Watch the Throne Review

The premise is two extremely rich men celebrating being extremely rich, which should be unlistenable and instead produced one of the most enjoyable rap albums of its decade. The reason is construction. Otis is a soul chop and two men trading four bar bursts like a competition. The Paris single is a joke that gets funnier at volume, a house synth, a film quote and a drop that made stadiums lose their minds.

No Church in the Wild opens the record on a fuzz bassline and a question about faith. Underneath the flexing, New Day is a pair of letters to unborn sons, and Murder to Excellence is a serious attempt to hold black wealth and black death in the same breath. Neither man is writing at his personal best and it does not matter, because the chemistry and the sound are doing all the work. It remains the most purely entertaining thing either of them has made.