Watch the Throne is released

Why it matters

Watch the Throne came out August 8, 2011, on Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam. It is a collaborative LP from Jay-Z and Kanye West, recorded across multiple studios over the previous nine months. The album sold 436,000 copies in its first week and went platinum within a year. The album is, structurally, a celebration record about the two of them as the dominant figures in commercial rap at that moment. "Otis" with the Otis Redding sample, "Niggas in Paris," "No Church in the Wild" with Frank Ocean, "Murder to Excellence," "Welcome to the Jungle." The opulence of the imagery (the Hublot watches in the videos, the Bentley in the album-art photographs, the Riccardo Tisci-designed cover) is itself part of the album's argument: that the two of them had moved past the point where commercial rap had to perform humility. The Watch the Throne Tour ran 63 dates in 2011-2012, grossed $75 million, and was one of the highest-grossing rap tours in history at the time. You can hear the confidence on the album. The album earned the confidence.