There’s something about Jay-Z and Kanye West that almost seems like a big brother-little brother relationship. Just go all the way back to 2009 when West interrupted Taylor Swift’s Video Music Award acceptance speech to praise a video by Beyonce, otherwise known as Mrs. Jay-Z. Or even when Beyonce announced her pregnancy at this year’s VMA show and cameras showed a jubilant West jumping up and down behind Jay-Z. The actions seem close to a brother trying to garner favor with an older sibling. The question is why?
“Everyone in the country is in therapy and spending all their money on self-help books so their little internal voice will be able to say, ‘I am good and I am OK,'” producer Jon Brion told Rolling Stone. “If you’re going to believe all the stuff about positive thinking and self-actualization, that we affect our environment by the way we think about ourselves, do you want a better example than Kanye West? [Forget] Tony Robbins. Kanye West should have infomercials.”
| Onstage |
| Jay-Z and Kanye West |
| When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday |
| Where: Verizon Center, 601 F Street NW |
| Info: $59.50 to $250; ticketmaster.com, 202-397-SEAT |
Yet that may well paint an incomplete picture of West, who often straddles arrogance and self doubt, especially since the 2007 death of his mother Donde West. Perhaps, in keeping with the sibling analogy, it’s not surprising that the two much honored kings of hip hop have teamed for the album and tour, “Watch the Throne.”
The implication of the term is clear and West and Jay-Z have ridden the music and the implication of hip hop royalty to No. 1 on the charts. The world tour in support of the album, that seems to have enough momentum to last for years, has sold out major venues thanks to the combined talents of the two headliners.
“The Watch the Throne concert totally surpassed anything you would expect. From the 50-foot cubes, to the laser show and spectacular visuals, and in-and-out mini sets, the pair moved like a duo that has performed consistently for years,” reported All Hip Hop.
Yet West, who rarely gives interviews, underscored to Slate that despite his success and appearance of bravado, he has plenty of self doubt.
“I never feel like I’m not the underdog. I never felt completely comfortable,” he told Slate last year after the 2009 VMA misstep with Swift. “I know how it feels when the night demons come. Sometimes when it hurts so bad we have to just lay in the bed. Just lay in bed and don’t move.”
Time will tell if this teaming of brothers in hip hop provides some redemption and comfort for the tortured hip hop royalty.
