The clip for the track, which hit No. 1 on both the Rap Songs and R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts on Billboard, feature footage from the duo’s Los Angeles stop on their Watch the Throne Tour from this winter, where they played the song a staggering ten times in a row. Jay and Kanye are announced via block letters and live vocals from the Los Angeles date’s encore performance.

“Y’all ready to leave? Well, ‘Ye not ready to leave!” Jay shouts.

“And Jay not ready to leave!” Kanye crows in response.

“So only one thing left to do! Again! Let’s go! Let’s go, let’s go!”

Judging from the mix of live sound and performance footage, it’s clear that there was a specific vision in mind that, audience be damned, the pair were determined to see through to fruition.

“['Niggas In Paris'] was a joint that I did at the crib” Hit-Boy told XXLMag.com in August. “They were in Paris, and I didn’t get to actually attend those sessions out there, but I just got a hit-up on e-mail saying, ‘Yo, we need the files to this beat,’ and it turned out to be ‘Niggas in Paris.’ [It] is just a high-energy record. It’s gonna be played in the club, I feel. It’s something that can be played on the radio. It’s one of those joints that get you out your seat for sure. It’s about ballin’ man! It’s like real stunt-tastic. Every time I hear those dudes rap on my beats, I’m still in awe. I’m a fan. These are really two dudes that I looked up to the most out of any artist, pretty much. It’s just surreal.”

If Jay-Z’s comments earlier this year are to be believed, there’s a solid chance we’ll be seeing a sequel to Watch The Throne in 2012 as well. We’ll keep you posted on developments.

Surprisingly, Ye’s flow style is highly similar to his current design in the video, which is stepped all over by his inferior rhyme partner Phenom.

Sorry for the preroll.

Roughly an hour and a half after the scheduled start time, the lights dimmed and the show was off. H.A.M. opened the concert, finding Jay-Z situated on a smaller cube-shaped stage in the middle of the floor while Kanye, clad in a leather skirt, took charge of a cube on the main stage. Thousands of cell phones lit up the arena as track’s stuttering beat got the crowd riled up. By the time the song’s haunting choral arrangement arrived, both Kanye and Jay-Z’s cube stages had ascended towards the arena ceiling, towering over those on the floor. Large screens on each side of the cube showcased a barking, growling dog as the song faded to a close before immediately launching into Who Gon’ Stop Me.

At this point the cube stages had turned aqua blue, featuring an image of a shark swimming around while Kanye and Jay-Z (Janye?) traded off lines from the song. The two rising cube stages were a nice touch, allowing even those at the back of the arena to feel much closer to the two stars, but as Who Gon’ Stop Me came to a close Jay-Z and Kanye lowered back down to the ground.

The lights shut off as Otis Redding’s Try A Little Tenderness began, signaling the start of one of WTT’s strongest tracks – Otis. Jay-Z and Kanye now shared the main stage, a giant Givenchy-designed American flag hanging behind them.  Columns of pyro punctuated the lyrics as the two stars orbited around each other putting their egos on display.

After a few more tracks from Watch the Throne, Kanye left the stage for Jay-Z to take a solo spotlight during Where I’m From and Jigga What, Jigga Who (Originator ’99). The latter saw Jay-Z furiously spitting lyrics, perfectly matching the song’s staccato beat. Towards the end of the track the music dropped out and Jay-Z continued on acapella, driving the crowd nuts.

Kanye came back out on stage as Jay-Z departed, giving the former protégé-turned-equal a solo spotlight. Ye kicked off with Can’t Tell Me Nothing before launching into older fan favorite All Falls Down. The songs went quickly, after a lightshow heavy Flashing Lights and an absolutely smoldering Jesus Walks, Jay-Z rejoined Kanye on stage for the remix of Diamonds from Sierra Leone.

The two asked the crowd to throw their diamonds (see: hands) in the air and bounce up and down as the song’s epic string arrangement bounced off the stadium walls. It was a goose bump-inducing moment, and hearing the track (originally from 2005) makes one wonder why it took the two so long to do an entire album together.

The rest of the show found the two switching back and forth for mini-sets of solo material and then joining back up for the WTT tracks.  All of the hits were present – Kanye delivered with Power, Heartless, Stronger and Good Life while Jay brought the now-classic Empire State of Mind, Dirt Of Your Shoulder and Big Pimpin’.

While much of the material on WTT focuses on ego stroking, “look at how amazing we are” lyrics, one of the highlights of the show came from the one of the more pensive tracks on the record.

