Young Guru Says 'Watch The Throne' Is Almost Ready, Names Producers & Hints At Future Jay-Z Project

Producer and engineer Young Guru has played the background for years, while former business partners and friends Jay-Z and Dame Dash built Roc-A-Fella records into a hip-hop empire.

Mixing seminal hits from the label such as Jay-Z’s “H To The Izzo”, Freeway’s “What We Do” and Cam’Ron’s “Oh Boy”, the low-key wizard behind the boards is ready to further showcase his multiple talents

“Right now, I’m really trying to get Jay and Kanye to hurry up and finish this Watch The Throne album because the world needs to hear it," Guru tells VIBE during a midday break at this year’s SXSW festival. “It just needs little tweaks and things like that. But the core of the album is finished.”

Guru is focused on pushing his own production and juggling DJ gigs across the globe. While he says he hasn’t contributed any beats to Watch The Throne, the producer confirms that along with Kanye West, No I.D., Q-Tip and Pete Rock have all submitted music.

“Kanye takes what they do and adds on to it and I think that’s his genius. I say this all the time ‘Kanye records are never the same twice, while he’s making them because they always grow.’

He remained extremely tight-lipped on guest appearances and details surrounding Jay and Kanye’s first collaborative album, but Guru hinted that Hov may have an additional project in the works.

"Jay’s a consummate thinker, so sometimes he’ll call and be like ‘yo what do you think about this.’ And he said this idea to me that I wish I could tell the world about. Some ideas are so simple and in-your-face, that they’re so incredibly smart," Guru continues. “So this next idea— when you hear this title — the world is going to say ‘why didn’t Jay think of that for the first album.’ The title and concept just fits in perfectly. It’s so simple, but yet so elegant at the same time.  [Jay] can’t stop, it’s in his blood.”

Currently, Watch The Throne has no official release date.