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Watch the Throne

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Watch the Throne is a collaborative studio album by the American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West , collectively known as The Throne. [2] It was released on August 8, 2011, by Roc-A-Fella Records , Roc Nation , and Def Jam Recordings . Prior to its release, Jay-Z and West had collaborated on various singles , and with the latter as a producer on the former's work. They originally sought to record a five-song collaborative extended play , which evolved into a full-length album. The album features guest appearances from Frank Ocean , The-Dream , Beyoncé and Mr Hudson . It also features vocal contributions from Kid Cudi , Seal , Justin Vernon , Elly Jackson , Connie Mitchell , Charlie Wilson , and Pete Rock , among others; samples of vocals by soul musicians Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield are both credited as guest features on the album.

• " H•A•M " Released: January 11, 2011
• " Otis " Released: July 20, 2011
• " Lift Off " Released: August 23, 2011
• " Niggas in Paris " Released: September 13, 2011
• " Why I Love You " Released: September 13, 2011
• " Gotta Have It " Released: December 6, 2011
• " No Church in the Wild " Released: March 20, 2012

Recording sessions took place at various locations and began in November 2010, with production led by West and a variety of high-profile producers, including Mike Dean , Swizz Beatz , Pete Rock , RZA , Jeff Bhasker , The Neptunes , and Q-Tip . Expanding on the dense production style of West's fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010), Watch the Throne incorporates orchestral and progressive rock influences, unconventional samples , and dramatic melodies in its sound. The braggadocious lyrics exhibit themes of excellence, opulence, decadence, fame, materialism, power, and the burdens of success, as well as political and socioeconomic critique. [3] The album also expresses other topics, such as Jay-Z's thoughts on fatherhood, West's reflection on being deemed a social villain, and their success as performers. Many writers interpreted the subject matter to concern the plight of African Americans struggling with financial success in America.

Seven singles were released for Watch the Throne , including " H•A•M ", " Otis ", " Lift Off ", " No Church in the Wild ", and the Billboard Hot 100 top five hit " Niggas in Paris ", with 3 of the singles receiving music videos . Jay-Z and West embarked on the Watch the Throne Tour for promotion that spanned from October 2011 to June 2012 and became the highest-grossing hip hop concert tour in history. The album received highly positive reviews from music critics , who mostly praised the rappers' performances and the production. However, some reviewers found the lyrical content uninspiring.

Many critics and publications named Watch the Throne to their year-end best-of lists, including Rolling Stone and The Washington Post . The album debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 , selling 436,000 copies in the first week, and broke the iTunes first week sales record at the time. It reached the top ten in 11 other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. It was also certified quintuple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 2020.

Kanye West and Jay-Z’s ‘Watch the Throne’: A Track-by-Track Breakdown

By Matthew Perpetua

Matthew Perpetua

After months of delays , teases and closely guarded advance listening sessions , Watch the Throne , Kanye West and Jay-Z’ s first collaborative album as the Throne, has finally gone on sale . It’s full of detailed tracks crafted by West and a small army of top hip-hop producers and dense rhymes that vacillate wildly between introspection and social consciousness – not to mention an obsession with high-end luxury goods so intense that it seems over-the-top even for a rap record. (There is some bitter irony in the fact that this record happened to arrive on the day of a major stock market collapse.)  It’s still to early to fully process all of it, but here’s a rundown of what to expect.

1. “No Church in the Wild” (featuring Frank Ocean) Odd Future singer Frank Ocean and The-Dream lend their voices to the album’s grim opener, which sets the mood with a gnarled guitar sample before jacking some sounds from James Brown’s “Don’t Tell A Lie About Me and I Won’t Tell the Truth About You.” Jay-Z has said that this is one of his favorites on the record, and it’s easy to understand why – West and 88-Keys’ track brings out the best in both emcees.

2. “Lift Off” Beyoncé joins the boys for a synth-heavy banger that takes off like a rocket and eventually arrives at a spacey, blissful resolution. It all but demands a sci-fi music video featuring Beyoncé as a sexy astronaut.

3. “N**gas in Paris” Jay and Ye come in hard over a slow, menacing beat and icy synthesizer notes, but regardless, this cut is mostly memorable for including an unexpected sample of dialogue from the underrated Will Ferrell/Jon Heder ice-skating comedy  Blades of Glory . “No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative,” says Ferrell with deep conviction, essentially summing up the art of hip-hop lyrics.

4. “Otis” West transforms Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” into slick “luxury rap.” Jay-Z and Kanye turn in strong verses, but Redding’s chopped-up shouts and hollers are the main attraction.

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5. “Gotta Have It” While some tracks on Watch the Throne give the star rappers turns at the mic, “Gotta Have It” is pure tag-team hip-hop, with the two trading off verses and finishing each other’s lines. The enthusiasm level is one of the highest on the album.

6. “New Day” Jay and Kanye offer words of wisdom to their unborn sons over a RZA production that strays far from his usual Wu-Tang aesthetic, but complements the rapper’s introspective words with mellow, lightly psychedelic synthesizer tones.

7. “That’s My Bitch” La Roux’s Elly Jackson sings the hook on a rumbling number that emphasizes West at his most abrasive, with him spitting out his “HAH!?” vocal tic like an irritable goose.

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8. “Welcome to the Jungle” If you were expecting this cut to sample Guns N’ Roses, much less sound anything at all like Guns N’ Roses, you’re in for a major disappointment. As a consolation, Jay-Z describes himself as the “black Axl Rose” as he spits over a jittery, treble-heavy Swizz Beatz production.

9. “Who Gon Stop Me” “This is something like the Holocaust / millions of our people lost,” West raps over a heavy dubstep bass line, his voice processed into a sinister, tinny growl. Jay-Z holds his own, but the experimental track is more flattering to Ye’s vocal talents.

10. “Murder to Excellence” A lot of the cuts on Watch the Throne sound like Kanye tracks featuring Jay-Z, but this one definitely comes across as more of a Jay-Z thing.  The song is essentially a diptych, with Kanye ruminating on black-on-black violence in the first half and Hov delivering a “celebration of black excellence” on the more jubilant second half.

11. “Made in America” Frank Ocean returns to sing a hook that pays tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz and, of course, the sweet baby Jesus on the album’s most serene track. Both rappers deliver sentimental verses, but Ocean carries most of the emotional weight here.

12. “Why I Love You” West associate Mr. Hudson sings the hook on this moody track that alternates between a towering, TV on the Radio-esque chorus and hazy, synth-heavy verses.

13. “Illest Motherf**ker Alive” From this point onward, it’s all “bonus tracks.” While it makes sense to put some space between the album proper and the extra songs, it’s curious that “Illest Motherf**ker Alive” opens with three solid minutes of silence.

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14. “H.A.M.” The album’s first single has been downgraded to a bonus track. The bombastic Lex Luger production definitely seems a bit out of place on the record, but Kanye steps out of his comfort zone as a rapper and goes full-on aggro.

