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"H•A•M"
Single by Jay-Z and Kanye West
from the album Watch the Throne
Released	January 11, 2011 (2011-01-11)
Recorded	2010–2011
Studio	Real World (Wiltshire, UK) (The Mercer) Hotel (New York)
Genre	Hip hop electro orchestral
Length	4:38
Label	Roc-A-Fella Def Jam
Songwriter(s)	Shawn Carter Kanye West Lexus Lewis Mike Dean
Producer(s)	Lex Luger
Jay-Z singles chronology
"Monster" (2010) "H•A•M" (2011) "Otis" (2011)
Kanye West singles chronology
"Christmas in Harlem" (2010) "H•A•M" (2011) "E.T." (2011)

"H•A•M" is a song by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West from their collaborative studio album, Watch the Throne (2011). The song features additional vocals from Aude Cardona and Jacob Lewis Smith. It was produced by Lex Luger and co-produced by West, with additional production from Mike Dean and the three of them served as co-writers with Jay-Z. The song's beat was first provided to West by Lex Luger during the recording sessions for his fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). West then added his production work up until the release and would not preview it to Lex Luger, who considered this was due to his perfectionist approach. It was released for digital download in the United States as the album's lead single on January 11, 2011, through Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam.

The song has served as the opening track to the duo's Watch the Throne Tour. Various rap artists have remixed it, such as Busta Rhymes and Lupe Fiasco. The song was featured in the 2012 film Project X. It peaked at No. 23 on Billboard Hot 100.

Background and recording

Jay-Z and West are both American rappers who have collaborated on several tracks together, such as singles like "Swagga Like Us" (2008), "Run This Town" (2009), and "Monster" (2010). In 2010, the two began production and recording together for a collaborative record titled Watch the Throne. "H•A•M" includes additional vocals from opera singer Aude Cardona, who also sings on the track "Illest Motherfucker Alive". Cardona explained that she once woke up to a message asking if she was an opera singer and did not initially realize it was from West's manager, who was recruiting her for the album. The team knew of Cardona because a friend from Jive Records recommended her to the owner of Electric Lady Studios and she was surprised to record at the location of The Mercer Hotel in SoHo, Manhattan, only meeting West there and finding him to be very nice. Cardona found that despite West being clear in his vision, he was willing to listen to other ideas and allowed the singer to improvise for much of her solo parts. She appreciated the song for mixing hip hop with opera and spent seven hours recording her vocals, delivering many takes in high C notes as she aimed for West's desired combination of gospel and R&B to offer a modern sound. On January 10, 2011, "H•A•M" leaked via Facebook at midnight and was played over 43,000 times within nine hours, being shared online as an MP3 too. West subsequently tweeted that the song "crashed facebook", attaching the link to a screenshot of an error on the leak's page. In an August 2011 interview with 99 Jamz, Jay-Z described "H•A•M" as a "super intense" song that is difficult to listen to on its own, yet can be experienced differently in the context of Watch the Throne. He called the song a "massive hit record", intending for it to be played at concerts rather than "inside your home".

In January 2011, record producer Lex Luger disclosed that West and Jay-Z had recruited him for production on the album. The producer was not fully certain about this position initially, although he appreciated the opportunity of collaborating with them. Lex Luger sent West and Jay-Z the track for "H•A•M" during recording sessions for the former's fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in November 2010, standing as one of the two beats he requested to use. He originally provided around eight beats to West when recording in New York, where they worked on the album track "See Me Now". Lex Luger predicted "H•A•M" would be "aggressive and hard", continuing the style of his previous production work on Rick Ross' "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)" (2010) and Waka Flocka Flame's "Hard in da Paint" (2009). After receiving the track, West added his production work that included a choir and did not allow Lex Luger to listen until it was finalized for the premiere in January 2011. The producer attributed this to West's perfectionist approach, feeling he required his material to be "10 times greater than everything". Lex Luger was the lead producer of "H•A•M" and West served as a co-producer, while Mike Dean contributed additional production and three of them wrote it alongside Jay-Z.

Composition and lyrics

Musically, "H•A•M" is a hip hop, electro, and orchestral song, with elements of techno. It has an aggressive electronic beat, which incorporates a double-time bounce. The song features an icy, rising synth line that contains staccato stabs, combined with Lex Luger's fast drums. It also includes hi-hats and cello; the latter was contributed by Christopher "Hitchcock" Chorney. Crashing drums appear on the blaring chorus, which is performed by a wailing choir. Jay-Z semi-sings on many of his lines, while West raps in double-time. At points, Cardona sings with additional vocalist Jacob Lewis Smith.

West raps on the chorus that he is going to go ham, serving as an acronym for "hard as a motherfucker". Jay-Z addresses fellow rapper and label executive Birdman's 2009 comments of his rap colleague Lil Wayne being a better rapper and richer than him, rapping that he has half a billion and "niggas ain't got my lady money".

Release and reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Beats Per Minute	3/10
Rolling Stone

On January 7, 2011, West tweeted the song's black-and-white cover art, which was created by Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy and shows crowns alongside a vicious barking dog. He also announced "H•A•M" would be released on January 11. It was released for digital download in the United States as the album's lead single on the scheduled date, through West and Jay-Z's labels Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam. During a private listening event at The Mercer Hotel on July 7, 2011, Jay-Z said that the song was reflective of the album having been scaled back from its earlier iterations that were more dramatic and intricately planned. Jay-Z and West were reluctant to release the song and retrospectively, the former felt the first single should have featured the two rapping back and forth for three minutes with no hook. On August 23, 2011, Def Jam, Roc Nation, and Roc-A-Fella released the deluxe edition of West and Jay-Z's album Watch the Throne, including "H•A•M" as the 14th track. Fellow rapper and producer Swizz Beatz commented positively on the song, saying, "I think that those being both of my friends, and knowing that people can team up on such a high caliber level – as musicians, as rappers, as friends, as peers – I think it's super positive, and I think that if more of the industry did moves like this it would be a better place for everybody."