New Day found the two sit down on the stage and deliver the concerns they have for their future children. Kanye examined some of his past mistakes, promising to raise his child ego-free and far away from the telethon circuit. For Jay, who’s very pregnant wife was reportedly in the crowd, the lyrics seemed to take on even more meaning: “Sorry junior, I already ruined you / Cause you ain’t even alive, paparazzi pursuing you.”

Line after line, Jay seemed to really contemplate the lyrics while delivering them, and it definitely showed a more vulnerable, human side of the man that wasn’t really present for any other song on the set.

Runaway found Kanye perched on top of the secondary cube stage, now completely illuminated with red light. He seemed genuinely emotional for the song, using autotune as a weird mixture catharsis and hiding behind the lyrics. The song evolved as it went on, developing into the full nine-minute version on West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.  While autotune isn’t going to please everyone, Kanye’s usage of it on Runaway really seems to amplify the meaning of the words, projecting them with far more emotion than without.

Later in the show Kanye restarted All of the Lights three separate times, saying that he needed the crew to turn on ALL of the lights. Why? He wanted the crowd to get what they paid for. He’s been doing it at every show, but those in the crowd who didn’t know ate it up, cracking up before he finally did the song the entire way through. Once it finally got going the entire crowd could be seen bouncing up and down, going crazy and singing along with the song’s irresistible hook.

Both Yeezy and Jay joined together for Gold Digger and 99 Problems. Out of everything that was played during the show, these two tracks got the biggest reaction from the crowd all night. Kanye grinned from ear to ear as Jay played his hype man, getting the entire audience to scream “WE WANT PRE-NUP!” at precisely the right time. Kanye returned the favor for Jay, getting laughs from the audience while playing the cop that pulls over Jay on the Black Album classic.

Niggas in Paris ended the show, with Kanye and Jay playing the track a total of four times. Yes, four. The main set ended after two runs through the fan favorite track from WTT, then the guys came back out to play the song twice more as an encore. They’ve gone as far as playing this track nine times at other shows on the tour, and while it sounds ridiculous in print and when looking at a setlist, it really does get the crowd going and each time the track restarted more and more people seemed to be jumping up and down and rapping along.

Before the third take on the track, they invited everyone down to the arena floor. As the song started up again, the floor had quickly become a writhing, bouncing dance party. One can only imagine what the energy would have been like had they kept the track going for a couple more iterations.

The sheer number of classic songs in both Kanye and Jay’s respective repertoires is rather astounding, and hearing them laid out for a two-hour show is a guaranteed must-see for any fan. This trek is almost over, but these guys work so well together both on record and on stage that it would be a real shame to not get another tour or album someday.

Check out our pics from the show (all photos by Misha Sakellaropoulo):

Setlist: H.A.M., Who Gon’ Stop Me, Otis, Welcome to the Jungle, Gotta Have It, Where I’m From, Jigga What, Jigga Who (Originator ‘99), Can’t Tell Me Nothing, All Falls Down, Flashing Lights, Jesus Walks, Diamonds from Sierra Leone (Remix), Public Service Announcement (Interlude), U Don’t Know, Run This Town, Monster, Power/Power Remix, Made in America, New Day, Hard Knock Life (The Ghetto Anthem), Izzo (H.O.V.A.), Empire State of Mind, Runaway, Heartless, Stronger, On to the Next One, Dirt Off Your Shoulder, I Just Wanna Love U (Give it to Me), That’s My Bitch, Good Life, Touch the Sky, All of the Lights, Big Pimpin’, Gold Digger, 99 Problems, No Church in the Wild, Lift Off (Interlude), Niggas In Paris, Niggas In Paris, Niggas In Paris, Niggas In Paris

Kanye West leads with the most nominations, totaling seven, although four of these are from his collaboration album with Jay-Z, Watch The Throne. It’s also surprising that neither that album, nor Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy made it to the Album Of The Year category. Adele comes in at a close second with six nominations, tied with Foo Fighters, who got nominated for pretty much anything with “Rock” in the title. The amount of nominations that Foo Fighters received might be a good indication that Wasting Light has a decent chance of winning in the same category. It’s also great to see that the Rock categories include such a small amount of cringe-worthy names, and even those are merely the usual suspects (namely Coldplay and Kings Of Leon).

