Jean-Michel Basquiat, “Untitled (Fallen Angel)”
An ominous guitar riff, pumped full of bass, bubbles to the surface (from a sped-up sample of 1978’s “K-Scope” by Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera), synths quiver and pulsate, and Odd Future buddy/budding R&B star Frank Ocean intones a series of loaded, tone-setting questions (“What’s a mob to a king? / What’s a king to a God?”), building towards “What’s a God to a non-believer?”
Jay-Z and Kanye West aren’t the non-believers here, though; they’re the guys navigating this ugly world beyond good and evil. Like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, with its crucial question — “Can we get much higher?” — Watch The Throne begins with a loaded question we don’t actually want answered…
Are You A Serious Comic Book Reader?