As yesterday was the fourth of july, I thought this would be a good way back wednesday to a night that I will never forget. This was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was fortunate enough to attend. That would be the Watch The Throne Tour with Jay-Z and Kanye West at Staples Center on December 11, 2011. As it relates to the fourth of july because Kanye and Jay-Z had an american flag as the backdrop of their Otis music video?
(Courtesy of Vevo -2011)
No? Well, I’ll still talk about it. Haha.While this show was about 6 years ago, I will talk about what I remember.Prior to buying tickets, the show was already sold out and was trying hard to find tickets. The night before the show, I checked ticketmaster one more time and they had great seats that were just released. I immediately texted my friend asking to go and she said yes so I hopped on buying them right away.We got to the show about an hour before the show started. No opening act, just music playing as we were sitting, waiting and taking pictures. I I took pictures with an actual camera and not my phone at the time since the IPhone was more expensive at the time. I had a cheap red Kodak Camera, but it got the job done! I also went to go check out the merchandise and saw there were only three shirts available. One with Kanye, one with Jay-Z and one of the american flag like in the Otis music video. I ended up choosing the american flag one and actually wore it yesterday for the fourth.Anyways. the concert started at 9pm and they opened the show together with the song H*A*M off of the joint album”Watch The Throne” They were both on platforms that were risen up and it was awesome as our seats were right a few rows away from Jay-Z’s risen platform.
(Kanye West and Jay-Z performing H*A*M at Staples Center, December 11, 2011)
Throughout the night, they switched platforms and performed songs from their album as well as their own separate songs. One of my favorite songs from Kanye West is “Runaway from on of his best albums “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” He moved to the platform that was closer to our seats and to see him perform that is a memory that I will never forget as I am a big Kanye fan despite how he acts in his personal life sometimes.
(Kanye West performing "Runaway" at Staples Center, December 11, 2011, Los Angeles, CA)
As they continued to perform songs like “No Church in the Wild” and “Made in America” they ended their epic setlist with “N**gas in Paris. The music video for this song was from this show as the had three sold out shows. I remember they performed the song 11 times!! I think around the 8th time they played, my friend I looked at each other and said “We gotta go, we got school tomorrow” as the show was on a sunday night. The show was incredible overall and it is sad to see that Kanye and Jay-Z aren’t as good as friends anymore. Maybe one of these days they will squash it and do a sequel to Watch the Throne. Only time will tell. Hope everyone had an awesome and safe fourth of july!!
(Jay-Z and Kanye West performing at Staples Center, December 11, 2011)