WATCH THE THRONE ON ITUNES NOW! NEW SINGLE "LIFT OFF" FT. BEYONCE!

After months of anticipation, "Watch the Throne" is finally here.
The first fully-collaborated album from Jay-Z and Kanye West dropped on iTunes at midnight Monday, giving a first taste of their much-hyped project.

Each of the album's 12 tracks were co-written by Jay and West, who took the lead on production and artists like James Brown, Otis Redding, and Nina Simone lend backing vocals with strategically placed samples. Not to be left out, Beyonce joins husband Jay to lay down the chorus on the second track, "Lift Off."

While West and Jay-Z originally envisioned "Throne" as a 5-track EP, West set the music world aflutter last August when he revealed the project had grown to a full-length album.

And while singles "H•A•M" and "Otis" were released earlier this year, the album was - surprisingly - kept entirely leak-free until its release this morning.

Senior VP of A&R for Def Jam records Lenny Santiago was among the very few privileged enough to sit in on the recording sessions, which were spread across New York City, Australia, and Paris and tells MTV they reminded him of the early days at Jay's old label.

"What was real dope...[was that] it felt like old Roc-a-Fella, Bassline days," Santiago said, referring to the label's old digs at Bassline Studios.

Jay-Z would sit at the mixers - not editing - just listening to the beat and running rhymes in his head.

"A lot of times when Jay writes - or doesn't [actually] write - that's how he writes, with his arms on the board, boppin' his head," Santiago explained.

"That's literarily Jay's way of writing, which is so ill and dope if you ever have the honor and the pleasure to be there and witness that," he added. "Just the beat is on, and he's nodding and grooving to the joint. Ten, 15, sometimes eight, sometimes 12 minutes later; 20 minutes later, he's in the booth saying this whole ill crazy 16-[bar verse] or 32-[bar verse] or whatever the case is.... No pen, no pad, no nothing."

"Watch the Throne" is out now.



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