title: Steve Biko

text: Biko developed SASO's ideology of "Black Consciousness" in conversation with other black student leaders. A SASO policy manifesto produced in July 1971 defined this ideology as "an attitude of mind, a way of life. The basic tenet of Black Consciousness is that the Blackman must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity." Black Consciousness centred on psychological empowerment, through combating the feelings of inferiority that most black South Africans exhibited. Biko believed that, as part of the struggle against apartheid and white-minority rule, blacks should affirm their own humanity by regarding themselves as worthy of freedom and its attendant responsibilities. It applied the term "black" not only to Bantu-speaking Africans, but also to Indians and Coloureds. SASO adopted this term over "non-white" because its leadership felt that defining themselves in opposition to white people was not a positive self-description. Biko promoted the slogan "black is beautiful", explaining that this meant "Man, you are okay as you are. Begin to look upon yourself as a human being."


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko presented a paper on "White Racism and Black Consciousness" at an academic conference in the University of Cape Town's Abe Bailey Centre in January 1971. He also expanded on his ideas in a column written for the "SASO Newsletter" under the pseudonym "Frank Talk". His tenure as president was taken up largely by fundraising activities, and involved travelling around various campuses in South Africa to recruit students and deepen the movement's ideological base. Some of these students censured him for abandoning NUSAS' multi-racial approach; others disapproved of SASO's decision to allow Indian and Coloured students to be members. Biko stepped down from the presidency after a year, insisting that it was necessary for a new leadership to emerge and thus avoid any cult of personality forming around him.


title: Steve Biko

text: SASO decided after a debate to remain non-affiliated with NUSAS, but would nevertheless recognise the larger organisation as the national student body. One of SASO's founding resolutions was to send a representative to each NUSAS conference. In 1970 SASO withdrew its recognition of NUSAS, accusing it of attempting to hinder SASO's growth on various campuses. SASO's split from NUSAS was a traumatic experience for many white liberal youth who had committed themselves to the idea of a multi-racial organisation and felt that their attempts were being rebuffed. The NUSAS leadership regretted the split, but largely refrained from criticising SASO. The government—which regarded multi-racial liberalism as a threat and had banned multi-racial political parties in 1968—was pleased with SASO's emergence, regarding it as a victory of apartheid thinking.


title: Steve Biko

text: The early focus of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was on criticising anti-racist white liberals and liberalism itself, accusing it of paternalism and being a "negative influence" on black Africans. In one of his first published articles, Biko stated that although he was "not sneering at the [white] liberals and their involvement" in the anti-apartheid movement, "one has to come to the painful conclusion that the [white] liberal is in fact appeasing his own conscience, or at best is eager to demonstrate his identification with the black people only insofar as it does not sever all ties with his relatives on his side of the colour line."


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko and SASO were openly critical of NUSAS' protests against government policies. Biko argued that NUSAS merely sought to influence the white electorate; in his opinion, this electorate was not legitimate, and protests targeting a particular policy would be ineffective for the ultimate aim of dismantling the apartheid state. SASO regarded student marches, pickets, and strikes to be ineffective and stated it would withdraw from public forms of protest. It deliberately avoided open confrontation with the state until such a point when it had a sufficiently large institutional structure. Instead, SASO's focus was on establishing community projects and spreading Black Consciousness ideas among other black organisations and the wider black community. Despite this policy, in May 1972 it issued the Alice Declaration, in which it called for students to boycott lectures in response to the expulsion of SASO member Abram Onkgopotse Tiro from the University of the North after he made a speech criticising its administration. The Tiro incident convinced the government that SASO was a threat.


title: Steve Biko

text: In Durban, Biko entered a relationship with a nurse, Nontsikelelo "Ntsiki" Mashalaba; they married at the King William's Town magistrates court in December 1970. Their first child, Nkosinathi, was born in 1971. Biko initially did well in his university studies, but his grades declined as he devoted increasing time to political activism. Six years after starting his degree, he found himself repeating his third year. In 1972, as a result of his poor academic performance, the University of Natal barred him from further study.


title: Steve Biko

text: In August 1971, Biko attended a conference on "The Development of the African Community" in Edendale. There, a resolution was presented calling for the formation of the Black People's Convention (BPC), a vehicle for the promotion of Black Consciousness among the wider population. Biko voted in favour of the group's creation but expressed reservations about the lack of consultation with South Africa's Coloureds or Indians. A. Mayatula became the BPC's first president; Biko did not stand for any leadership positions. The group was formally launched in July 1972 in Pietermaritzburg. By 1973, it had 41 branches and 4000 members, sharing much of its membership with SASO.