15. “Primetime” This one is about as subdued as you can get with a big boom-bap beat.  The contrast between that aggression and the melodic piano sample sets the tone for some particularly conflicted lyrics from Kanye about materialism.

16. “The Joy” The deluxe version of Watch the Throne concludes with a Pete Rock-produced track that splices together samples from Curtis Mayfield’s “The Makings of You” and Syl Johnson’s “Different Strokes” to build one of the loosest songs on the album. The rappers follow the nodding beat, but the abstracted snippets of singing, sirens, gutteral shouts and audience noise floating through the mix adds up to something entirely mesmerizing.

Related • Jay-Z Previews ‘Watch the Throne’ in New York  • Jay-Z and Kanye West Announce ‘Watch the Throne’ Tour • Young Jeezy Joined Onstage in NYC By Jay-Z, Kanye West • RZA Discusses His Role Producing ‘Watch the Throne’

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Watch the Throne

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Watch the Throne is a collaborative studio album by American hip hop artists Jay-Z and Kanye West , released in 2011 on Roc-A-Fella Records , Roc Nation and Def Jam Recordings . Before the album, Jay-Z and West had worked together since the early 2000s, and had established a close friendship. They originally sought out to record a five song EP together, but the project eventually evolved into a full-length album. Recording sessions began in November 2010 and took place in various countries across the globe. The album was produced by West, 88-Keys , RZA , Swizz Beatz and Mike Dean , among others.

Expanding on the dense production style of West's 2010 album  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ,  Watch the Throne incorporates orchestral and progressive rock influences, unconventional samples, and dramatic melodies in its sound. Jay-Z and West's braggadocio lyrics discuss themes of opulence, fame, materialism, power and burdens of success, as well as political and socioeconomic context. The album expresses other topics such as Jay-Z's thoughts on fatherhood, West's reflection on being deemed a social villain, and their legacy as performers.

The album produced seven singles, including the  Billboard Hot 100 top five " Niggas in Paris ". Jay Z and West promoted the album with the Watch the Throne Tour that spanned October 2011 to June 2012 and became the highest grossing hip hop concert in history.

Watch the Throne debuted at #1 on the  Billboard 200 chart, selling 436,000 copies in its first week. While some critics found the album's lyrical content uninspiring, its production and the rappers' performances were highly praised. Many critics and publications placed the album in their year-end best-of lists. It also earned Jay-Z and West seven Grammy Award nominations, winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song for "Niggas in Paris" and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for "No Church in the Wild". The album is certified platinum in the US.

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Kanye West and Jay-Z Announce Watch the Throne Tour and Album Release Date

By Amy Phillips

The Kanye West / Jay-Z team up has yielded more than just the upcoming album Watch the Throne . As Billboard reports , the pair have announced that they will tour together this fall. Check out the dates below.  Billboard also reports that the duo are now going by the group name the Throne.

Also, the release date for Watch the Throne has been announced: August 8.

Listen to the Best New Track "Otis" here .The Throne:

09-22 Detroit, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills 09-24 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre 09-25 Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre 09-27-28 East Rutherford, NJ - Izod Center 09-29 Washington, DC - Verizon Center 10-04 Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center 10-06-07 Chicago, IL - United Center 10-08 Minneapolis, MN - Target Center 10-10 Denver, CO - Pepsi Center 10-13 Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Dome 10-14 Vancouver, British Columbia - Rogers Arena 10-16 San Jose, CA - HP Pavilion 10-17 Sacramento, CA - Power Balance Pavilion 10-19-20 Los Angeles, CA - Staples Center 10-21 Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena 10-25 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center 10-26 Houston, TX - Toyota Center 10-29 Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena 10-30 Greensboro, NC - Greensboro Coliseum 11-01 Baltimore, MD - 1st Mariner Arena 11-03 Boston, MA - TD Garden

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Average setlist for tour: Watch the Throne

Note: only considered 45 of 58 setlists (ignored empty and strikingly short setlists)

• Song played from tape Throne Music Play Video
• H•A•M Play Video
• Who Gon Stop Me Play Video
• Otis Play Video
• Welcome to the Jungle Play Video
• Gotta Have It Play Video
• Where I'm From ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99) ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Can't Tell Me Nothing ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Flashing Lights ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Jesus Walks ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• All Falls Down ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Diamonds From Sierra Leone ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Public Service Announcement ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• U Don't Know ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Run This Town ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Monster ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Power ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Power / Power (Remix) ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Made in America Play Video
• New Day Play Video
• Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem) ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Izzo (H.O.V.A.) ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Empire State of Mind ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Runaway ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Heartless ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Stronger ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• On to the Next One ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Dirt Off Your Shoulder ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me) ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• That's My Bitch Play Video
• Good Life ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Touch the Sky ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• All of the Lights ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• Big Pimpin' ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• Gold Digger ( Ye  cover) Play Video
• 99 Problems ( JAY‐Z  cover) Play Video
• No Church in the Wild Play Video
• Song played from tape What a Wonderful World ( Louis Armstrong  song) Play Video
• Lift Off Play Video
• Niggas in Paris Play Video

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Documenting the Throne

A decade ago, Robert Lopuski flew to Australia to film Jay-Z and Kanye West work on ‘Watch the Throne’ in a mansion for a doc that never officially released.

Complex Original

Filmmaker Robert Lopuski opened the door of an Australian mansion in 2011, and heard a booming voice that he instantly recognized.

It was Jay-Z . 

The rap legend was standing in the living room of the private mansion, recording a verse for Watch the Throne , his then-in-progress collaborative album with Kanye West .

“I just very gently entered the space and everybody was quiet while Jay recorded,” Lopuski remembers now. “It was one of those surreal moments, where you just stand there, like, ‘Oh, wow.’ You both hear and feel the power of somebody who is just great at this, doing it in a very intimate space.”

Lopuski was at the mansion to make a film about the making of Watch the Throne . Everyone involved with the album had sensed something monumental was taking place while Jay and Kanye were in the early stages of the recording process, and it became very clear the sessions needed to be documented. 

Kanye had first come across Lopuski’s work back when the filmmaker took stills on the set of Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” music video, and decided to reshare them on his KanyeUniverseCity blog. This led to Lopuski getting hired to help with the “Power” music video and work on a video profile of director Marco Brambilla for Nowness, which also impressed Kanye. So, when it came time to find a filmmaker to document the WTT sessions, Kanye knew exactly who he wanted.

Once Lopuski got the call, he spent a week filming the sessions in Australia, collecting material that he describes as “chaos footage.” It was raw and unrefined, but he knew right away that he had captured a truly historic moment in time. And editing is his strong suit, so he had confidence he could turn it into something special.

Image via Robert Lopuski

Unfortunately, the 10-minute documentary leaked on the internet before it could be officially released. The short film had reached the final stages of development, but the leak derailed plans, and it ultimately ended up living on blog pages and Vimeo fan re-uploads instead of receiving formal distribution. The fate of the documentary was disappointing to Lopuski, of course, but he finds solace in the fact that the documentary still made a large impact. The leak reached a massive audience and remains an influential artifact for a generation of fans. 