"H•A•M" was met with mixed reviews from music critics. The song received a three out of five star review from Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone. Kevin O'Donnell of Spin praised the song by saying, "Kanye's latest, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was the most epic album of 2010 – and the rapper's ambitions haven't eased up one bit here. The track morphs into the weirdest sounding opera ever, with a female singing window-shattering trills over a gospel piano progression and the song's hard-hitting beat." Writing for Today, Josh Grossberg said the song consists of "a robotic backing beat and heavy anthem" that demonstrates Jay-Z and West's "virtuoso rapping". Grossberg expressed that some of their hardcore fans may laugh at it however, questioning the "scattershot operatic chorus and over-the-top orchestration". Although Jessica from Stereogum appreciated Lex Luger's production, she did not considered its style suitable for the performers. Brent Koepp of Beats Per Minute gave the song three out of ten and described it as "show-boating" from West after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, finding the music to reach a standard below his unique skillset. Koepp felt West and Jay-Z force in elements like the synth and choir to give the song an epicness; he concluded that the rappers focus "way too much" on its theme with their disappointing verses.

Controversy

After West played "H•A•M" to Lil Wayne in March 2011, the rapper asserted that from his wit and personality he "would probably play off of" Jay-Z's lyrics alluding to him. Lil Wayne strayed away from competing with Jay-Z on the subject to not "box with the god", while saying he did not ask West about these lyrics since they were not from him. He later rapped a response to Jay-Z on the single "It's Good" in the summer of 2011, telling him he does have his "baby money". Lil Wayne threatened to kidnap Jay-Z's wife Beyonce as he rapped, "Get that 'how much you love your lady?' money."

Live performances and other usage

In February 2011, West delivered a solo rendition of the song during the premiere party for Nike's The Black Mamba. On March 19, West and Jay-Z performed it during VEVO's GOOD Music show for South by Southwest (SXSW) at an abandoned power plant in Austin, Texas. The performers entered the stage as fireworks went off in the sky above and West rapped along with Jay-Z during his verse, looking him directly in the face. A few months after the performance, it was uploaded to YouTube by VEVO in July 2011. On May 10, West brought out Jay-Z to perform the song towards the end of his benefit concert for the annual party of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, New York.

At festivals such as Mawazine, Splendour in the Grass, and The Big Chill from the spring to summer of 2011, West used "H•A•M" as the introduction to his set lists. He emerged on a white podium with the accompaniment of phoenix dancers on stage during the festivals, backed by a classical portrait of Athena and Nike fighting Alcyoneus. During West and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne Tour that ran from 2011 until 2012, they performed the song as the opening number. The rappers performed it for Samsung Galaxy's SXSW concert at the Austin Music Hall on March 12, 2014, accompanied by a 12-foot video cube at the center of the stage.

On January 18, 2011, rapper Busta Rhymes shared a remix of "H•A•M" that added a verse from him. Eight days later, XV released his track over the beat for "H•A•M". The version added "Heroes Amongst Men" to the title and in contrast to the original, XV raps on the operatic outro. On February 17, 2011, Lupe Fiasco freestyled over the song on Tim Westwood's radio show in the lead up to the release of his third album Lasers. In March 2012, "H•A•M" was used for the teen comedy film Project X. During an appearance for Peter Rosenberg on Hot 97 in July, Odd Future members Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, and Domo Genesis each delivered sandwich-themed freestyles over the song.

Commercial performance

"H•A•M" debuted at number 23 on the US Billboard Hot 100 with 125,000 digital units, entering the Digital Songs chart at number 10. The song lasted for seven weeks on the chart. At the same time as its peak on the Hot 100, the song entered the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart at number 94. It jumped 46 places for the chart issue dated January 29, 2011, a week before climbing to number 37. The song eventually peaked at number 24 on the chart for March 5. On March 31, 2014, "H•A•M" received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for amassing 500,000 certified units in the US.

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.

Recording

• Recorded at Real World Studios (Wiltshire, UK) and (The Mercer) Hotel (New York)
• Mixed at (The Mercer) Hotel (New York)

Personnel

• Kanye West – songwriter, co-production
• Jay-Z – songwriter
• Lex Luger – songwriter, production
• Mike Dean – songwriter, additional production, mix engineer, cello arrangement
• Noah Goldstein – recording engineer
• Mat Arnold – assistant recording engineer
• Christopher "Hitchcock" Chorney – cello
• Aude Cardona – additional vocals
• Jacob Lewis Smith – additional vocals
• Riccardo Tisci – creative direction

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

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External links

• VEVO performance on YouTube

• 2011 singles
• 2011 songs
• Def Jam Recordings singles
• Electro songs
• Jay-Z songs
• Kanye West songs
• Orchestral songs
• Roc-A-Fella Records singles
• Song recordings produced by Kanye West
• Song recordings produced by Lex Luger (musician)
• Song recordings produced by Mike Dean (record producer)
• Songs written by Jay-Z
• Songs written by Kanye West
• Songs written by Lex Luger (musician)
• Songs written by Mike Dean (record producer)