title: Steve Biko

text: While the BPC was primarily political, Black Consciousness activists also established the Black Community Programmes (BCPs) to focus on improving healthcare and education and fostering black economic self-reliance. The BCPs had strong ecumenical links, being part-funded by a program on Christian action, established by the Christian Institute of Southern Africa and the South African Council of Churches. Additional funds came from the Anglo-American Corporation, the International University Exchange Fund, and Scandinavian churches. In 1972, the BCP hired Biko and Bokwe Mafuna, allowing Biko to continue his political and community work. In September 1972, Biko visited Kimberley, where he met the PAC founder and anti-apartheid activist Robert Sobukwe.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko's banning order in 1973 prevented him from working officially for the BCPs from which he had previously earned a small stipend, but he helped to set up a new BPC branch in Ginsberg, which held its first meeting in the church of a sympathetic white clergyman, David Russell. Establishing a more permanent headquarters in Leopold Street, the branch served as a base from which to form new BCPs; these included self-help schemes such as classes in literacy, dressmaking and health education. For Biko, community development was part of the process of infusing black people with a sense of pride and dignity. Near King William's Town, a BCP Zanempilo Clinic was established to serve as a healthcare centre catering for rural black people who would not otherwise have access to hospital facilities. He helped to revive the Ginsberg crèche, a daycare for children of working mothers, and establish a Ginsberg education fund to raise bursaries for promising local students. He helped establish Njwaxa Home Industries, a leather goods company providing jobs for local women. In 1975, he co-founded the Zimele Trust, a fund for the families of political prisoners.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko endorsed the unification of South Africa's black liberationist groups—among them the BCM, PAC, and African National Congress (ANC)—in order to concentrate their anti-apartheid efforts. To this end, he reached out to leading members of the ANC, PAC, and Unity Movement. His communications with the ANC were largely via Griffiths Mxenge, and plans were being made to smuggle him out of the country to meet Oliver Tambo, a leading ANC figure. Biko's negotiations with the PAC were primarily through intermediaries who exchanged messages between him and Sobukwe; those with the Unity Movement were largely via Fikile Bam.


title: Steve Biko

text: By 1973, the government regarded Black Consciousness as a threat. It sought to disrupt Biko's activities, and in March 1973 placed a banning order on him. This prevented him from leaving the King William's Town magisterial district, prohibited him from speaking either in public or to more than one person at a time, barred his membership of political organisations, and forbade the media from quoting him. As a result, he returned to Ginsberg, living initially in his mother's house and later in his own residence.


title: Steve Biko

text: In December 1975, attempting to circumvent the restrictions of the banning order, the BPC declared Biko their honorary president. After Biko and other BCM leaders were banned, a new leadership arose, led by Muntu Myeza and Sathasivian Cooper, who were considered part of the Durban Moment. Myeza and Cooper organised a BCM demonstration to mark Mozambique's independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. Biko disagreed with this action, correctly predicting that the government would use it to crack down on the BCM. The government arrested around 200 BCM activists, nine of whom were brought before the Supreme Court, accused of subversion by intent. The state claimed that Black Consciousness philosophy was likely to cause "racial confrontation" and therefore threatened public safety. Biko was called as a witness for the defence; he sought to refute the state's accusations by outlining the movement's aims and development. Ultimately, the accused were convicted and imprisoned on Robben Island.


title: Steve Biko

text: In 1973, Biko had enrolled for a law degree by correspondence from the University of South Africa. He passed several exams, but had not completed the degree at his time of death. His performance on the course was poor; he was absent from several exams and failed his Practical Afrikaans module. The state security services repeatedly sought to intimidate him; he received anonymous threatening phone calls, and gun shots were fired at his house. A group of young men calling themselves 'The Cubans' began guarding him from these attacks. The security services detained him four times, once for 101 days. With the ban preventing him from gaining employment, the strained economic situation impacted his marriage.