A selected list of nominees (omitting 60 or so categories that very few people care about) can be seen below:

Album Of The Year:
Adele, 21
Foo Fighters, Wasting Light
Lady Gaga, Born This Way
Bruno Mars, Doo Wops & Hooligans
Rihanna, Loud

Record Of The Year:
Bon Iver, Holocene
Mumford & Sons, The Cave
Adele, Rolling In The Deep
Bruno Mars, Grenade
Katy Perry, Firework

Song Of The Year:
Kanye West, All Of The Lights
Mumford & Sons, The Cave
Bruno Mars, Grenade
Bon Iver, Holocene
Adele, Rolling In The Deep

Best New Artist:
The Band Perry
Bon Iver
J. Cole
Nicki Minaj
Skrillex

Best Pop Solo Performance:
Adele, Someone Like You
Lady Gaga, You And I
Bruno Mars, Grenade
Katy Perry, Firework
Pink, F***in’ Perfect

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance:
Tony Bennett & Amy Winehouse, Body And Soul
The Black Keys, Dearest
Coldplay, Paradise
Foster The People, Pumped Up Kicks
Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera, Moves Like Jagger

Best Alternative Music Album:
Radiohead, The King Of Limbs
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Death Cab For Cutie, Codes And Keys
Foster The People, Torches
My Morning Jacket, Circuital

Best Rock Performance:
Coldplay, Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall
Radiohead, Lotus Flower
Foo Fighters, Walk
The Decemberists, Down By The Water
Mumford & Sons, The Cave

Best Rock Album:
Jeff Beck, Rock N’ Roll Party Honoring Les Paul
Foo Fighters, Wasting Light
Kings Of Leon, Come Around Sundown
Red Hot Chili Peppers, I’m With You
Wilco, The Whole Love

Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance:
Dream Theater, On The Backs Of Angels
Foo Fighters, White Limo
Mastodon, Curl Of The Burl
Sum 41, Blood In My Eyes
Megadeth, Public Enemy No. 1

Best Traditional R&B Performance:
Eric Benet, Sometimes I Cry
Cee Lo Green & Melanie Fiona, Fool For You
R. Kelly, Radio Message
Raphael Saadiq, Good Man
Betty Wright & The Roots, Surrender

Best R&B Album:
Chris Brown, F.A.M.E.
El DeBarge, Second Chance
R. Kelly, Love Letter
Ledisi, Pieces Of Me
Kelly Price, Kelly

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration:
Beyoncé & Andre 3000, Party
DJ Khaled, Drake, Rick Ross & Lil’ Wayne, I’m On One
Dr. Dre, Eminem & Skylar Grey, I Need A Doctor
Rihanna & Drake, What’s My Name?
Kelly Rowland & Lil’ Wayne, Motivation
Kanye West, Rihanna, Kid Cudi & Fergie, All Of The Lights

Best Rap Performance:
Chris Brown, Lil’ Wayne & Busta Rhymes, Look At Me Now
Jay-Z & Kanye West, Otis
Lupe Fiasco, The Show Goes On
Nicki Minaj & Drake, Moment 4 Life
Wiz Khalifa, Black And Yellow

Best Folk Album:
The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow
Steve Earle, I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
Eddie Vedder, Ukulele Songs
Gillian Welch, The Harrow & The Harvest

The list of nominees for all categories (including such wonders as “Best Banda Or Norteño Album” and “Best Contemporary Christian Music Album”) can be seen at the Grammys’ official site, with a glaring omission of Pearl Jam Twenty for “Best Long Form Music Video.” Technicality??

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the second act on the bill, played to a crowd a still-growing crowd under a rain that was just starting to downpour, and would continue throughout the entire day. It’s a shame that the band didn’t communicate that well with the crowd, and waited until the second-to-last song to say more than a few words. Regardless of that, the set was well-received (show starts 11 minutes into the video):

Much more energetic were Phil Anselmo’s Down. On their first tour through the country, the band played their first album NOLA in its near entirety. Towards the end of the set (at the 44:00 mark), Anselmo asked the crowd, “what do you want to hear?”, and received chants for a Pantera song, and was surprised by a fan with the band’s name tattooed wide across his chest – Pantera’s Walk followed. Watch the entire setbelow:

Later that night, Stone Temple Pilots did a pretty good job of causing temporary amnesia to those unfortunate enough to have heard Scott Weiland’s Christmas album. The frontman, sporting a suit, caused a good impression, and there were no hints of a backing track. Unfortunately, their delay to get onstage meant that a few songs had to be cut, playing 20 minutes below their allotted time:

Alice In Chains, on the other hand, arrived with no delays whatsoever and performed a nearly flawless set, returning to Brazil after almost 20 years of absence.

