We knew after catching a first glimpse at Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Riccardo Tisci-designed“H.A.M.” single coverthat the song itself was going to be a balls-to-the-wall over the top affair. We just didn’t know what the heckthe title meant—until now. The first single off‘Ye‘n Jay’s forthcomingWatch The ThroneLP premiered on Facebook in the wee hours of the morn, and now you can listen to the bombastic jam after the jump. (P.S. TotallyNSFW.)
Lex Luger, who previously swizzed the decks for Rick Ross’“B.M.F. (Blowin’ Money Fast)” and Kanye’s“See Me Now”, handled production duties on“H.A.M.”. And we’re giving him props for incorporating that hypnotic, squiggly synth intro—which sounds like it was lifted form the score to some’80s Dario Argento slice-and-dice flick—alone.
What follows after that is a“N”-word-riddled tirade from Kanye first, then Jay, that finds the two hip hop legends spitting down the haters and bragging about their cash.
A few choice lines:
Kanye:“N****s telling me,‘You back’ like a n**** ever left up out this bitch, huh?/ And if life’s a bitch, then suck my dick.”
Jay-Z:“Fuck y’all mad at me for? Y’all don’t even know what I’ve been through/ I play chicken with a Mack Truck, Y’all muthafuckas would’ve been moved.”
Kanye West& Jay-Z - H.A.M.We’re still scratching our noggins over“H.A.M.” standing for“hard as a mutherfucka” (guess“H.A.A.M” just doesn’t have the same ring).
And no disrespect to these two geniuses, but the raddest part of this jam is that rap-less breakdown about three minutes in that segues from creepyThe Omen-type chanting to moving piano chords to an opera diva belting like Mariah Carey’s mom on“The Hallelujah Chorus”. Not sure if that was a touch Lex Luger added or if it came from the two rappers behind the song, but it’s just the type of gaudy flare you want packed into a lead single from an album by these guys.
At any rate, we now have the“H.A.M.” that West and Hova served up. How do you rate this single compared to other tracks from these two MCs?