title: Steve Biko

text: During his ban, Biko asked for a meeting with Donald Woods, the white liberal editor of the "Daily Dispatch". Under Woods' editorship, the newspaper had published articles criticising apartheid and the white-minority regime and had also given space to the views of various black groups, but not the BCM. Biko hoped to convince Woods to give the movement greater coverage and an outlet for its views. Woods was initially reticent, believing that Biko and the BCM advocated "for racial exclusivism in reverse". When he met Biko for the first time, Woods expressed his concern about the anti-white liberal sentiment of Biko's early writings. Biko acknowledged that his earlier "antiliberal" writings were "overkill", but said that he remained committed to the basic message contained within them.


title: Steve Biko

text: Over the coming years the pair became close friends. Woods later related that, although he continued to have concerns about "the unavoidably racist aspects of Black Consciousness", it was "both a revelation and education" to socialise with blacks who had "psychologically emancipated attitudes". Biko also remained friends with another prominent white liberal, Duncan Innes, who served as NUSAS President in 1969; Innes later commented that Biko was "invaluable in helping me to understand black oppression, not only socially and politically, but also psychologically and intellectually". Biko's friendship with these white liberals came under criticism from some members of the BCM.


title: Steve Biko

text: In 1977, Biko broke his banning order by travelling to Cape Town, hoping to meet Unity Movement leader Neville Alexander and deal with growing dissent in the Western Cape branch of the BCM, which was dominated by Marxists like Johnny Issel. Biko drove to the city with his friend Peter Jones on 17 August, but Alexander refused to meet with Biko, fearing that he was being monitored by the police. Biko and Jones drove back toward King William's Town, but on 18 August they were stopped at a police roadblock near Grahamstown. Biko was arrested for having violated the order restricting him to King William's Town. Unsubstantiated claims have been made that the security services were aware of Biko's trip to Cape Town and that the road block had been erected to catch him. Jones was also arrested at the roadblock; he was subsequently held without trial for 533 days, during which time he was interrogated on numerous occasions.


title: Steve Biko

text: The security services took Biko to the Walmer police station in Port Elizabeth, where he was held naked in a cell with his legs in shackles. On 6 September, he was transferred from Walmer to room 619 of the security police headquarters in the Sanlam Building in central Port Elizabeth, where he was interrogated for 22 hours, handcuffed and in shackles, and chained to a grille. Exactly what happened has never been ascertained, but during the interrogation he was severely beaten by at least one of the ten security police officers. He suffered three brain lesions that resulted in a massive brain haemorrhage on 6 September. Following this incident, Biko's captors forced him to remain standing and shackled to the wall. The police later said that Biko had attacked one of them with a chair, forcing them to subdue him and place him in handcuffs and leg irons.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko was examined by a doctor, Ivor Lang, who stated that there was no evidence of injury on Biko. Later scholarship has suggested Biko's injuries must have been obvious. He was then examined by two other doctors who, after a test showed blood cells to have entered Biko's spinal fluid, agreed that he should be transported to a prison hospital in Pretoria. On 11 September, police loaded him into the back of a Land Rover, naked and manacled, and drove him to the hospital. There, Biko died alone in a cell on 12 September 1977. According to an autopsy, an "extensive brain injury" had caused "centralisation of the blood circulation to such an extent that there had been intravasal blood coagulation, acute kidney failure, and uremia". He was the twenty-first person to die in a South African prison in twelve months, and the forty-sixth political detainee to die during interrogation since the government introduced laws permitting imprisonment without trial in 1963.


title: Steve Biko

text: News of Biko's death spread quickly across the world, and became symbolic of the abuses of the apartheid system. His death attracted more global attention than he had ever attained during his lifetime. Protest meetings were held in several cities; many were shocked that the security authorities would kill such a prominent dissident leader. Biko's Anglican funeral service, held on 25 September 1977 at King William's Town's Victoria Stadium, took five hours and was attended by around 20,000 people. The vast majority were black, but a few hundred whites also attended, including Biko's friends, such as Russell and Woods, and prominent progressive figures like Helen Suzman, Alex Boraine, and Zach de Beer. Foreign diplomats from thirteen nations were present, as was an Anglican delegation headed by Bishop Desmond Tutu. The event was later described as "the first mass political funeral in the country". Biko's coffin had been decorated with the motifs of a clenched black fist, the African continent, and the statement "One Azania, One Nation"; Azania was the name that many activists wanted South Africa to adopt post-apartheid. Biko was buried in the cemetery at Ginsberg. Two BCM-affiliated artists, Dikobé Ben Martins and Robin Holmes, produced a T-shirt marking the event; the design was banned the following year. Martins also created a commemorative poster for the funeral, the first in a tradition of funeral posters that proved popular throughout the 1980s.


