As illustrious of an album it was, Kanye West had other interesting plans for Watch The Throne prior to its release.
According to former Grantland writer and well-known media publisher David Cho, West had a vision for not just the album, but more specifically its tracklist. On the latest episode of ItsTheReal’s A Waste of Time podcast, Cho revealed that Jay Z and Kanye had somewhat of a disagreement when it came to titling the album single “Niggas in Paris.” As Cho recalls, Jay wanted to name the Grammy award-winning record “Ball So Hard.”
Kanye West says “There will never be a Watch the Throne 2
“Jay wanted to call [‘Niggas in Paris’] “Ball So Hard,” and Kanye was like ‘No,’” Cho recalled. West then detailed his vision for the WTT tracklist. “We’re gonna put the n-word in every single title on this album so everyone has to say it and they have to confront it,” Cho recalled West stating. While it isn’t clear how they settled with “Niggas in Paris,” the single happens to be the only record that features the title. (Sidebar: What ever happened to “Living So Italian”?)
Listen to the full two-hour podcast below, with the Watch the Throne chatter beginning at around the 1:48:20 mark.