The documentary itself, even in an unfinished form, was remarkable. Lopuski was able to capture intimate moments of Kanye and Jay hashing out ideas, recording verses, eating dinner, buying each other gifts, and previewing the album for guests. And he interspersed these personal moments with powerful, larger-than-life imagery of burning castles, cliffs, and forests. The sound effects were abrasive, and it was all tied together by a gritty aesthetic that exuded strength. The footage offered a rare look at the intimate creation process, but Lopuski presented it on a grandiose scale that suited the historic moment.

Despite the leak, the documentary proved to be a pivotal moment in Lopuski’s life. It helped him build a creative bond with Kanye West, which would lead to more collaborations in the years to come. And it informed much of the work Lopuski created in the decade to follow, including a critically-acclaimed film called We’re Gonna Be Lords and an unannounced project that is currently in development (watch his Instagram page for updates). In celebration of the 10-year anniversary of Watch the Throne , we caught up with Lopuski, who spoke about the experience of documenting two icons at a pivotal moment in time. The interview, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, is below.

Photo by Robert Lopuski

How did you get approached to make the Watch the Throne documentary? I got a call one day from Kanye’s manager at the time, and one of his close friends, Don C. He hit me out of the blue and was like, “We’re in Australia right now. Jay and Kanye are making an album. Are you available to come out and film them?” I kind of did a back-flip. I emailed back, and then we spoke on the phone. It was basically, like, “We’re in a private mansion in Sydney, and we’re making an album. They want to document it. Can you come out and do this?” And when you get a call like that, you do it.

Did Jay-Z and Kanye give you a sense of what they wanted to accomplish with the doc? Not really. The original intention was, “Could you just come and document this? We need somebody to put this on film.” Virgil and I spoke, Don and I spoke, and obviously Kanye and I spoke. But there wasn’t a big idea at first besides documenting it. When I came, I had some pretty clear ideas for what I wanted the piece to feel like emotionally, but in the process of making it, it started to take on a different shape. 

When you get a call for that type of opportunity, it’s gigantic. You think you’re going to come out and have equipment and it’s going to be an amazing level of access, but what I learned very quickly was that the room was small. There were, like, five people in that room. I had to very much so prove my worth—I had to prove my value. So I would be told a lot, “Turn the cameras off,” or, “We can’t film this right now.” Because of that, a lot of it was captured through smaller cameras, cell phones, and flip video cams. The idea of bringing in large cameras, or bringing in a crew and setting up lights, was a complete no-go. 

What was your vision before you got there, and how did it change once you were in Australia? The thing that’s interesting to me about documentaries is not actually trying to tell the story of a space. Like, “I’m Bill from Idaho. I’m a pig farmer and here is my pig farm.” I really think that’s a trap, in a way. For me, the interesting thing about documentaries is you can use real-life space, or docu-space, and then sculpt whatever else the imagery or the tonality of that space has to be, in order to communicate an emotional idea. 

Going into filming these guys, I knew they had a deep history, and as a fan of both of them, I knew a lot of the details of that history. I knew there was this deep, alchemic bond between these two collaborators that were now operating together at this platform. There’s a way to look at hip-hop in general and see it as being bombastic and larger than life, but for me, I was like, “Man, I bet you there’s a smallness here. I bet there’s a nuance between how they operate and how they engage with one another.” So, emotionally, I wanted to capture the quiet moments. I wanted to capture the smallness of it from a documentary standpoint and then sculpturally create a piece that had larger feelings of alchemy or regality or tectonic elemental aspects. I wanted the documentary to have the real-life space to be small and almost ephemeral, but the sculpture of the piece to be elemental. 

{ "id": 133936835 } “A lot of it was captured through smaller cameras, cell phones, and flip video cams. The idea of bringing in large cameras, or bringing in a crew and setting up lights, was a complete no-go.”

You said something changed once you got there—what was it? I think it’s just the process of filmmaking. You have an idea in your mind of what the film could or should be, and then as soon as you turn a camera on, it’s a completely different thing. In the case of this experience, we were shooting chaos footage, which is the best way I could describe it. The audio sounded crazy, the visual was underexposed, and the cameras had to be ducked in and out of unideal visual spaces. So what I thought was going to be a much cleaner and fluid process of documenting them became a little more raw. It became rough and raw. When I exited shooting, I remember thinking, “This is some of the worst footage I’ve ever shot,” but I completely understood it emotionally. It was a really interesting challenge as a filmmaker, because you’re like, “Okay, this footage is chaos, but I know we captured something here and I know what that thing feels like.” What you end up making post-shoot becomes different than what you intended to make going in.

What was it like landing in Australia and going to the mansion on Day 1? I flew in, and got driven to some kind of private mansion. I came into a literal dream-type moment. You hear somebody quite loud in the distance and you’re like, “I recognize that voice.” A door opens up and in the main living room area, I hear Jay booming a verse into a mic. It’s super quiet, because he’s recording. I just very gently enter the space and everybody’s there quietly as Jay is recording a verse for the album. It was one of those surreal moments, where you just stand there, like, ‘Oh, wow.’ You both hear and feel the power of somebody who is just great at this, doing it in a very intimate space.

Yeah, I think a lot of people were surprised to see them making the album in an Australian mansion instead of a recording studio. To me, this is one of the really interesting things about Kanye.  As an artist, he’s a guy who works in his own intimate space. All the way from the Jersey City days back in the ’90s to literally what he’s doing right now in Atlanta. It’s like a super passionate kid making work; I don’t know how else to explain it. He’s in Atlanta right now on a cot, in a visitor’s locker room, recording his next album. That’s kind of how he rolls. 

You were able to capture really intimate moments, like Jay-Z sketching through a verse in the living room. How did you get them to trust you? The process was becoming a fly on the wall first, and then becoming somebody that’s handshaking at the table. I was in a room with a small number of people, and I just started to make myself known. I would start talking to the guys, and I would offer opinions. Kanye would ask me questions and I’d respond in a particular way. I just started to let everybody know that I was on the right level. I let them know that I understood what they were up to, and that I had a sensitivity of what I wanted to do with the footage. Then we’d have dinner. Everyone breaks bread, so you’re sitting and eating with people. You start to build rapport.

From a technical side, you were using little flip-cams, so they’d forget a camera was there. How did that decision get made? For instance, I’d want to interview Jay. They’d say, “No, we’re not going to do an interview.” I’m like, “Okay, maybe tomorrow.” And they’d be like, “Yeah, maybe tomorrow.” It was a lot of that. So, we’d just be at dinner and I would be talking to Jay. Instead of doing a formal interview, I would ask him if he was open to a more casual conversation and record it on my phone, rather than a big camera. I would just keep it on my leg and ask him questions.  He would talk openly and freely. Capturing the doc was about answering this question: How do I become a part of the conversational space of what’s happening, and just try and have the right equipment to document it. That’s the best way I could describe it—as opposed to getting a clapper board, “Okay, action. Question is etc.” If things are happening, just capture it in any way possible.