title: Steve Biko

text: Speaking publicly about Biko's death, the country's police minister Jimmy Kruger initially implied that it had been the result of a hunger strike, a statement he later denied. His account was challenged by some of Biko's friends, including Woods, who said that Biko had told them that he would never kill himself in prison. Publicly, he stated that Biko had been plotting violence, a claim repeated in the pro-government press. South Africa's attorney general initially stated that no one would be prosecuted for Biko's death. Two weeks after the funeral, the government banned all Black Consciousness organisations, including the BCP, which had its assets seized.


title: Steve Biko

text: Both domestic and international pressure called for a public inquest to be held, to which the government agreed. It began in Pretoria's Old Synagogue courthouse in November 1977, and lasted for three weeks. Both the running of the inquest and the quality of evidence submitted came in for extensive criticism. An observer from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law stated that the affidavit's statements were "sometimes redundant, sometimes inconsistent, frequently ambiguous"; David Napley described the police investigation of the incident as "perfunctory in the extreme". The security forces alleged that Biko had acted aggressively and had sustained his injuries in a scuffle, in which he had banged his head against the cell wall. The presiding magistrate accepted the security forces' account of events and refused to prosecute any of those involved.


title: Steve Biko

text: The verdict was treated with scepticism by much of the international media and the US Government led by President Jimmy Carter. On 2 February 1978, based on the evidence given at the inquest, the attorney general of the Eastern Cape stated that he would not prosecute the officers. After the inquest, Biko's family brought a civil case against the state; at the advice of their lawyers, they agreed to a settlement of R65,000 (US$78,000) in July 1979. Shortly after the inquest, the South African Medical and Dental Council initiated proceedings against the medical professionals who had been entrusted with Biko's care; eight years later two of the medics were found guilty of improper conduct. The failure of the government-employed doctors to diagnose or treat Biko's injuries has been frequently cited as an example of a repressive state influencing medical practitioners' decisions, and Biko's death as evidence of the need for doctors to serve the needs of patients before those of the state.


title: Steve Biko

text: After the abolition of apartheid and the establishment of a majority government in 1994, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to investigate past human-rights abuses. The commission made plans to investigate Biko's death, but his family petitioned against this on the grounds that the commission could grant amnesty to those responsible, thereby preventing the family's right to justice and redress. In 1996, the Constitutional Court ruled against the family, allowing the investigation to proceed. Five police officers (Harold Snyman, Gideon Nieuwoudt, Ruben Marx, Daantjie Siebert, and Johan Beneke) appeared before the commission and requested amnesty in return for information about the events surrounding Biko's death. In December 1998, the Commission refused amnesty to the five men; this was because their accounts were conflicting and thus deemed untruthful, and because Biko's killing had no clear political motive, but seemed to have been motivated by "ill-will or spite". In October 2003, South Africa's justice ministry announced that the five policemen would not be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had elapsed and there was insufficient evidence to secure a prosecution.


title: Steve Biko

text: The ideas of the Black Consciousness Movement were not developed solely by Biko, but through lengthy discussions with other black students who were rejecting white liberalism. Biko was influenced by his reading of authors like Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Léopold Sédar Senghor, James Cone, and Paulo Freire. The Martinique-born Fanon, in particular, has been cited as a profound influence over Biko's ideas about liberation. Biko's biographer Xolela Mangcu cautioned that it would be wrong to reduce Biko's thought to an interpretation of Fanon, and that the impact of "the political and intellectual history of the Eastern Cape" had to be appreciated too. Additional influences on Black Consciousness were the United States-based Black Power movement, and forms of Christianity like the activist-oriented black theology.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko rejected the apartheid government's division of South Africa's population into "whites" and "non-whites," a distinction that was marked on signs and buildings throughout the country. Building on Fanon's work, Biko regarded "non-white" as a negative category, defining people in terms of an absence of whiteness. In response, Biko replaced "non-white" with the category "black," which he regarded as being neither derivative nor negative. He defined blackness as a "mental attitude" rather than a "matter of pigmentation", referring to "blacks" as "those who are by law or tradition politically, economically and socially discriminated against as a group in the South African society" and who identify "themselves as a unit in the struggle towards the realization of their aspirations". In this way, he and the Black Consciousness Movement used "black" in reference not only to Bantu-speaking Africans but also to Coloureds and Indians, who together made up almost 90% of South Africa's population in the 1970s. Biko was not a Marxist and believed that it was oppression based on race, rather than class, which would be the main political motivation for change in South Africa. He argued that those on the "white left" often promoted a class-based analysis as a "defence mechanism... primarily because they want to detach us from anything relating to race. In case it has a rebound effect on them because they are white".


