Let’s talk about ham for a second. Lots of things come to mind when I think of that word, most of which are not hip-hop related, unless you count that one time in Big Daddy Kane’s “Smooth Operator” when he says “here I am” so fast that it sounds like “ham”. More often, I think of the tasty parts of a pig-as I’m sure you do.
(and yes, I know in this case “H.A.M.” serves as an acronym for hard as a motherfucker and has no relation to the meat)
The verdict is still out as to whether there are any tasty parts on the highly-anticipated first single from Jay-Z and Kanye’s upcoming Watch the Throne project (by the way, is there an official release date yet?). Maybe (as with most things ‘Ye and Jigga) I’m a victim of heightened expectations? Production-wise, the song is very “eh” to me. I can’t see myself nodding my head to this the way I do to “Monster” or “All of the Lights” or…just about anything on My Beautiful Dark, Twisted Fantasy (side note: Kanye didn’t produce “H.A.M.”. Jay’s superb lyrical performance (is it me or is he getting better with age?) and Kanye’s handful of punchlines aren’t enough to totally redeem this song for me, and considering Jay’s track record with collaboration albums, I’m not so sure I’m as excited for Watch the Throne as I might be for a new album by either Kanye or Jay separately. Ah well-first singles are generally not the greatest indicator of how good an album is, so I guess we’ll see.
Since YouTube clips of the song are being taken down like wildfire, I’ll just hit you guys off with a link to the song via the good folks at Okayplayer, who also appear to feel the same way I do about the song itself.
3 comments
GG says:
Jan 11, 2011
Part of the collabo process is to take a step back. Jay-Z is a supreme alpha dog and I’m not sure he can ever do that. To me, I’d rather the songs take on a Kanye West presents: Jay-Z featuring Kanye West, than a true collaboration. Let Kanye produce, let Jay-Z spit, let Kanye guest on some of the songs.
But because it’s going to be a true collaboration, you have this mix of two different styles that I’m not sure work all that great together.
As a rapper, Kanye is always going to be like that little dog on the Tom and Jerry cartoons. He’s always trying to please papa bulldog, but just isn’t big enough. That’s how I see Kanye the rapper to Jay-Z the rapper.
I’m open to hearing more, but I think the production kind of dominated this one. I’d like to hear more before I give my take on whether the project works or not.
blerd says:
Jan 11, 2011
I am extremely impressed @ your “Tom & Jerry” reference.
And what you said never really occurred to me, but you’re right. I don’t know if Jay is really capable of a collaboration album, because he would have to fall back a little bit. There was a reason those R. Kelly and Linkin Park collabo albums sucked the way they did.
GG says:
Jan 11, 2011
All that being said, I’m still going to buy it and give it a chance, whenever it comes out. They’ve done Run This Town (Jay-Z had 2-1 verses though) and a couple songs from Kanye’s album that worked. I wonder if we’ll get sick of it?