Roach, F. Wesley, T. Pinckney) (BMI/ASCAP) Produced by The Neptunes. Co-Produced by Kanye West for Very Good Beats/Hip Hop since 1978. Recorded by Noah Goldstein and Mike Dean for Dean’s List Productions at Tribeca Grand Hotel, NYC and (The Mercer) Hotel, New York. Mixed by Mike Dean for Dean’s List Productions and Noah Goldstein at (The Mercer) Hotel, New York. Additional vocals: Kid Cudi. Kid Cudi appears courtesy of Universal Motown Records. Contains samples from the recording “Don’t Tell A Lie About Me and I Won’t Tell The Truth About You” as performed by James Brown. Courtesy of Polydor Records, under license from Universal Music Enterprises. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Contains elements of “Don’t Tell A Lie About Me and I Won’t Tell The Truth About you” (J. Brown/J. Roach), Dynatone Publishing Company (BMI) & Intersong-USA, Inc. (ASCAP). All rights on behalf of Dynatone Publishing Company (BMI) administered by Unichappell Music, Inc. (BMI). All rights reserved. Contains samples from the recording “My Thang” as performed by James Brown. Courtesy of Polydor Records, under license from Universal Music Enterprises. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Contains elements of “My Thang” (J. Brown), Dynatone Publishing Company (BMI). All rights on behalf of Dynatone Publishing Company (BMI) administered by Unichappell Music, Inc. (BMI). All rights reserved. Contains samples from the recording “People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul” as performed by James Brown. Courtesy of Polydor Records, under license from Universal Music Enterprises. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Contains elements of “People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul,” written by J. Brown, F. Wesley and T. Pinckney, published by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Music Inc./Donna Dijon Music Publications/Unichappell Music, Inc. (BMI)
Samples
James Brown
* Don’t Tell A Lie About Me & I Won’t Tell The Truth About You
* My Thang
* People Get Up & Drive Your Funky Soul
Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne (Trailer 1)
Jay-Z & Kanye West – Watch The Throne (Trailer 2)
*itunes.apple.com
*watchthethrone.com
And out of nowhere, The Neptunes made the cut on Kanye West & Jay-Z’s ‘Watch The Throne’ on the tune ‘Gotta Have It’. I would have never guessed that The Neptunes gonna be on that, nevertheless can’t wait to hear that collaboration! The album is due August 8th.
Via his Life + Times website, instead of an audio sneak peek, Jay-Z has revealed a visual look into the creation of ‘Watch The Throne’ in the form of more than 20 photos taken during the recording of his collaborative album with Kanye West. In the pictures, besides Yeezy and Hova, a number of celebrities are seen milling about as the two hip-hop stars were going about creating their album. Some of the familiar faces include rapper/producer Pharrell Williams and Jay-Z’s wife, Beyoncé.
Kanye West & Jay-Z – Watch The Throne (2011) (August 8st)
01 – No Church In The Wild feat. Frank Ocean (Kanye West, Mike Dean, 88-Keys)
02 – Lift Off feat. Beyoncé (Kanye West, Mike Dean, Jeff Bhasker, Q-Tip, Don Jazzy)
03 – Niggas In Paris (Hit-Boy)
04 – Otis feat. Otis Redding (Kanye West)
05 – Gotta Have It feat. Kid Cudi (The Neptunes)
06 – New Day (The RZA)
07 – That’s My Bitch (Q-Tip, Kanye West)
08 – Who Gon’ Stop Me (Sham ‘Sak Pase’ Joseph, Kanye West)
09 – Murder To Excellence (Swizz Beatz, S1)
10 – Welcome To The Jungle (Swizz Beatz)
11 – Made In America feat. Frank Ocean (Sham ‘Sak Pase’ Joseph)
12 – Why I Love You feat. Mr Hudson (Mike Dean, Kanye West)
13 – Illest Motherfucker Alive (Southside, Kanye West)
14 – H•A•M (Lex Luger, Kanye West)
15 – Primetime (No I.D.)
16 – The Joy feat. Curtis Mayfield
Kanye West & Jay-Z – Gotta Have It feat. Kid Cudi
(K. West, S. Carter, P. Williams, J. Brown, J. Roach, F. Wesley, T. Pinckney)
Please Gimme My Publishing|EMI Blackwood Music, Inc. (BMI)/EMI April Music, Inc./Carter Boys Music (ASCAP)/More Water From Nazareth Publishing, Inc./EMI April Music, Inc. (ASCAP)/Dynatone Publishing Co. (BMI)/Intersong-USA, Inc. (ASCAP)/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Music Inc./Donna Dijon Music Publications/Unichappell Music, Inc. (BMI)
Produced by The Neptunes
Co-Produced by Kanye West for Very Good Beats/Hip Hop since 1978
Recorded by Noah Goldstein at Tribeca Grand Hotel, NYC and (The Mercer) Hotel, New York
Mixed by Noah Goldstein and Mike Dean for Dean’s List Productions at (The Mercer) Hotel, New York
Additional vocals: Kid Cudi
Kid Cudi appears courtesy of Universal Motown Records
[NFP: Kanye West, Shawn Carter, Pharrell Williams, James Brown, Joseph Roach, Tony Pinckney, Fred Wesley]
Lupe Fiasco visited the HOT 93.7 Morning Show crew where he talked about the leaked records including ‘I’m Beaming’,. “I don’t care what nobody says, it hurts, you got some people that don’t believe in paying for music, they believe their music should be free, I don’t believe that, It takes money to make it so you should at least be able to get the money back that you put into a track”. He also revealed that he has put his own money to shoot the I’m Beaming video which is a 150.000 $ record, “It was never in the pipeline for the label to do anything with ‘I’m Beaming’, I was telling the label to put it on iTunes to lets do something with it, because you don’t wanna lose this 150.000 $ record, it’s a Neptunes record, they don’t play!”. You can get below the HOT 93.7 Morning Show Interview.
Those who are waiting for an album from Child Rebel Soldier, will have to be patient. The rappers’ all-star collaboration has been delayed due to other projects that have taken priority. “I think the Jay-Z/Kanye collabo [Watch The Throne] kinda was like, ‘Aww man, aww no,’” Lupe told “The Morning Crew” “Whenever we get to go in [the studio] and have the time and the opportunity to do it, we’re always working on some other project. Pharrell gon’ do a soundtrack for a movie, Kanye does another project.” Their collaborations are consisting of one-off records as opposed to a cohesive project. “It’s becoming less of an album and more of everytime we do a song together—me, ‘Ye, and Pharrell, a CRS thing,” explained Lupe. Thanks to VandG.
Lupe Fiasco’s HOT 93.7 Morning Show Interview (11′)
mediafire.com
Lupe Fiasco – I’m Beaming
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