Watch the Throne: The Tour

If there are two artists that everyone knows I like love, they are Jay-Z and Kanye West. I've seen both artists twice and while it's technically impossible for me to say this without having attended at least one concert of every artist to ever perform, I will go out on a pretty sturdy limb here and say that there are no artists that captivate, inspire, and energize a crowd the way that these two men do. The best part about it is the fact that they do it in two totally different ways. When Kanye performs, you can tell that he's using every ounce of energy in his body to engage the audience. Whether he's running, full sprint, across the stage the way he did while performing Touch the Sky, or whether it's doing his best impression of Lil B and getting his Chef BoyarYeezy on while Hov is spitting bars, you can never say there's a single solitary moment where Kanye West is not giving his all. Jay on the other hand has a whole different aura about him. If there ever was a person who has the right to breathe the words, "I invented swag", it's this fucking man right here. Have you ever seen Ray Allen shoot a 3? Have you ever seen Tiger Woods hit a golfball? Have you ever seen Tom Brady throw a touchdown? That's the best way that I can describe a live Jay-Z performance. The same way Ray Allen makes shooting a 3 look like throwing pebbles into an ocean, the same way Tiger makes hitting a golfball look like smacking an egg with a mallet, the same way Tom Brady makes a 60 yard pass look like a catapult launching a marble, that's how easy Jay-Z makes it look to bring 20,000 people to their feet in unison. When Kanye performs, you want to have fun with him. When Hov performs, it's almost like you don't want to disappoint him. There have been numerous occasions where I hear women speak about Jay-Z and say, "How did he get Beyonce, he's so ugly." Those are the same women saying "Giiirl he could get it.", while he's on stage. Men want to be him, women want to sleep with him. That, ladies and gentlemen, is swagger. People say that Kanye and Jay-Z put their egos aside for this project. I like to think they actually combined egos. It's like Batman and Superman just merged into Buperman in this hoe. I thought it was amazing to see Jay-Z get his Memphis Bleek on and play hype man to Kanye, the same way it was dope to see Kanye recite Jay-Z lyrics with the excitement of a fan like me. The chemistry these two have is uncanny. The fact that two legends, each in their own right, are able to take the backseat to each other at any given time during a show is amazing to experience live. It's awesome to see two men, each masters of their craft, walk the line of having fun and professionalism with such ease. Consummate Professionals.

Ladies and gentlemen meet painter extraordinaire and the lamest person I know (kidding!), Natasha. I feel terrible for not getting any pictures together while we were there so this one will have to do. Anyway, if there's a person I know who likes these two artists as much as I do, it's her. Natasha and I scooped some amazing seats for the show, which got even more amazing, thanks to a fantastic connection. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful date.

Back to the show.

I absolutely loved the fact that there was no opener for this show. For an album that was so extravagant, so gaudy, so "hey look at how awesome we are and how awesome you aren't", I thought it was brilliant.
The show began at about 9:00pm with absolutely no warning.
I feel like opening the show with HAM was genius. This song is the equivalent of popping a x pill before getting into the passenger seat of a Mercedes McClaren and after getting about 30 seconds to admire the beauty and craftsmanship that went into making such a beautiful machine, right before buckling your seatbelt, the driver floors it, and there you are grasping on to absolutely anything for dear life, while at the same time screaming "Fuck Yes!" Maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration but, something about opera music, Lex Luther's dramatic drums, and Kanye splashing swag all over a track, coming through speakers as big as your house that gets me pumped. Just when you get crazy excited, you hear Jay-Z... but you don't see him. You're looking around frantically like, "where's Hov?", then.. BOOM BITCH. Right behind you.
There's Jay-Z, cool as the other side of the pillow, completely unfazed by the fact that he's changing motherfucker's lives and shit, reciting his verse with the piercing precision.
I honestly don't know why I'm even trying to put this show into words. All I can say is that this by far was one of the best moments of my life. I got to witness two of the greatest music revolutionaries of our time, take the stage and make history. This is a show that inspired me, and will continue to inspire me for the rest of my life.  I'll shut up now and let my pictures do the talking.

We Came. We Watched. We Conquered. Checkmate Bitch.