An Analysis of Jay-Z & Kanye West's Otis Music Video

New videos are popping up left and right, with Kanye and Jay finally coming through with the visuals for Otis, their first single from Watch the Throne.

If anything, the video -- which shows the two Roc stars laughing and enjoying the spoils of success by driving around a vacant parking lot in a one-of-a-kind Maybach while trading verses -- makes me like the song even more.

With that said, I'm still not sure what exactly the song is about, nor do I understand why two veritable musical geniuses would work so hard on an album only to reward its lead single with a lazy, unimaginative title that, again, apparently has nothing to do with the song's enigmatic subject matter.

Jay-Z & Kanye Watch the Throne: [Hasty] Album Review

For years (decades even) rap artists have been hard at work pushing the genre’s musical envelope in new directions in hopes of adding on to what can sometimes [rightfully] be perceived as a somewhat stagnant art form.

Despite an ever-diversifying array of Hiphop producers who are seemingly eager to break up the monotony of mainstream rap by incorporating new sounds and styles into their music, it has been the rappers for the most part who are reluctant to test the unfamiliar waters of nontraditional Hiphop production, opting instead for the safety of formulaic 16-bar verses and a hook.

But today’s release of Watch the Throne, the highly anticipated collaboration album from Jay-Z and Kanye West, more than crushes the above stereotype of the lazy rapper and the producer(s) who enables him or her.

More specifically, Jay-Z, the flawless lyricist and revered elder statesman of rap, and Kanye West, the boastful wordsmith and accomplished beat-making producer who is known for bending the rules when it comes to rap, have created as close to a genre-busting masterpiece as we have seen in quite a while.