“Watch the Throne,” the beloved collaboration album from Kanye West and Jay-Z is now four years old. “What a Time to Be Alive,” the new collaborative mixtape from Drake and Future is only a few weeks old. Both albums set the Internet aflame during their respective releases, but in the world we live in today, only one album can truly be considered the best. We live in a competitive society, where lists are constantly being made, trying to determine what is the best.

“Watch the Throne” is the first collaborative studio album created by longtime friends West and Jay-Z. The album took nearly a year to make, with production for the album beginning in November of 2010 and the album was not released until August 2011. To many, “Watch the Throne” is considered the quintessential collaborative effort, bringing out the best in both West and Jay-Z, allowing them to each find their strengths and utilize those strengths effectively throughout an entire album.

“Watch the Throne” is one of the best rap albums of all time, but the same can not be said for “WATTBA” as “WATTBA” didn’t give me the immediate sense of magic that “Watch the Throne” provided.

“Watch the Throne” was a collaborative album that took months of deliberate and tactical maneuvering to complete, while “WATTBA” is a mixtape that Drake announced on his Instagram the day before it was released. It might be unfair to compare the two, but as these two collaborative efforts are primed to be compared for the remainder of time, as both projects were created by artists who share similar popularity.

“While these songs are hot today, I don’t think ‘WATTBA’ will have the longevity of ‘Watch the Throne,’” Parker Nyquist, a digital cinema major said. “‘Watch the Throne’ offers mood swings that ‘WATTBA’ just cannot compete with.”

The mood swings that Nyquist touches on can be found in an energetic, club-friendly song like “… In Paris,” and then changes the pace in the soft, sweet, gospel-like tune in “Made in America.” While “WATTBA” offers a lot of enjoyable, fast-paced songs, it never quite lets up, leaving the listener with only one sound in her or head.

“‘Watch the Throne’ is more of a journey,” Mike McGonigle, a finance and economics major said. “I feel like I’m listening to something that has layers to it. ‘WATTBA’ is a surface level mixtape. It’s fun at the time, but I’m not going to bump it in a month.”

While many believe “WATTBA” is a fun album, it doesn’t have nearly the same lasting power as an album like “Watch the Throne.”

Avery Sherman, a vocal performance major, believes that the chemistry between Drake and Future wasn’t nearly up to par with West and Jay-Z.

“‘WATTBA’ was too Future-heavy,” Sherman said. “It seemed like Drake was just a feature on a few songs.”

Many students agree with my sentiments that “Watch the Throne” is the superior collaborative effort. However, if you don’t care to compare the two projects and just want to enjoy them on their own, listeners cna have a lot of fun with that. Both “WATTBA” and “Watch the Throne” are entertaining in their own respects, but one may be a little more enjoyable than the other.