Last night, Jay-Z revealed some of the new material from his collaboration with Kanye West, “Watch the Throne,” and also said work on his next solo album is underway.
The rapper — sans West — hosted a small handful of journalists at the Mercer Hotel in New York. He played 11 songs, but noted that they were part of the third version of the album the pair had recorded; no finalized tracklist was confirmed. He then playeda handful of snippets, of potential inclusions. All in all, there were two tracks with Odd Future and Def Jam signee Frank Ocean guesting, and one — tentatively titled “Lift Off” — featuring Beyonce, reported Billboard.
Rolling Stone says a track, “Otis,” samples the famous Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness,” and another Andrea Bocelli’s “Con Te Partirò” for “Living So Italian” (working title). Lesser known nods included YC’s “Racks on Racks” and Cassius’ “I Love You So.”
Hov said he didn’t know if he and Ye’s single from earlier this year, “H.A.M.,” would make the final, said EW. He also addressed why it’s taken so long to hear more material: the pair refused to record unless they were in the same spot, and the spots included studios in England, Australia, Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
The experience has been so inspiring, MTV said, that it inspired Jay-Z to get started on material for a follow-up to “The Blueprint 3.” One of two songs done include Ocean, and four more ideas are in the works
“There’s a devastating song rapped to Kanye and Jay’s unborn sons and another called “Black on Black” about intra-racial violence. There’s a thwacking dubstep sample and another appearance by the tapped-for-greatness Frank Ocean,” wrote Sean Fennessey for GQ. The track “No Church” was “Jay’s favorite at the moment, is a dramatic, dynamic treatise on sin and hypocrisy. Jay explicitly reflects on Socrates’ question, ‘Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?'”
Fader tried to live-Tweet and got kicked out. I’m sure HitFix would have followed the rules and asked good, non-asinine questions.
Jay gave no release date and would not confirm Aug. 2 as the prospective. He said “Watch the Throne” would just be “coming soon.”