As has pretty much been the case since Watch The Throne dropped, Ye f.k.a. Kanye West is teasing fans with the possibility of a sequel. His partnership with Jay-Z is one of hip-hop's most iconic friendships, and while it's been a rocky one, their collaborative album is still beloved by many fans to this day. On his most recent Drink Champs appearance, Ye once again fanned the flames of speculation around Watch The Throne 2.
"“This D’usse is brought to you by my brother Hov,” Ye said, presenting a bottle of Jay-Z’s cognac brand to the table. “Courtesy of The Throne. Part 2 coming soon.”
The affirmation was met with oohs, aahs, and cheers from the podcast crew, but let's not forget the other rodeos we've been on. It was teased by The-Dream in 2013, again by Kanye in 2018, and most recently last year when media personality Justin Laboy fueled rumors that it would drop before the end of 2021. Kanye also said last year that Jay-Z was "selfish" concerning the album, explaining on Drink Champs that he would keep beats and verses meant for the collab for his own solo work.
“I took a track off of what was gonna be my album, the follow-up to [My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy]," the Yeezy head said. “It was the 'Otis' sample. I chopped it up and I was gonna go to Milan to do something in fashion and I was about to be late for the flight … ‘Cause I was like, ‘Yo, we not gonna lose this game no matter what. I’m gonna give you all this.’"
“I took ‘New Day’ off of my next album," Ye elaborated." I took ‘Otis’ off of my next album. And we got into this big argument because he had this song called ‘Holy Grail’ that he had Justin Timberlake singing on. And I was like, ‘We need to put this on this album.’ And then he was like, ‘Nah.’"
Ye wrapped up with a cheeky characterization of Hov. "Everybody knows Jay is very selfish … We all love him but, you know, he’s very selfish. He’ll say like, ‘Man, I’m selfish.’ So he wouldn’t give that song. I’m like, ‘Man, how I’m giving all of this?'”
Of course, given all of the controversial statements and actions that Kanye has made over the past few years (and especially weeks), it's hard to imagine that Jay-Z is keen to attach himself to that headline whirlwind. He was on "Jail" off of Ye's Donda last year, so the possibility isn't too off-base.
Regardless, stay tuned to HotNewHipHop to see if we'll ever see the fabled release of Watch The Throne 2, and check out our retrospective look on the beloved original and how it represented Hov and Ye's embrace of fatherhood.