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko saw white racism in South Africa as the totality of the white power structure. He argued that under apartheid, white people not only participated in the oppression of black people but were also the main voices in opposition to that oppression. He thus argued that in dominating both the apartheid system and the anti-apartheid movement, white people totally controlled the political arena, leaving black people marginalised. He believed white people were able to dominate the anti-apartheid movement because of their access to resources, education, and privilege. He nevertheless thought that white South Africans were poorly suited to this role because they had not personally experienced the oppression that their black counterparts faced.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko and his comrades regarded multi-racial anti-apartheid groups as unwittingly replicating the structure of apartheid because they contained whites in dominant positions of control. For this reason, Biko and the others did not participate in these multi-racial organisations. Instead, they called for an anti-apartheid programme that was controlled by black people. Although he called on sympathetic whites to reject any concept that they themselves could be spokespeople for the black majority, Biko nevertheless believed that they had a place in the anti-apartheid struggle, asking them to focus their efforts on convincing the wider white community on the inevitability of apartheid's fall. Biko clarified his position to Woods: "I don't reject liberalism as such or white liberals as such. I reject only the concept that black liberation can be achieved through the leadership of white liberals." He added that "the [white] liberal is no enemy, he's a friend – but for the moment he holds us back, offering a formula too gentle, too inadequate for our struggle".


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko's approach to activism focused on psychological empowerment, and both he and the BCM saw their main purpose as combating the feeling of inferiority that most black South Africans experienced. Biko expressed dismay at how "the black man has become a shell, a shadow of man ... bearing the yoke of oppression with sheepish timidity", and stated that "the most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed". He believed that blacks needed to affirm their own humanity by overcoming their fears and believing themselves worthy of freedom and its attendant responsibilities. He defined Black Consciousness as "an inward-looking process" that would "infuse people with pride and dignity". To promote this, the BCM adopted the slogan "Black is Beautiful".


title: Steve Biko

text: One of the ways that Biko and the BCM sought to achieve psychological empowerment was through community development. Community projects were seen not only as a way to alleviate poverty in black communities but also as a means of transforming society psychologically, culturally, and economically. They would also help students to learn about the "daily struggles" of ordinary black people and to spread Black Consciousness ideas among the population. Among the projects that SASO set its members to conduct in the holidays were repairs to schools, house-building, and instructions on financial management and agricultural techniques. Healthcare was also a priority, with SASO members focusing on primary and preventative care.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko opposed any collaboration with the apartheid government, such as the agreements that the Coloured and Indian communities made with the regime. In his view, the Bantustan system was "the greatest single fraud ever invented by white politicians", stating that it was designed to divide the Bantu-speaking African population along tribal lines. He openly criticised the Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, stating that the latter's co-operation with the South African government "[diluted] the cause" of black liberation. He believed that those fighting apartheid in South Africa should link with anti-colonial struggles elsewhere in the world and with activists in the global African diaspora combating racial prejudice and discrimination. He also hoped that foreign countries would boycott South Africa's economy.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko believed that while apartheid and white-minority rule continued, "sporadic outbursts" of violence against the white minority were inevitable. He wanted to avoid violence, stating that "if at all possible, we want the revolution to be peaceful and reconciliatory". He noted that views on violence differed widely within the BCM—which contained both pacifists and believers in violent revolution—although the group had agreed to operate peacefully, and unlike the PAC and ANC, had no armed wing.


