Now if I told you that the greatest rapper of our generation teamed up with the greatest producer of our generation, is that something you might be interested in?
If so, you should listen to Watch The Throne, the latest project from Jay-Z and Kanye West. Throne debuted at #1 and has since been certified platinum. Is it worthy of all that hype? Maybe.
There are outstanding tracks like "No Church In The Wild" and "Made It In America" which both feature emerging R&B artist Frank Ocean. Imagine a Chris Brown that has way more swag and doesn't abuse women. That is Frank Ocean.
On the Nina Simone sampled "New Day" Jay and 'Ye eloquently rap about their unborn sons and the troubles they will face when they are born into a celebrity lifestyle. "Sorry junia', I already ruined ya'/'cause you ain't even alive, paparazzi pursuin' ya" says Jigga.
Jay-Z's wife, Beyonce, makes a cameo on the album (who did she have to sleep with to get that gig?) and steals the show on "Lift Off" which has a bizarre, uncredited appearance from Seal.
Throne does have its weak spots though. "Who Gon Stop Me" samples a dubstep song that should only be played around people with pupils the size of a nickel. In the first line of the song, Kanye raps "This is somethin' like the Holocaust, millions of our people lost/Bow our heads and pray to the lord, 'til I die I'mma f*cking ball." Hmm, I don't know how much 'ballin'' went on during the Holocaust.
There is one thing from Watch The Throne that has stuck with listeners more than anything else. On the song "N*ggas In Paris" both Jay and 'Ye utter the line "that sh*t cray." The phrase has become very popular among young people, but do we really know what we are saying? Is that sh*t cray? Or is that sh*t Kray?
"Cray" could easily be a shortened version of the word "crazy". It makes sense in the context of the song ("Ball so hard mothaf*ckas wanna fine me, first n*ggas gotta find me/That sh*t cray") because the rappers are mentioning their extravagant lifestyles. Jay-Z survived living and selling drugs in the Marcy Projects as a young child. And Kanye, who once dreamt of simply meeting his idol, Jay-Z, is now on tour with him. "Crazy/cray" is definitely an appropriate word.
But the other day I saw something saying that "cray" is actually "Kray" and is a reference to brothers Reggie and Ronnie Kray. The Kray twins gained celebrity status in the 1950's and 1960's for organized crime including arson, armed robbery, and murder. They were able to avoid arrest for years before finally being caught and sentenced to life in prison in 1968.
So does that give double meaning to the line "Ball so hard mothaf*ckas wanna fine me, first n*ggas gotta find me/that sh*t cray/Kray"?
First let me translate the line into something that most white people will understand. "Balling/Ballin'" entails anything absurd. Just bought four new Porsche convertibles? Ballin'. Had a threesome with two supermodels? Ballin'. Got an A+ on an economics midterm? Even that can be considered ballin'. It is a loose term.
When Jay-Z references someone fining him, he is referring to the instance in which he was fined $50,000 for visiting the locker room of the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team. Jay is part owner of the New Jersey Nets and interaction with college hoopers is forbidden. So that is that.
But what about the "finding"? Is Jay-Z hard to find? I doubt it, look up a Watch The Throne tour schedule and I bet you like ten, like fifteen dollars that he will be where he is scheduled to be. So are we supposed to search for Jay because "[his] sh*t Kray"? Maybe. The Kray twins were hard to find, so it would make sense that the difficulty one would have in finding someone else really is "Kray."
After hours of investigating, I could not find a definite answer. At concerts when the song plays and the obfuscating line is uttered, the word "CRAY" flashes behind the performers. Maybe spelling the word with a 'c' instead of a 'k' is the giveaway. But at the same time, Kanye West has proven to be an idiot. Spelling a word wrong wouldn't crack the top 100 list of "Stupid Things Kanye Has Done."
I do not know if it is "cray" or "Kray" but I do know that Jay and 'Ye can make some great music. Here is evidence:
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