For just over 90 minutes, their set spanned across every landmark in the band’s career, even including a few rarities and the highlights from their last LP Black Gives Way To Blue. Any lingering and long-overstayed skepticism regarding “new” singer William Duvall (who’s been with the band for years now) was promptly shredded:

To close out the festival, Faith No More played the final gig of their South American tour – happening one year after the announcement that their successful reunion was “over.” The setlist wasn’t significantly different from the ones performed back in 2009, but the performance was relentlessly powerful, and Mike Patton’s vocals remain as spot-on as usual. Highlights included a version of Just a Man with a choir, which can be seen at the 58:10 mark, and their supposedly new song, at the 1:07:00 mark (also, the actual concert starts 3 minutes into the video):

Other broadcast concerts from that night included what might be Sonic Youth’s final performance (as the band have announced tha there are no future plans following the divorce of bandmembers Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon), as well Primus and Megadeth. More than enough music to kill a few afternoons in the cubicle hells of reality’s work week.

Photos: Fabricio Vianna

The eerie, shadowy video features torch-wielding chases through the woods, an apparent turning of the tables on the slave era in America. Indeed, the very first image we see is the date 1862, flipped upside down. Let’s just say things don’t end well for the white guy.

The video was made by High5Collective, who have previously worked with Odd Future’s Frank Ocean (who makes “No Church In The Wild” the gem that it is). Check out our review of Watch The Throne.

Check out the “surprise” performance below, which gives a far better impression than the album version of the song.

Another surprise of the night featured Lady Gaga, dressed up as a maaaaan, baby (who we’re supposed to call Joe Calderone), ranting about fame in a monologue before playing You and I. Thankfully, she didn’t put us through another S&M nude bondage spectacle.

With melodrama on high and an appetite for spirited lyrical one-uppery, Hova and Yeezy swing for the fences while backed by a tapestry of production contributors including Neptunes, Swizz Beatz, Mr. Hudson, No I.D., RZA, Q-Tip, Lex Luger and Frank Ocean, with newcomers Hit-Boy, Southside, Symbolic One turning in efforts as well. More often than not, they succeed in Grammy-baiting fashion.

When we first heard the Lex Luger-produced H.A.M. in January and recent single Otis (watch the Spike Jonze-directed video) the Throne critiques hit overdrive, zeroing in on the layered sound and endless money talk. But beneath the casual condemnation of the excess we all knew was coming (did anyone really expect songs about Darfur?), the full release reveals a deep thread of social deconstruction and poignant personal contemplations that weaves throughout.

There are few major singalong choruses on Watch The Throne, opting instead for a deep-driven boom-bap throb swagger, framing dueling tales of come-ups, conquests and the sweet, sweet luxury of the elite. The lyrical prowess runs white-hot through an epic gamut, immediately from the album’s ominous opening line (from No Church In The Wild): “Tears on the mausoleum floor…” onward.

A deep-swing groove outlines a night-drive sleekness and danger to the opener, while Frank Ocean’ Mos-Def-meets-John-Legend choral line “What’s a mob to a king?” rings an interesting bell in the face of the churning Arab Spring – when it was specifically mobs who overturned their equivalent kings.

Stylistically, Throne is a career diversion for Jay, while for Kanye it’s a sensible continuation of his 2010-topping last album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Truth be told, WTT doesn’t possess the same high hit-to-dud ratio as Dark Fantasy, though it serves as more of an explained celebration than the artistic purpose behind MBDTF. Both MCs are in top form, clearly invigorated by each other’s competitive streak and set on an airtight course for excellence.

West’s approach to braggadocio and women is far different from Jay’s, however; where Ye will aggressively flaunt his wares and women as conquered accessories, Hova has a collected approach – he’s got the hottest girl in the game on his arm, she’s independently wealthy, and it’s a major markup for his brand. He needs not aggrandize the facts. It’s an interesting juxtaposition, given that Kanye’s a superstar still on a rocket trajectory of quality releases, while his counterpart has had streaks of mediocrity in the past half-decade despite an endless streak of platinum. As added flavor, West’s menace and amplified post-Taylor-Swift-incident insecurity extends into several tracks, clearly marking him the stag MC in the group (and yes, he’s still hung up on that South Park thing).

There’s a darkness in the diamond, however, a grounded core in which regrets and loneliness punctuate the floss, as paranoia frills the meat of braggadocio. The mood often fits as a middlepoint between Kanye’s 808s and Heartbreak and Dark Fantasy, a piss-on-the-devil defiance and confidence with orchestrally lush production and grandiosity that serves well to frame a tale in which there’s an unseen price tag for every Maybach – one that goes beyond the bank accounts and bling. Over New Day’s RZA-driven psychedelia groove and Nina Simone sample, the two rappers express concern for the future of their sons; Kanye lays out his hindsight regrets through the lens of influencing his unsprung offspring, rhyming: “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 know he love white people“. Around the bend, Jay-Z’s moment matches the heartbreak: “Sorry junior, I already ruined ya / Cause you ain’t even alive, paparazzi pursuin’ ya / Sins of a father make your life 10 times harder”.