title: Steve Biko

text: A staunch anti-imperialist, Biko saw the South African situation as a "microcosm" of the broader "black–white power struggle" which manifests as "the global confrontation between the Third World and the rich white nations of the world". He was suspicious of the Soviet Union's motives in supporting African liberation movements, relating that "Russia is as imperialistic as America", although he acknowledged that "in the eyes of the Third World they have a cleaner slate". He also acknowledged that the material assistance provided by the Soviets was "more valuable" to the anti-apartheid cause than the "speeches and wrist-slapping" provided by Western governments. He was cautious of the possibility of a post-apartheid South Africa getting caught up in the imperialist Cold War rivalries of the United States and the Soviet Union.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko hoped that a future socialist South Africa could become a completely non-racial society, with people of all ethnic backgrounds living peacefully together in a "joint culture" that combined the best of all communities. He did not support guarantees of minority rights, believing that doing so would continue to recognise divisions along racial lines. Instead he supported a one person, one vote system. Initially arguing that one-party states were appropriate for Africa, he developed a more positive view of multi-party systems after conversations with Woods. He saw individual liberty as desirable, but regarded it as a lesser priority than access to food, employment, and social security.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko was neither a communist nor capitalist. Described as a proponent of African socialism, he called for "a socialist solution that is an authentic expression of black communalism". This idea was derided by some of his Marxist contemporaries, but later found parallels in the ideas of the Mexican Zapatistas. Noting that there was significant inequality in the distribution of wealth in South Africa, Biko believed that a socialist society was necessary to ensure social justice. In his view, this required a move towards a mixed economy that allowed private enterprise but in which all land was owned by the state and in which state industries played a significant part in forestry, mining, and commerce. He believed that, if post-apartheid South Africa remained capitalist, some black people would join the bourgeoisie but inequality and poverty would remain. As he put it, if South Africa transitioned to proportional democracy without socialist economic reforms, then "it would not change the position of "economic" oppression of the blacks".


title: Steve Biko

text: In conversation with Woods, Biko insisted that the BCM would not degenerate into anti-white hatred "because it isn't a negative, hating thing. It's a positive black self-confidence thing involving no hatred of anyone". He acknowledged that a "fringe element" may retain "anti-white bitterness"; he added: "we'll do what we can to restrain that, but frankly it's not one of our top priorities or one of our major concerns. Our main concern is the liberation of the blacks." Elsewhere, Biko argued that it was the responsibility of a vanguard movement to ensure that, in a post-apartheid society, the black majority would not seek vengeance upon the white minority. He stated that this would require an education of the black population in order to teach them how to live in a non-racial society.


title: Steve Biko

text: Tall and slim in his youth, by his twenties Biko was over six feet tall, with the "bulky build of a heavyweight boxer carrying more weight than when in peak condition", according to Woods. His friends regarded him as "handsome, fearless, a brilliant thinker". Woods saw him as "unusually gifted ... His quick brain, superb articulation of ideas and sheer mental force were highly impressive." According to Biko's friend Trudi Thomas, with Biko "you had a remarkable sense of being in the presence of a great mind". Woods felt that Biko "could enable one to share his vision" with "an economy of words" because "he seemed to communicate ideas through extraverbal media – almost psychically." Biko exhibited what Woods referred to as "a new style of leadership", never proclaiming himself to be a leader and discouraging any cult of personality from growing up around him. Other activists did regard him as a leader and often deferred to him at meetings. When engaged in conversations, he displayed an interest in listening and often drew out the thoughts of others.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko and many others in his activist circle had an antipathy toward luxury items because most South African blacks could not afford them. He owned few clothes and dressed in a low-key manner. He had a large record collection and particularly liked gumba. He enjoyed parties, and according to his biographer Linda Wilson, he often drank substantial quantities of alcohol. Religion did not play a central role in his life. He was often critical of the established Christian churches, but remained a believer in God and found meaning in the Gospels. Woods described him as "not conventionally religious, although he had genuine religious feeling in broad terms". Mangcu noted that Biko was critical of organised religion and denominationalism and that he was "at best an unconventional Christian".