{ "id": 133936845 } “After dinner, they were playing a song, and Jay was working on a verse. He came over and tapped me and tried a verse out on me. I did not expect that to happen.”

How do you remember the energy of that week?  It was pretty special and electric. There were times where Jay would do a thing that I thought was really cool, where he would ask, “Where are we?” And they would play down five or six nearly finished tracks. And they would just play them and swap them around as if they were on a CD. They’d say, “Let’s do this one first and that one third.” They would just vibe out to it. That was a very cool experience, just to see those guys working in that way. Because as they were making the thing, they were also feeling the thing. We were exploring the form as well as making the form.

How much were you with them each day? Were you all living in the mansion? I knew from a filmmaker opportunity standpoint that you don’t want to squander your time. It’s like, even if you’re going to play basketball, I’m coming with you and I’m filming you playing basketball. Whatever’s happening, I want to be around. This was my first foray with these guys, too, so I have no idea what their rhythms are.

One of my favorite scenes is when they’re out on a grass field and it looks like they’re meeting in the morning after recording. It just seemed like a natural moment. Totally. The gentleness and smallness of moments between them were part of the design going in. I knew that if you’re going to have a relationship with anybody—whether it’s a creative collaborator or a friend—there’s going to be a shorthand. To say nothing of the fact that Kanye’s released albums which call Jay his big brother, and even has a song called “Big Brother.” This is a long-running relationship.

You juxtaposed those gentle moments with powerful nature b-roll. Can you talk about that decision? This goes back to the idea of Don Quixote’s sculpture. Are we actually in the castle on the cliff of a mountain in Scotland? We’re not—but it feels like that emotionally. Sculpturally, outside of the real-life moments, it’s about interjecting and contrasting imagery in such a way that feels like the type of thing you want it to feel like. A castle on fire, birds flocking around, the decaying remains of older buildings—this all felt very Throne to me. It felt very emotionally elemental. Elemental is the best word I could use, because this relationship and what they were doing had depth. It felt very much of the earth, so I wanted there to be that contrast. I wanted there to be that interplay between the tectonic, emotional element of it, and then the gentle, quiet moments of their space.

We’ve all heard stories about Kanye asking for feedback on his music from anyone who happens to be in the studio. Did you talk about the music with him in the moment? Or did you try to stay quiet while they were working?  When I started working with these guys, the hat that I took was a filmmaker more so than being a creative collaborator. To me, this wasn’t my space. This was their space—I was just a guest invited in to film it and shape it visually. 

One of the most magical moments for me, musically, happened when we were at dinner and I was talking about whatever they were working on. Then, after dinner, they were playing the song, and Jay was working on a verse. He came over and tapped me and tried a verse out on me. I did not expect that to happen. I was playing with a camera and he did that. I just looked up and Jay’s spitting a verse to me, and I’m like, “This is unbelievable.” It just felt larger than life. It was just one of those special, magical moments, and it caught me so off guard that I wasn’t even able to fully engage with him—like, hearing his words or vibing with him. Then he looked at me, and I just smiled. 

I think when you work with talent, especially talent of this level, and they start to trust you, those special moments happen. You start to become exposed, and it’s a part of the process of making a thing, even if it’s minor. 

What was the biggest challenge during the process? The biggest lesson as a filmmaker came from the reality that we had chaos footage. We had really raw visual and audio material that on most jobs would likely get thrown out. But because I understood the space emotionally, I was able to take footage that people would not use and actually communicate everything it needed to. This was such an expansive learning experience for me as a filmmaker, because how do you take the stuff that’s not working, and make it not only work, but fully communicate? It sounds simpler than it actually is. It’s quite a challenge.

After you had collected all the footage, what was your plan of attack to finish the documentary in the editing process? This is kind of the craft of filmmaking. Everybody does this differently, but for me, I was trying to understand the full film. I couldn’t, at first. It felt a little outside of reach. So I would start with a moment. I would be like, “How did this moment feel? Or how should this moment feel?” Then I would craft that and end up with a little 15-second snippet. Then I would craft another little moment. So on the timeline, I would have buckets, almost. Here’s a dinner scene; here’s a recording scene; etc. Then I would start bringing them together and see which ones felt best in the weave. Did it make the most sense to go from dinner to Jay, or from the hallway to outside? Then you build connective tissue between that. 

{ "id": 133936846 } “We had really raw visual and audio material that on most jobs would likely get thrown out. But because I understood the space emotionally, I was able to take footage that people would not use and actually communicate everything it needed to.”

You mainly took this on as a one-man team, although I know there was some additional footage from Mike Carson and Mike Waxx. Why did you go that route instead of involving a large crew? It’s just the intimacy of the room. You’re not allowed to have people in that room, and you scale appropriately. I even spoke to Don about that. I was like, “Do we rent lights? Do we have grid people come? Do we actually try and shape this thing?” That just wasn’t what was happening in that room. So, to suddenly set up HMIs out the windows and make it a full-on production, there’s no doubt I would’ve been told to turn all of it off and send everybody home. That was not the vibe. 

But yeah, you just make it. It’s funny, there’s a documentary filmmaker who I think is tremendous named D.A. Pennebaker. He made a bunch of musical docs, including one on Bob Dylan in the sixties, which is very ahead of its time. Don’t Look Back. That entire thing was just Pennebaker and Dylan, and you can feel the intimacy. You feel the freeform nature of both the language of the film and the language of the artist. You’re brought into an incredibly small space, as opposed to a sports thing you would see on ESPN, where you know that there’s a stage and full lights and people sitting down who have had makeup. 

There is something really special and alchemic about choosing cinéma vérité as the approach to work with artists, because at the end of the day an artist, regardless of where they are in the hierarchy of the scale, they have to be alone and small and working on a little thing until that little thing becomes a bigger thing that is able to manifest into something else. To me, that’s really exciting. That’s wonderful to enter into the space of process for an artist. 

Obviously, the release of this documentary didn’t go as planned. What’s it like to have the release plans ruined because of a leak? It sucked. There’s no long answer to that. It’s not amazing. The one thing that I think, though, is that it had an impact on fans. People still remember this piece. It kind of did everything it needed to do in that space—both for the guys and for anybody who is a fan of the album. I still look back at it and think, “Man, this piece is dope as fuck.”

What did you take from this experience that you brought to other projects? It goes back to the whole working in a room thing. The way they were making this album, it was just a few guys in a room—essentially a living room with open mics. I think that’s been very impactful for me creatively. It’s like, “Well, what do you have? What can we use? Go.” You know, it’s like, “What are the materials you have in front of you? What are your resources? Use them.” If you’re going to make a tremendous album or design a clothing line or make a film, what do you have? Just use that, and go. Because the talent, energy, and pulse of it will come through. You will be able to capture it. It’s a personal thing, a reflective thing. The thing that you’re communicating is you , as opposed to big equipment or elaborate processing or gigantic budgets. They had access to all of this stuff, but the fact that they were making it in a living room with mics is interesting.

