‘Watch the Throne’, the 2011 collaborative album between Jay-Z and Kanye West, briefly returned to Spotify today after it was initially pulled off the streaming service in 2017.
The album mysteriously returned to the site today (August 24), without any announcement, before being quietly removed again. No comment about the temporary re-emrergence of the album has been released by publicity teams for either artist.
Whilst West’s full catalogue of music is available on Spotify, Jay-Z took the vast majority of his music from the site, taking it over to Tidal – the rival streaming site owned by the rapper.
Spotify released a statement at the time about Jay-Z removing his music, with the service saying it was done “at the request of the artist.”
West, meanwhile, ended his exclusivity deal with Tidal last year after accusing the service of not paying him what he was owed. Many have speculated the fallout led to the album’s initial removal last year.
Earlier this year, Jay-Z spoke about the fallout saying: “That’s my brother…We’re beyond friends. Like literally, my little brother is Kanye. And like your little brother, things happen sometimes.”
He added: “It’s still your sibling forever. We don’t come from the same mom and dad, but I’ve watched Kanye from [when he was] without an album.”
“What I respect about him is that he’s the same person,” Jay added. “He [once] interrupted our studio session and stood on a table and started rapping. We were like, ‘Can you please get down’. He was like, ‘No, I am the saviour of Chicago’. He didn’t even have a record.”
You can read more fan reaction to the album’s re-emergence on Spotify below.
so they put watch the throne back on spotify and took it down again? sad day 🙁
— fuck 12 (@killajuxn) August 24, 2018
Watch the throne back off spotify 🙁 playing with my emotions like that come on man
— Chris Mullooly (@ChrisMullooly) August 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/freddysalgadoo/status/1033029840222343168
Watch the Throne is off Spotify again… Well easy come, easy go I guess ??♂️
— Craigo (@FilipinoGamb1no) August 24, 2018
they took watch the throne off spotify again i cant stop crying
— rik cilantro (@RookToKing) August 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/TravenBetaNu/status/1033011259300634624