title: Steve Biko

text: The Nationalist government portrayed Biko as a hater of whites, but he had several close white friends, and both Woods and Wilson insisted that he was not a racist. Woods related that Biko "simply wasn't a hater of people", and that he did not even hate prominent National Party politicians like B. J. Vorster and Andries Treurnicht, instead hating their ideas. It was rare and uncharacteristic of him to display any rage, and was rare for him to tell people about his doubts and inner misgivings, reserving those for a small number of confidants.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko never addressed questions of gender and sexism in his politics. The sexism was evident in many ways, according to Mamphela Ramphele, a BCM activist and doctor at the Zanempilo Clinic, including that women tended to be given responsibility for the cleaning and catering at functions. "There was no way you could think of Steve making a cup of tea or whatever for himself", another activist said. Feminism was viewed as irrelevant "bra-burning". Surrounded by women who cared about him, Biko developed a reputation as a womaniser, something that Woods described as "well earned". He displayed no racial prejudice, sleeping with both black and white women. At NUSAS, he and his friends competed to see who could have sex with the most female delegates. Responding to this behaviour, the NUSAS general secretary Sheila Lapinsky accused Biko of sexism, to which he responded: "Don't worry about my sexism. What about your white racist friends in NUSAS?" Sobukwe also admonished Biko for his womanising, believing that it set a bad example to other activists.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko married Ntsiki Mashalaba in December 1970. They had two children together: Nkosinathi, born in 1971, and Samora, born in 1975. Biko's wife chose the name Nkosinathi ("The Lord is with us"), and Biko named their second child after the Mozambican revolutionary leader Samora Machel. Angered by her husband's serial adultery, Mashalaba ultimately moved out of their home, and by the time of his death, she had begun divorce proceedings. Biko had also begun an extra-marital relationship with Mamphela Ramphele. In 1974, she bore him a daughter, Lerato, who died after two months. A son, Hlumelo, was born to Ramphele in 1978, after Biko's death. Biko was also in a relationship with Lorrain Tabane, who bore him a child named Motlatsi in 1977.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko is viewed as the "father" of the Black Consciousness Movement and the anti-apartheid movement's first icon. Nelson Mandela called him "the spark that lit a veld fire across South Africa", adding that the Nationalist government "had to kill him to prolong the life of apartheid". Opening an anthology of his work in 2008, Manning Marable and Peniel Joseph wrote that his death had "created a vivid symbol of black resistance" to apartheid that "continues to inspire new black activists" over a decade after the transition to majority rule. Johann de Wet, a professor of communication studies, described him as "one of South Africa's most gifted political strategists and communicators". In 2004 he was elected 13th in SABC 3's Great South Africans public poll.


title: Steve Biko

text: Although Biko's ideas have not received the same attention as Frantz Fanon's, in 2001 Ahluwalia and Zegeye wrote that the men shared "a highly similar pedigree in their interests in the philosophical psychology of consciousness, their desire for a decolonising of the mind, the liberation of Africa and in the politics of nationalism and socialism for the 'wretched of the earth'". Some academics argue that Biko's thought remains relevant; for example, in "African Identities" in 2015, Isaac Kamola wrote that Biko's critique of white liberalism was relevant to situations like the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals and Invisible Children, Inc.'s "KONY 2012" campaign.


title: Steve Biko

text: Woods held the view that Biko had filled the vacuum within the country's African nationalist movement that arose in the late 1960s following the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the banning of Sobukwe. Following Biko's death, the Black Consciousness Movement declined in influence as the ANC emerged as a resurgent force in anti-apartheid politics. This brought about a shift in focus from the BCM's community organising to wider mass mobilisation, including attempts to follow Tambo's call to make South Africa "ungovernable", which involved increasing violence and clashes between rival anti-apartheid groups.


title: Steve Biko

text: Followers of Biko's ideas re-organised as the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO), which subsequently split into the Socialist Party of Azania and the Black People's Convention. Several figures associated with the ANC denigrated Biko during the 1980s. For instance, members of the ANC-affiliated United Democratic Front assembled outside Biko's Ginsberg home shouting "U-Steve Biko, I-CIA!", an allegation that Biko was a spy for the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). These demonstrations resulted in clashes with Biko supporters from AZAPO.


title: Steve Biko

text: A year after Biko's death, his "Frank Talk" writings were published as an edited collection, "I Write What I Like". The defence that Biko provided for arrested SASO activists was used as the basis for the 1978 book "The Testimony of Steve Biko", edited by Millard Arnold. Woods fled to England that year, where he campaigned against apartheid and further publicised Biko's life and death, writing many newspaper articles about him, as well as a book, "Biko" (1978). This was made into the 1987 film "Cry Freedom" by Richard Attenborough, starring Denzel Washington as Biko. Many film critics and Black Consciousness proponents were concerned that the film foregrounded white characters like Woods over Biko himself, but "Cry Freedom" brought Biko's life and activism to a wider audience. The state censors initially permitted its release in South Africa, but after it began screening in the country's cinemas, copies were confiscated by police on the order of Police Commissioner General Hendrik de Wit, who claimed that it would inflame tensions and endanger public safety. The South African government banned many books about Biko, including those of Arnold and Woods.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko was commemorated in several artworks after his death. Gerard Sekoto, a South African artist based in France, produced "Homage to Steve Biko" in 1978, and another South African artist, Peter Stopforth, included a work entitled "The Interrogators" in his 1979 exhibition. A triptych, it depicted the three police officers implicated in Biko's death. Kenya released a commemorative postage stamp featuring Biko's face.