When you look back on that whole experience, do you have a standout memory or favorite moment? When I get that call to come out to Australia. I had to take two or three connecting flights, and each one of those flights was really bumpy and rocky. It was a flight with full turbulence and people on the plane were completely nervous. I remember thinking on the flight over that there’s no way this plane is going to crash. Me going to Australia was so in the cards, and working with these guys felt so much a part of what I was going to do, that any of the other turbulence of the moment was irrelevant. I think that’s a very special feeling—where you’re heading into a space and it doesn’t matter what’s happening around you. This is so fated.

What have you been working on since then? After that project came out, the next big film project that came out and had a splash was two years later. I made a small doc called We’re Gonna Be Lords that the Vimeo staff picked for Best of the Month and shortlisted for Best of the Year. A lot of the things that I learned making this project informed how I made that project. Watch the Throne and We’re Gonna Be Lords feel like siblings in a way from a filmmaking perspective. And I’m working on one now that isn’t music-based—it’s kind of about somebody else—but it’s expanding upon the learnings of those two even further, and it’s been really fucking challenging. I think what’s exciting to me as a filmmaker is forcing yourself to grow and trying out a new space. By new space, I mean I haven’t been here before, and I haven’t played with architecture in this way or story in this way. 

Outside of that, I haven’t really made a lot of things. I did make a few films during the Watch the Throne Tour. I was invited to be a part of the tour, so we shot a bunch of projects. The VOYR stuff. My favorite of the lot is one called “Church,” which was the closest to what I was trying to do post- WTT on tour. The VOYR project was pretty accelerated as far as scheduling. We would shoot for two days, edit for two days, and then it would come out. We had to constantly produce content. Every week, you had to have a finished film, so that was a little bit more challenging than it needed to be, but this was pre-Instagram. This was the earliest iteration of what it’s like if you were to have access all the time to an artist. Social media nowadays is essentially what this is, but this was pre-Instagram ubiquity and pre-Instagram Story and influencer movement. We were trying to use equipment and manpower to craft and create fully-formed film ideas, and shoot them and finish them in four days. It was quite accelerated. 

Those VOYR videos felt like the tour vlogs that artists were putting out around that time, but elevated. They felt like films. Was that the idea? That’s the thing. It’s the same exact approach that you were seeing other artists do. At that time, vlogs were the biggest thing. And there would be videos with artists on tour, and it would be a minute of raw footage. We were basically doing the same exact thing, except trying to make the WTT documentary in four days. To say that it was accelerated and challenging is an understatement. We set up a full-on machine. From the moment something was shot, there would be an assistant that would take those cards and rush them to another guy who would then download the footage and sequence it on a timeline. Shooting would end, I would then go into an edit room and begin editing, pass it on to another guy, and crash for the night. We’d wake up, do sound, pick up the camera, and run back out onto the tour, all the while traveling from wherever; Chicago to Miami to New York. It was a really accelerated, crazy project. 

View this video on YouTube

So you probably slept, like, 2 hours the whole time? Yeah, it was one of those. [Laughs].  And at this point, my relationship with ’Ye was pretty firm. We were now in full communication all the time, so you also have to give space for that. 

Kanye is known for being very hands-on with all of his visuals. How did your creative dynamic work with the WTT doc and VOYR stuff? Did you guys have a lot of back-and-forth? He is an active collaborator. He is somebody who wants to be involved. The more that you can have an actual dialogue with the people you’re working with, it tends to help the work move through the mechanisms that it has to move through. As opposed to shooting a thing, disappearing, then coming back to show you the thing. I think that’s harder.

How did this documentary impact your career? There were a few bigger artists in the world of hip-hop and R&B who reached out and wanted me to do similar things. For me, the biggest win was becoming involved in Kanye’s camp. It became the real stamp of people saying, “Oh, this is what he can do.” We ended up working together on a bunch of stuff. The doc became a deeper handshake with both Kanye and Jay. 

What are things you’ve done since then that you’d recommend people check out now? Check out We’re Gonna Be Lords and follow me on  that Vimeo page , and you’re going to see another one that I’m working on now that should be coming out soon. There’s a project that we’re working on that’s going to come soon, which is definitely an extension of the learnings from those two films. I’m also part of a directing collective called King She. So it’s Kingshe.tv. We don’t have the site up yet but we’re going to start populating it. [You can also follow Lopuski on Instagram and see more of his work on his website .] 

I saw you recently edited an Olympics advertisement . What have you been involved with on the commercial side of things? Professionally, my day job is an editor. In 2018, I won the AICP Award for Best Commercial Editor. My work is now a permanent part of the Museum of Modern Art, which is a massive thing. This year alone I won two Clio [Awards], two ADC Awards, two Golden Cubes, a Graphite 

Pencil. In the commercial and advertising space, to put it simply, I’ve been an award-winning editor is the easiest reduction of what I’ve been up to, but everything from Adidas to Nike to Samsung to Lexus, the list goes on. It’s my current professional space. [See more of Lopuski’s commercial work here .]

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Watch The Throne 2023

• Singles Pools
• Singles Bracket
• Side Events

Watch The Throne was an invitational tournament held in San Jose, California on December 8-10, 2023. [1] The tournament used the format followed by later iterations of the Smash Summit series, which ended earlier in the year, with a group stage, gauntlet, and final bracket. Alongside the main event, there were single elimination tournaments for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 and Rivals 2 (which was held ahead of its release in 2024), as well as the public reveal of Combo Devils .

As the winner of the event, Sparg0 received free airfare, hotel, and entry for GENESIS X . Sonix and Miya also received free entry for placing 2nd and 3rd. [2]

• 2.1 Singles
• 3 Final Singles Bracket
• 6 References

Overview [ edit ]

Watch the Throne was announced on July 22, 2023. [3] Eight players were directly invited from four regions, with each sharing two players; these were MkLeo and Sparg0 from Mexico, Light and Tweek from the United States, ProtoBanham and acola from Japan, and Bloom4Eva and Glutonny from Europe.

Three players qualified for the event via a crowdfunded voting system similar to Smash Summit. Eligibilty criteria for vote-ins were as follows:

• Be ranked in the Top 100 of LumiRank Summer 2023 ; or
• Place in the Top 64 of any Premier, Supermajor, or Major tier event held from according to the LumiRank 2023 Tournament Tier System. [4]

A preliminary round of voting took place from September 21-24 to reduce the number of contenders to 15. [5] Three subsequent rounds of voting resulted in spots being awarded to Lui$ on October 3, [6] Kurama on October 6, [7] and WebbJP on October 9. [8] On November 12, it was announced that ProtoBanham could not attend due to health problems; Tarik replaced him as the 4th highest voted player. [9]

Five players qualified through selected singles tournaments. Dabuz and Miya qualified by placing 2nd and 3rd respectively at Super Smash Con 2023 on August 13. [10] Sonix qualified via a 2nd place finish at Luminosity Makes Moves Miami on October 29. KEN qualified after placing 4th at Port Priority 8 on November 9. Finally, ApolloKage took the last spot after he won GENESIS: BLACK on December 2. [11]

On August 21, VGBootCamp was announced as the official streaming channel for the event. [12]

Prize Pool [ edit ]

Singles [ edit ], final singles bracket [ edit ].

Participants [ edit ]

Notes [ edit ]

• ↑ Originally, only the 3 most voted players of the crowdfunding campaign qualified; ProtoBanham was unable to attend, so he gave his spot the fourth most-voted player, Tarik. [9]

VODs [ edit ]

• Group Stage

References [ edit ]

• ↑ Tournament announcement
• ↑ GENESIS: BLACK on start.gg
• ↑ Watch the Throne Voting Nomination Process
• ↑ Lui$ qualifies for WTT
• ↑ Kurama qualifies for WTT
• ↑ WebbJP qualifies for WTT
• ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 ProtoBanham cannot attend and will be replaced by Tarik
• ↑ Dabuz and Miya qualify at SSC
• ↑ Our final tournament qualifier this year is from none other than GENESIS: BLACK!
• ↑ VBGC streaming announcement
• American Tournaments
• Tournaments
• Individual Tournaments
• Premier Tournaments
• Invitational Tournaments
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Competitions
• Offline Tournaments
• Pages reading from original match table

Category : Watch the Throne Tour

Media in category "watch the throne tour".

The following 39 files are in this category, out of 39 total.

• 2011 concert tours
• Concert tours of Kanye West
• Kanye West in 2011

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Jay-Z and Kanye West bring ‘Watch The Throne’ show to London O2 Arena

'This is the realest shit you'll ever see' Kanye tells audience

Jay-Z and Kanye West’s ‘Watch The Throne’ tour made its debut in London last night (May 18), marking the first of five consecutive shows at the city’s O2 Arena.

Fans may have been disappointed by the lack of special guests – there was no sign of ‘Watch The Throne’ guest stars Beyoncé, Bon Iver or Frank Ocean. But the two hour, 40-song set dug deep into the pair’s collaborative 2011 album ‘Watch The Throne’ – including ‘No Church In The Wild’, ‘That’s My Bitch’, ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ and ‘Niggas In Paris’ – with long detours into their respective solo catalogues.

An elaborate stage set saw the pair backed by fiery pyrotechnics, or facing each other over the heads of the audience on huge illuminated square platforms that rose and fell.

The set also took a political turn, as the pair turned their back to the audience and faced images of the Ku Klux Klan, images of black American slaves and footage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the sound of Louis Armstrong’s ‘What A Wonderful World’.

The two-hour set concluded with not one but four runs through ‘Watch The Throne’ single ‘Niggas In Paris’, with West proclaiming: “This is the realest shit you’ll ever see!”

The Watch The Throne tour plays at London’s O2 Arena until next Tuesday (May 22).

Recommended

Jay-Z and Kanye West played:

‘H.A.M’ ‘Who Gon’ Stop Me’ ‘Otis’ ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ ‘Gotta Have It’ ‘Where I’m From’ ‘Jigga What, Jigga Who’ ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ ‘All Falls Down’ ‘Flashing Lights’ ‘Jesus Walks’ ‘Self Conscious’ ‘Diamonds From Sierra Leone’ ‘Public Service Announcement (Interlude)’ ‘U Don’t Know’ ‘Run This Town’ ‘Monster’ ‘Power/Power Remix’ ‘Made in America’ ‘New Day’ ‘Hard Knock Life’ ‘Izzo (HOVA)’ ‘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’ ‘What A Wonderful World’ ‘No Church In The Wild’ ‘Lift Off (Interlude)’ ‘Niggas In Paris’

• Related Topics
• Jay-Z & Kanye West

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Tournament : Watch The Throne

Watch The Throne was a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate invitational tournament held at Guildhouse in San Jose, California from December 8th-10th, 2023. It was announced at the end of the first day of Get On My Level 2023 and was similar in style to the discontinued Smash Summit series . The event was brought together by Smash podcast hosts Charles Thoren and Hazmatt of Tweek Talks , EE of Lights Out , and BAM and Charles of Smash University . The top 3 at the event received free entry to GENESIS X , with the winner receiving an additional free flight and hotel. Side events included an Ultimate crew battle, the Rivals 2 beta, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 , and the Combo Devils beta.

• 1 Players invited/qualified
• 2 Players voted in
• 3 Declined players
• 4 Players eliminated
• 5 Eligible players
• 6 Tournament summary
• 7.1 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate singles
• 7.2.1 Old Guard vs. New Guard crew battle
• 8 References
• 9 External links

Players invited/qualified [ edit ]

The following players were invited:

The top 2 non-qualified players at Super Smash Con 2023 qualified:

The highest-placing non-qualified player at Luminosity Makes Moves Miami 2023 qualified:

The highest-placing non-qualified player at Port Priority 8 qualified:

The highest-placing non-qualified player at GENESIS: BLACK at Guildhouse qualified:

Players voted in [ edit ]

Declined players [ edit ].

ProtoBanham was originally invited but had to drop out.

Players eliminated [ edit ]

These players were eliminated in the voting phase:

These players were eliminated in the nomination phase:

*Although ShinyMark qualified for the next phase, he dropped out prior to its start and was replaced with MFA.

Eligible players [ edit ]

Players were eligible if they met any of the following requirements:

• Ranked in the top 100 on the LumiRank Mid-Year 2023 .
• Placed top 64 at a major or supermajor in 2023 (LumiRank A-tier or above) up to Maesuma TOP 14 .

There were a total of 699 players eligible (including those already qualified). The 15 players with the most likes and retweets on their Twitter nomination posts progressed to the voting phase.

Tournament summary [ edit ]

The Round Robin stage mostly ran without any notable upsets, although there were a few close sets. Two of the most notable were WebbJP against acola , with acola narrowly denying a reverse 3-0 by gimping WebbJP with blocks offstage, and ApolloKage against Sparg0 , with ApolloKage's forward smash read nearly KOing Sparg0 in a game 5 last stock situation.

The Round Robin stage also had a notable rematch between MkLeo and KEN , who last fought at EGS Cup over four years prior and ended with KEN double-eliminating MkLeo. MkLeo ultimately defeated KEN in the rematch, the first time he defeated KEN at any Smash tournament since the Smash 4 event IBP Masters Showdown back in 2017.

