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Come Fan with UsFriday, June 26, 2026

Watching Watch The Throne Is Even Better Than Listening

Jay-z-kanye-otis-redding-otis_medium

Jay-Z and Kanye West are about a week away from dropping the most anticipated album of the year, Watch The Throne, and just this week they debuted their newest single. Now, we have this strange, strangely awesome documentary to hold us over until the album.

Check out the video after the jump.

First of all, maybe this is old or something, but I hadn’t seen it, nor had I heard about it, so on a random Friday afternoon, it’s a pretty great surprise. A few more thoughts.

  • The really recorded a rap album in Australia, huh?
  • You don’t realize quite how desperate you are for good, new rap music until you’re craning your neck to catch the beats and/or lyrics playing in the background here.
  • Speaking of the background: Really enjoyed seeing all the hangers-on going crazy over the songs they played. Can you imagine how terrifying it would be to listen to a new Kanye West song with Kanye sitting right there? Have him just staring at you, waiting to watch his music move you. You’d go crazy, too.
  • The only thing better than finding out that Kanye West and Jay-Z give each other birthday presents was watching Jay sheepishly initiate that hug. So awesome.
  • Yeah, seeing Kanye on a grainy video talking about his (completely theoretical) album in 2002, and then two minutes later, he’s rapping about Russell Crowe with Russell Crowe sitting right there. My brain’s still sort of melting.
  • Russell Crowe? What the f**k?

But if there’s anything to take away from this video — especially after hearing critics complain about “Otis” all week — it’s that Jay and Kanye may make a killer album, but at this point, their biggest problem is they’re more interesting as people than rappers.

I could watch them operate in this strange little world for hours on end, and no album they put together will ever be quite as spectacular as watching Kanye West listening to a Kanye West song that name-drops Russell Crowe while Russell Crowe sits next to him in a recording studio built into a castle. The new album should be great, regardless, but maybe a full-length documentary is what we wanted all along.

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