Editor’s Note: Please welcome Rap Genius to the squad, as they will be providing some coverage here and there of what is up in the hip-hop world. Our partnership with the innovative site will continue to expand over time — this is just the beginning! Expect an official album review of Watch The Throne in the near future as well.

As the clock hit zero on the Watch The Throne countdown, Ye-Z finally released their long-awaited project. The regular version hit iTunes an hour earlier; the deluxe came at midnight. So far, they have the internet going nuts.

I’ve been listening to this album intently for the last 2 hours — it is a masterpiece. Rarely does an album of such great magnitude lives up to its hype but I can honestly say that Watch The Throne is everything people have been proclaiming it to be. The chemistry between Jay and Kanye is fluid and the production on the album is impeccable. My early favorites are “No Church in the Wild“,”Niggas in Paris“, — and the paean to dubstep: “Who Gon Stop Me“.

Hit the skip to stream Watch The Throne and read a Track-By-Track breakdown (with a few exclusions) from Rap Genius.

Lift Off

Errm — we’ll start with the bad news.. “Lift Off” is the album’s throwaway track: Beyonce, Kanye, and Jay-Z yawningly compare their success to the launch of a rocketship

Not nearly as compelling as a song produced by Kanye, Q-Tip, and Pharrell should be.

Welcome to the Jungle

A play on the Guns N Roses track “Welcome To The Jungle” has garnered Jay-Z a new nickname — the “Black Axle Rose” (I guess that makes Yeezy the “Black Slash”..)

Also alludes to Jay-Z’s line from the Power (Remix):

They tryna ask-“who Rose?”-you, welcome to the jungle

Niggas in Paris

Pegs well with the “picaresque” sensibilities of the album — just a couple of dapper gentlemen in Paris..

Samples Will Ferrell’s philosophical musing from his 2007 comedy Blades Of Glory:

“No one knows what it means, but it’s provocative.”

Primetime

One of the deluxe “bonus” tracks — a No ID production (which means outstanding production, even on an album filled with classic beats)

New Day

A RZA production sampling Nina Simone’s classic “Feeling Good” — a song about Kanye and (especially) Jay-Z’s “Daddy Issues” sounds like the sort of rap your therapist tells you is healing.

The Joy

Kanye and Jay reminisce about the good old days of contraception, obscure ‘60s movies and the Virgin Mary.

Otis

First legit single off the album samples soul music legend Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” — Jay-Z claims therein that he invented the word “swag” (suuuure Jay — we believe you! And Al Gore invented the internet.)

Gotta Have It

The sole Neptunes production on the album makes me wish there were more! No one can match Pharrell (except maybe Yeezy himself.)

No Church in the Wild

Jay-Z/Yeezy + Odd Future — something old, something new. Frank Ocean starts off the track by raising deep metaphysical questions — Kanye starts his first verse with snorting-cocaine-off-models imagery (the sacred and the profane.)

Made in America

Frank Ocean’s 2nd appearance is a nauseatingly earnest enumeration of his prophets (Sweet Father Joseph, Sweet Queen Betty, Sweet Brother Malcolm, Sweet Baby Jesus — no mention of Buddha, sadly.)

Murder to Excellence

A celebration of black excellence (Kanye adds a touch of Hubris, claiming that he “stinks of success” (smell it?).

Why I Love You

The album comes to a somber close to the tune of Cassius’ “I Love You So” — a melodramatic ending where Jay-Z claims to be a monarch (surprise!).