Kanye West & Jay-Z

"H.A.M."

BY Josiah HughesPublished Jan 11, 2011

As promised, the lead single from Kanye West and Jay-Z's long-awaited collaborative album, Watch the Throne, arrived today (January 11). The track is called "H.A.M.," which we've now learned stands for "hard as a motherfucker," which is a lot better than our fear that it was a horrendous rap version of Britney Spears's new single, "Hold it Against Me."

In order to go hard as motherfuckers, Yeezy and Jay hired the hardest motherfucker out there for the beat, taking on frequent Waka Flocka Flame collaborator Lex Luger to man the boards. As expected, Luger delivered his trademark spooky synths and explosive drums, tailoring it to his rappers' inclinations, with a dose of operatic vocals and a piano outro.

Lyrically, it's so nice to hear Ye and Jay spit straight-up braggadocio over an actual rap beat after Ye's obsession with being "an artist" and Jay's weaker verses of late. Listening to these two titans actually have a good time suggests that Watch the Throne could be an excellent album despite the big, dark, beautiful shadow hovering over it.

Officially, you can stream "H.A.M." over at the Watch the Throne Facebook page, but many blogs have ripped the audio into a downloadable MP3. Try to snag your copy here.

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