Under a wash of piano and autotune, synths and guitars, Jay’s well-worn tales of his father abandoning him resurface as a reminder of the catalyst for the character and the sensitivity beneath the bravado; that early rejection & abandonment made the maestro we’re enjoying now, born of the hustler wise enough to learn from the streets he was gaming. After all, superheroes tend to rise from trauma, not comfort. Sean Carter is clearly the better spitter on the record, a more seasoned rhymer with narratives Kanye can’t quite get past himself enough to top, and one wonders how each man’s most prominent loss – Jay of his father, Kanye of his mother (who died of plastic surgery complications in 2007) – impacted their approach to the dueling lyrical intimacy.

Should we feel sympathy for two men who have it all, and then some? Absolutely not. But their relatable human struggles make for compelling musical theatrics, and particularly aided by the melancholy interlude at New Day’s outro (as well as several others), follow-up bouncer That’s My Bitch arrives like a cattle prod jolt to the gut. Deep final-level synths and a razor’s edge flow by Ye get the heads nodding before a commanding hook: “I’ve been waiting for a long, long time… just to get off and throw my hands up high“. Jay ties it up in the final 90 seconds, but the load’s been blown; he’s just the finishing polish on this one. It’s a hard-hitting classic in the making, despite years of premature leaks.

The album doesn’t attempt to be everything to everybody, but like the Bruno Mars-featured Lighters on Eminem & Royce da 5′9″s new Bad Meets Evil album, the missteps are distracting and a glaring ill fit for the album’s entirety. The chief offender is the Beyoncé-overloaded Lift Off – in which Jay’s wife is too prominently featured in the mix, her “take it to the moon, take it to the stars” hook too recurrent to be anything more than irritating. The New York high-life grandiosity makes a fine touchstone, but only momentarily – particularly in the associative mind which knows that it’s Bey flaunting on the track rather than some breathy chanteuse trying to make a name for herself. Maybe the real is just a little too real.

The biggest heart and contender for best of them all, Made In America, is a bittersweet soft-slug dedication to the come-up, Kanye documenting the struggles of “getting high off my own supply,” as in giving beats everyone wants to Jay-Z and rapping over ones he could be selling to others for big finance. Jay steps in hard with an “oh shit! Rewind that!” rhyme depicting tales of Grandma’s banana pudding and cooking up the goods in her kitchen while she sleeps. The life stories are told over plinking keys and soft-thud beats before Frank Ocean unfolds his mournful tribute to “Sweet King Martin” and “Sweet Queen Coretta,” among others, in the chorus. This one’s special, a perfect mix of sentimentality, autobiographical depiction and butter flow. Ocean makes one hell of a mark for a second time, and this album is enough to set his resume on the A-list track for life.

Watch The Throne is a bacchanal of depth, decadence and vanity, an album that 2011 will be remembered for. Two rap kingpins have managed to both throttle and rein their gargantuan egos and supreme grandiosity, resulting in a largely fantastic body of work over a fittingly decadent sonic mural shaped by far-reaching contributors. In other words, Jay-Z and Kanye have something new to brag about.

Watch The Throne sees Kanye and Jay-Z wipe themselves clean of humility, now rapping with full vigor about their prominence and prowess. There are also some personal gems on the album, like New Day, where Yeezy and Hov both free themselves momentarily of egotism in one of the album’s strongest tracks to contemplate their children’s future, with Kanye drolly rapping about his son: “I might even make him be Republican so everybody know he loves white people.”

The two rappers’ declaration of greatness is hard to argue with nonetheless; they both are clearly at the top of their game with this album, and the smooth production and myriad of great collaborations (including Beyoncé and a dead Otis Redding) plunge this record to an even greater level of excellence.

Watch The Throne is currently slated for an August 1st (digital) / August 5th (physical) release. The official tracklist is as follows:

1. No Church In The Wild (w/ Frank Ocean)
2. Lift Off (w/ Beyoncé)
3. Niggas In Paris
4. Otis (w/ Otis Redding)
5. Gotta Have It
6. New Day
7. Prime Time
8. Who Gon’ Stop Me
9. Murder to Excellence
10. Welcome to The Jungle
11. Sweet Baby Jesus (w/ Frank Ocean)
12. Love You So (w/ Mr Hudson)

Bonus
13. Illest Motherfucker Alive
14. H.A.M.
15. That’s My Bitch
16. The Joy (w/ Curtis Mayfield)

Thanks to our brothers at Consequence Of Sound for the heads-up.