As of right now, Jay-Z and Kanye West‘s collaborative album, Watch The Throne, is dangerously close to becoming an urban legend. For months now, we’ve heard about how Hov and ‘Ye are traveling the world—from New York City to Paris—and checking into different hotels and studios to finish working on the album. As recently as just a couple of weeks ago, Jay spoke on how he was working diligently to get Kanye to focus on getting it done. And yet, there’s still no definitive release date in sight!

That, my friends, is a problem. Because right now, there are a plethora—yes, a plethora!—of other artists that are putting out new projects or ready to put out new projects that are coming for Jay and ‘Ye’s crown. With that in mind, we sat down and came up with a list of the five reasons they need to get their act together and put out Watch The Throne ASAP to avoid getting lost in the mix when it finally drops. Let’s go, fellas!

1. DJ Khaled, Drake, Rick Ross, and Lil Wayne already appear to have hip-hop’s summer anthem locked up.

If Jay and ‘Ye think they can just release a tough second single from WTT and rule the summer that way, they might want to think again. The second single from Khaled’s new album, “I’m On One,” had the Internet going absolutely nuts this week and appears to be just the summer anthem we needed as we inch closer to Memorial Day Weekend. You guys need to put out something sooner than later, but after hearing your first single, “H.A.M.,” we’re skeptical about it topping Khaled’s latest posse cut.

2. Speaking of Drake, Rick Ross, and Lil Wayne, they’ve all got big projects lined up for this year.

We’re sure Watch The Throne will get plenty of attention when it drops. But that attention is going to be diluted once these three release projects of their own. There was a window of time in early 2011 where nothing was dropping and Watch The Throne probably would have gone platinum in a week. But that time has passed and the longer Jay and ‘Ye wait, the more competition they’re going to have out there from a laundry list of the game’s best MCs.

3. Watch The Throne is starting to get talked about in the same sentence as Dr. Dre’s Detox.

Fair or not—we say not, considering Detox has been “Coming Soon” for more than a decade now—any hip-hop album that faces multiple delays gets lumped into the same category as Detox. And with Detox on everyone’s mind since it’s supposed to be released sometime soon (we won’t hold out breath!) people are starting to mention Watch The Throne when they talk about the delays Detox has faced. Don’t be like Dre, guys.

4. The buzz for Watch The Throne is dying. Quickly!

Back in January, we were all excited to hear what Jay and ‘Ye had in store for us. It sounded like they had a bunch of records in the can, they had a release date in mind, and they had a single that—say what you want about it—shot to top of the charts. Today, none of those things are true and the buzz for Watch The Throne is borderline nonexistent. If nothing else, they need to give us a teaser or a street single to get people talking about it again.

5. Jay-Z and Kanye both look like they’re uncharacteristically late.

When Jay-Z sets a release date for one of his albums, it usually sticks. Same thing for ‘Ye. So the fact that the release date for Watch The Throne has come and gone makes both artists look bad—and has us a little worried that the album might be nowhere near finished. We hope that’s not the case, but if you guys are listening: We need Watch The Throne. Soon, please!

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