Breaking down the album’s title, Young Hov said this is his and Kanye West‘s aim to keep hip-hop dominant.
“It’s just protecting the music and the culture, like, it’s people that’s in the forefront of the music,” Jay told radio host Lorenzo Thomas. “It’s like, ‘Watch the throne,’ protect it. You just watch how popular music shift and how hip-hop has basically replaced rock n roll as the youth music. The same thing could happen to hip-hop. It could be replaced by other forms of music. So it’s just like making sure we’re putting that effort in making the best product, so we can contend with all these other music. With all dance music that’s dominating the charts right now, indie music that’s dominating the festivals and still holding off rock n roll. Just to hold our place and make sure — the hip-hop culture is still the most dominant form of music around the world.” (99 Jamz)
Asked about the possibility of swagger jackers copying their format, Jay gladly said he hoped hip-hop artists would follow in their footsteps.
“Anything that has success is gonna be emulated,” Jay added. “That’s the reason why we went down this road. We we down this road to make a great album but also to make a statement for this culture.” (99 Jamz)
Along with getting projected to top its competition, Jay’s new LP is slated to push over 500,000 units after its first week.
The Roc-a-Fella/Roc Nation hip-hop icons’ Watch the Throne album is set for a #1 debut with anywhere from 500-550k, the second-largest first-week sales of the year next to Lady Gaga. (HITS Daily Double)
While the project released exclusively via iTunes
on Monday (August 8), physical copies were released a couple days ago.
“Watch the Throne,” which miraculously didn’t leak to the Web as so many eagerly-awaited albums have over the years, is exclusive to iTunes until Friday, Aug. 12. That’s when all other retailers — physical and digital — will start selling “Watch.” Of course, most brick-and-mortar retailers could opt to ignore the official street date and begin selling the CD as soon as they receive it, which may be as early as Wednesday. (Billboard)
Check out a recent Jay-Z interview below:
