Watching the Throne

Dumbfoundead: “I can’t take your insults seriously when you kids were born in the 90′s.”

Dumbfoundead once hilariously elicited an outrage on Twitter in which a shitload of adolescents rankled him for his comment about their tastes in music. My friends and I couldn’t help but deeply sympathize; the media’s saturated mainstream music with redundant, trashy dance tracks released from the likes of Pitbull and anyone else whom I don’t care to recall. By having clusters of 15 to 17-year-old fanatics harass your Twitter after you criticize Kpop girl groups who possess less talent than brains (which is grossly saying something), then there’s truly a tragic problem for humankind itself: We listen to shitty music.

Back in the late 90′s and early 2000′s, hip hop emerged as a dominating genre that drew in multitudes of fans with positive remarks from its critics. Whom do we thank? Most of us can agree that two individuals greatly contributed to this outcome – not Bieber, not friggin Khalifa – we all hail Kanye and Jay-Z.

In August, I bought two tickets with my bro/best bud, Josh, and we eagerly awaited the day when the two would perform live in Toronto. November 23rd came, we saw and they f*cking conquered.

Contrary to what everyone assumed, Hov and ‘Ye performed just roughly six songs from Watch the Throne and the rest of the concert play-list consisted of all their massive hits in the past. I’m talking about Gold Digger, Touch the Sky, Where I’m From, Can’t Tell me Nothing, Diamonds from Sierra Leone, Dirt Off Your Shoulder, Big Pimpin’, Public Service Announcement, Jesus Walks, Run this Town, Onto the Next One, Hard Knock Life, 99 Problems, Runaway, Monster, Power, All of the Lights, Izzo (HOVA), Flashing Lights, Heartless, and there’s too many to list…

Glimpsing around at the audience during Jay’s solo performances, I was in awe of the endless, vast sea of fans throwing up Hov’s sign together whilst illuminated under a gorgeous wash of colour and lighting, rendering it as a nearly alien experience. The acts were on-point and I almost believed that they were lip-synching the entire night; they sounded IDENTICAL to their mastered tracks as they never broke off from their rhythm or cue. Kanye delivered his old bangers with flashy precision, which is what we’ve come to expect from the gentleman of grandeur himself. As his perfect complement using simple effects, Jay-Z followed his own classy, ghetto-fab routine that exemplified his Brooklyn roots.

The duo traded off solo acts back and forth for a total of three hours, encouraging the crowd into a hollering frenzy. True, one might gripe that they started the show ridiculously late sans a special guest appearance no less, but once they began rising on the LED-lit platforms, everyone lost their minds and went apeshit.  Everything meshed together in an epic, conglomerate show that any hip hop artist would kill to emulate. Only these self-proclaimed hip hop gurus could afford playing “N*ggas in Paris” three times consecutively amidst the screams from fans for an encore performance. And they did just that, ending off the night with Jay-Z’s celebrated track that signified his pseudo-retirement, “Encore”.

For anyone that expressed disdain in attending and said that they disliked Watch The Throne anyway, y’all missed out on one of the most charismatic concerts hosted in Toronto. Kanye hasn’t booked a show here since 2004 – and seven years later, he’s still pwning it as though he never left.

There was one song he performed called “Runaway”, which happens to be one of my absolute favourites from his MBDTF album. I hold the track as a personal tribute to all of my ex-boyfriends. Hearing Kanye perform it live with so much vigor had me belting out the chorus as though it were the last song of the night. My best friend understood my sentiment and screamed out the words beside me.

Now that I glance back at all these months, I’m actually content to say that I’ve come a damn long way. My integrity, family, spiritual walk with God, school, grad apps/plans, friends, and my current gigantic KCUTSA project that I’m solely organizing alongside Ben is all piecing itself together in an awesome montage of steady, hard work. Thought I’d never see the day at UofT when I’d be proud of the marks that I’ve been attaining  in my final year, lol. As a result, I’ve (secretly and finally) decided to pursue law school once I complete my Masters/Teacher’s College program. After Isagani’s death and all the drama accumulating from last year, I feel relieved to have soldiered onward – deuces.

My 22nd birthday is fast approaching as well. December also holds sentimental value to me, but EFF IT, I’ll enjoy it as I’ve always had for all my life. Looking forward to playing my video games for hours on end, woo!