The Loser's side of the final bracket saw a Loser's run from KEN, who notably defeated both Light and MkLeo in the runback to place 5th despite starting in the Loser's bracket; the former win marked KEN's first-ever win over Light, a player who had historically dominated in the Sonic matchup. In addition, the Loser's side saw an infamous match between Tweek and acola, where after going down 0-2 Tweek tried and failed to camp out acola with Diddy Kong . The dire situation was caught on stream, which briefly panned out to both players when there was around 38 seconds left on the timer; the players' subsequent reaction to the stream , mainly Tweek's reaction, was widely noted and discussed online.

The Winner's side of the final bracket saw Sparg0 and acola face off against each other for the first time since Battle of BC 5 almost six months ago. Although acola put up a noticeably stronger fight against Sparg0, with each game going to last stocks, Sparg0 defeated acola 3-1, extending Sparg0's overall record against acola to 7-1. Sparg0 then faced off against his Coinbox rival Sonix and dispatched him in an easy 3-0, notably using Cloud for all three games instead of Aegis , his normal choice in the matchup. Miya proceeded to beat both Dabuz using Steve and Tweek to make Winners Finals against Sparg0, the first time they fought since Kagaribi 10 . Although Miya also put up a stronger fight, Sparg0 also defeated him 3-1. After being knocked into Loser's, Sonix defeated acola and Miya in rematches from Port Priority 8 , both in a 3-1 fashion. However, Sonix once again fell to Sparg0's Cloud in Grand Finals 3-1, with his only game win being over Sparg0's Aegis. Sparg0's victory at the event, which came after several underwhelming performances, led many players to believe that he was still the #2 player in the world.

The event notably had the year's top 4 players place in the top 4. Due to their dominance in the event over the other top players as well as them winning all but one major with at least one of them in attendance since the end of the mid-year season , many players dubbed them the Four Horsemen , analogous to Melee 's Five Gods .

Results [ edit ]

Super smash bros. ultimate singles [ edit ].

(16 entrants) Final Bracket

Side events [ edit ]

Old guard vs. new guard crew battle [ edit ], references [ edit ].

• ^ Tarik replacing ProtoBanham .

External links [ edit ]

• Start.gg page
• Twitter page
• 2023 tournaments
• Northern California tournaments
• Supermajor tournaments (SSBU)
• Invitationals (SSBU)

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King Frederik and Queen Mary face big change on royal tour – details

The new king and queen are denmark ascended to the throne in january.

King Frederik and Queen Mary have been undertaking some of their first royal tours since acceding to the throne, with the royals visiting their neighbouring Scandinavian countries.

The pair are due to undertake some more official visits, including to the Faroe Islands and Greenland, both of which are autonomous territories of the country. Tentative dates for their visits published by their official website r evealed the royals would be in the Faroe Islands from 11-14 June and would stop over in Greenland from 29 June-8 July .

However,  there has now been a change of dates for the trip, with their trip to Greenland now ending two days earlier than planned . A reason for the cutting short of the visit hasn't been revealed.

Earlier in the month, Frederik and Mary   visited both Sweden and Norway , meeting with the countries' royal families. The couple showed how strong their bond was as Frederik was spotted kissing his wife during their Swedish trip.

Following solo engagements in the country, the couple reunited for lunch and the Danish monarch was seen planting a kiss on the side of his wife's face.

On the first night of their state visit, Frederik and Mary were hosted by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia at a state banquet at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Mary glittered in a gold silk skirt from Jesper Hovring's 2017 collection with a sheer top with burgundy beading from his Fall 2018 collection.

The couple also visited Norway and they were seen walking hand-in-hand as they strolled along Oslo's harbour front. The engagement was a focus on the architecture where Frederik and Mary viewed a new sustainable urban development, but they exchanged loving looks and plenty of smiles as they walked along the waterfront.

The royal couple acceded to the Danish throne earlier this year following the surprise abdication of Frederik's mother, Queen Margrethe .

The 84-year-old made the announcement in an address which was shared on New Year's Eve. "I have decided that now is the right time," she said. The 14th January 2024 - 52 years after I followed my beloved father - I will step back as the Queen of Denmark. I leave the throne to my son the Crown Prince Frederik."

The former monarch added: "Tonight, I first and foremost would like to express my thanks. Thank you for the overwhelming warmth and support which I have received during all these years. Thank you to the changing governments with whom the collaboration always has been rewarding, and thank you to The Parliament, who have always vested their confidence in me.

"Thank you to the many, many people who on special occasions and in everyday life have embraced me and my family with kind words and thoughts, turning the years into a string of pearls. The support and assistance which I have received throughout the years, have been crucial to the success of my task. 

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"It is my hope that the new King and Queen will be met with the same trust and devotion which have fallen to my lot. They deserve it! Denmark deserves it! I will conclude my new year's address in my usual manner: GOD BLESS DENMARK, GOD BLESS YOU ALL."

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The Spinoff

Society Today at 5.15am

The 50 kings you need to know.

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Today is King’s birthday, but there are oh so many kings to acknowledge. Here’s 50 to think about on your day of rest.

50. King Charles 

Obligatory inclusion because it’s his fake birthday.

49. King George VI

From the Colin Firth movie.

48. The King of Hearts

Hearts is the coolest of the card suits and the king looks good in red.

47. Kings of Leon 

If you were born in the early 90s, you almost certainly had a period of listening exclusively to early Kings of Leon albums and then bemoaning their eventual mainstream success. Still great, though.

46. Kings (the rapper)

He don’t worry ‘bout it. 

45. King (the song)

Specifically the Florence and the Machine banger from 2022, though I will also accept the Years and Years tune of the same name.

44. Cavalier King Charles spaniel

Very good boys.

43. King Air 350 plane

Very good planes. 

42. Kings Shoe Store (Temuka)

Mike Hosking could have just gone to Temuka to find the king’s shoes , because this small town shoe store has it all. Boots! Shoes! Handbags! “Love every inch of yourself,” the Kings Shoes website says, and goddammit Temuka, we will. 

41. Burger King

The Adelaide takeaway restaurant that forced global fast food giant Burger King (not on this list) to call itself “Hungry Jack’s” in Australia. 

40. Asia Martusia King 

Pigeon enthusiast , eater of dog food , Spinoff contributor.

39. The Scorpion King

A 2002 sword and sandals action film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson that is somehow both a prequel and a spinoff of Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy. Critics called it “hyperactive crock”, filled with “brainless action” and “not much charm”. 

38. Tree King (arborists in Auckland)

The Google reviews of this royalty-themed Glenfield-based company are a glimpse of the royal treatment customers get. “Tree King are Efficient as! With a capital E,” says one. “Job done right and clean was great” says another. “Tree King trimmed my very large out of control hedge and feijoa tree”, says a third happy customer. If your greenery is unruly, we think that Tree King would be a good sovereign for the job, probably more than a King Charles Spaniel or the Lion King. 

37. Storage King

Doesn’t have a monopoly on storage solutions but sure as hell feels like it does. And that’s power.

36. Zog I, King of the Albanians 

Zog was initially the prime minister of Albania in 1922, then the president from 1925, then declared himself king in 19 28. A brief scan of his wikipedia page suggests that he was probably a horrible leader to live under, becoming increasingly connected to Mussolini’s Italy until he was disposed in 1939, when Italy invaded Albania. However he does have a very cool name.

35. King’s counsel appointment process

Do you have expert, up-to-date, legal knowledge, mostly acquired from watching every episode of Suits? Then you should apply to be a king’s counsel . Sure, there’s a few other requirements, but I think the legal minds among us will agree the finer details are never important. 

34. Nathan King

Lead singer of Zed, one of the panellists in the 2021 Popstars reboot, put on a hell of a show at Christchurch’s ‘The Church’ in 2023. 

33. The Lion King

Very good flick. 

32. King Dingaling (you ain’t)

Married at First Sight Australia has a rich history of memorable quotes, from Coco asking “does the fact I’ve got a body like a hot dog matter?” in 2021 to Alyssa reminding the world every three minutes “I have a child” just last year. But no quote carries quite as much weight this long weekend as this, uttered by “Cyclone” Cyrell in 2019: “The world doesn’t resolve around you Sam,” she yelled during a particularly fiery couch session . “You ain’t King Dingaling.”

31. Janet King (TV series)

You don’t see enough Janets on TV these days, let alone Janet Kings. Put her face on the back of a coin and let’s go shopping. 

30. Dr Martin Luther King Jr 

King had the distinction of being not just a king, but also named after Martin Luther, the German priest partially responsible for the existence of churches that aren’t Catholic. He was a critical figure in the civil rights movement in the US, using non-violent resistance to act against racist laws. He was assassinated in 1968 and this is a fascinating podcast about the ramifications of his death. 

29. Great King Street, Dunedin

Part of State Highway 1, Great King Street is the northbound part of Dunedin’s notorious “one-way system” that runs through the heart of the city and student quarter. Great King Street landmarks include Tūhura Otago Museum, the famous Willowbank Dairy and the North Dunedin McDonald’s.

28. King of Snake (Christchurch bar) 

Heard recently from a Christchurch local that this place is “pretty good” for cocktails. 

27. Tiger King (TV series)

Tigers go ROAR.

26. King Loser

Legendary and volatile Flying Nun garage-surf band formed in the 1990s. A documentary filmed during their final tour in 2016 was finally released in 2023, and won this year’s Taite Prize for music journalism.

25. King Kapisi MNZM

In 1999, King Kapisi became the first hip hop artist in New Zealand history to receive the Silver Scroll Award for Songwriter of the Year for his single ‘Reverse Resistance’. He has also closely collaborated with a Philadelphia artist called King Britt. King squared!

24. Kingfisher (beer)

Kingfisher beer is ubiquitous in India, and available around the world, including in New Zealand. It was described as a “sneaky bastard” by the alcohol review column at Otago University’s student magazine Critic Te Arohi in 2018. The beer company temporarily ran a very popular, very cheap domestic airline in India, which closed in 2012. Turning a beer company into an airline? That’s the kind of self delusion that makes it a mid-tier king. 

23. Kingfisher (bird)

Kingfishers are very cool birds with strong sturdy bills good for, you guessed it, catching fish. They also inspire poetry, like this from Gerard Manley Hopkins. (Hop kings ?)

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same.

22. Stephen King

Writer of very scary books.

21. King Lear (Shakespeare play)

When we are born, we cry that we are come/ to this great stage of fools, a quote from Act 4 Scene 5 of this play also doubles as a good thing to say to your friends. “Well well well, if it isn’t the stage of fools.” 

20. New Zealand king shag (bird) 

We have no choice but to stan a king with “big pink feet”. The New Zealand King Shag is only found in the Marlborough Sounds, and can be easily identified through their “croaking bursts of low frequency sound” at the crack of dawn, aka the original King’s Speech. 

19. King’s Seeds

If you can’t trust the king’s seeds, then who can you trust?

18. King Kong

Scientifically proven to be the biggest gorilla ever, who famously did some pretty controversial renovations on Auckland’s Civic Theatre back in 2005. Best friend of Peter Jackson. 

17. Three Kings (islands)

13 uninhabited islands at the tippy top of New Zealand. Some things are better left untouched.

16. Three Kings (suburb) 

Actually not that great a suburb! Not sure why it’s on this list.

15. Three Kings (movie) 

A war movie directed by angry man David O Russell who is decidedly NOT a king and NOT someone you need to know.

14. Michael King

Historian who wrote The Penguin History of New Zealand. Not to be confused with the starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres. 

13. King mattress 

Not all kings are created equal, and while a king mattress is obviously better than a queen (the mattress patriarchy strikes again) and definitely better than a king single, it is still third in line to the mattress throne. The Princess Charlotte of box springs and alternating coil. 

12. Super king mattress

Like a king, only super. Like Camilla says, God save the Super King. 

11. California king mattress

History tells us that in 1776, America celebrated independence from Britain by making a really long mattress. One big bed to rule them all. 

10. Big King 

Aka Te Tātua-a-Riukiuta, one of Tāmaki Makaurau’s 14 tūpunga maunga. Beloved for having an off-leash dog area and a simply gorgeous mural of the dog from Footrot Flats on the Watercare reservoir. 

9. King salmon

A mighty fine fish. 

8. The Canterbury King

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown” has never been more true than when it comes to Canterbury’s T20 Super Smash mascot, the Canterbury King. Probably New Zealand’s most top-heavy sporting mascot, this bloke looks like he could topple over at any time, which is exactly what you want from a mascot.

7. Kings Plant Barn

Everything you need. 

6. King penguin 

The tokoraki king penguin dives over 300 metres below the surface, remains underwater for nine minutes and incubates its eggs with its feet. I’d like to see King Charles try that. 

More Reading

5. king home boy.

Cuba Street icon and six-time national beatboxing champion, self-described as “born and bred Hurricane with the heart of a Phoenix ”. In 2009, he set the world record for the longest non-stop beatboxing effort, with a mammoth 35-hour beatbox session leaving him with “a swollen tongue, mouth ulcers and blisters”. A hero.

4. Return of the King 

When will he come back? Watch the movie/read the book to find out. 

3. King crab

New Zealand is the king crab capital of the world . All king crabs are cool but Lithodes aotearoa , an absolute beast of a crab with a leg span of 1.3m, is the coolest. It suffered the indignity of repeated misidentification until 2010, when it was identified as its own species.

2. King (mobile games company)

Invented Candy Crush. We bow down to ye. 

1. Rat King 

Young rats often sleep in close quarters, not unlike the grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate factory, which can cause their tails to become entangled. When they pull away to escape the tangle, the knots only tighten more. The result over time is a giant jumble of rats known as a rat king, or “roi de rats”. In May 1828, the largest rat king on record was found in Altenburg, Germany. It consisted of 32 rats. Have a nice long weekend.