title: Steve Biko

text: Biko's death also inspired several songs, including from artists outside South Africa such as Tom Paxton and Peter Hammill. The English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel released "Biko" in tribute to him, which was a hit single in 1980, and was banned in South Africa soon after. Along with other anti-apartheid music, the song helped to integrate anti-apartheid themes into Western popular culture. Biko's life was also commemorated through theatre. The inquest into his death was dramatised as a play, "The Biko Inquest", first performed in London in 1978; a 1984 performance was directed by Albert Finney and broadcast on television. Anti-apartheid activists used Biko's name and memory in their protests; in 1979, a mountaineer climbed the spire of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to unfurl a banner with the names of Biko and imprisoned Black Panther Party leader Geronimo Pratt on it.


title: Steve Biko

text: Following apartheid's collapse, Woods raised funds to commission a bronze statue of Biko from Naomi Jacobson. It was erected outside the front door of city hall in East London on the Eastern cape, opposite a statue commemorating British soldiers killed in the Second Boer War. Over 10,000 people attended the monument's unveiling in September 1997. In the following months it was vandalised several times; in one instance it was daubed with the letters "AWB", an acronym of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, a far-right Afrikaner paramilitary group. In 1997, the cemetery where Biko was buried was renamed the Steve Biko Garden of Remembrance. The District Six Museum also held an exhibition of artwork marking the 20th anniversary of his death by examining his legacy.


title: Steve Biko

text: Also in September 1997, Biko's family established the Steve Biko Foundation. The Ford Foundation donated money to the group to establish a Steve Biko Centre in Ginsberg, opened in 2012. The Foundation launched its annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture in 2000, each given by a prominent black intellectual. The first speaker was Njabulo Ndebele; later speakers included Zakes Mda, Chinua Achebe, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and Mandela.


title: Steve Biko

text: Buildings, institutes and public spaces around the world have been named after Biko, such as the Steve Bikoplein in Amsterdam. In 2008, the Pretoria Academic Hospital was renamed the Steve Biko Hospital. The University of the Witwatersrand has a Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics. In Salvador, Bahia, a Steve Biko Institute was established to promote educational attainment among poor Afro-Brazilians. In 2012, the Google Cultural Institute published an online archive containing documents and photographs owned by the Steve Biko Foundation. On 18 December 2016, Google marked what would have been Biko's 70th birthday with a Google Doodle.


title: Steve Biko

text: Amid the dismantling of apartheid in the early 1990s, various political parties competed over Biko's legacy, with several saying they were the party that Biko would support if he were still alive. AZAPO in particular claimed exclusive ownership over Black Consciousness. In 1994, the ANC issued a campaign poster suggesting that Biko had been a member of their party, which was untrue. Following the end of apartheid when the ANC formed the government, they were accused of appropriating his legacy. In 2002, AZAPO issued a statement declaring that "Biko was not a neutral, apolitical and mythical icon" and that the ANC was "scandalously" using Biko's image to legitimise their "weak" government. Members of the ANC have also criticised AZAPO's attitude to Biko; in 1997, Mandela said that "Biko belongs to us all, not just AZAPO." On the anniversary of Biko's death in 2015, delegations from both the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters independently visited his grave. In March 2017, the South African President Jacob Zuma laid a wreath at Biko's grave to mark Human Rights Day.


title: Watch the Throne

text: Watch the Throne is a collaborative studio album by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West, collectively known as The Throne. It was released on August 8, 2011, through Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc Nation, and Def Jam Recordings. Prior to the release, Jay-Z and West had collaborated on various singles, and with the latter as a producer on the former's work. They originally sought to record a five-song EP together, but the project eventually evolved into a full-length album. The album features guest appearances from Frank Ocean, The-Dream, Beyoncé and Mr Hudson. It also features vocal contributions from Kid Cudi, Seal, Justin Vernon, Elly Jackson, Connie Mitchell, Charlie Wilson and Pete Rock, among others, and samples of vocals by soul musicians Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield.


title: Watch the Throne

text: Recording sessions took place at various locations and began in November 2010, with production led by West and a variety of high-profile producers, including Mike Dean, Swizz Beatz, Pete Rock, RZA, Jeff Bhasker, The Neptunes, and Q-Tip. Expanding on the dense production style of West's fifth studio album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (2010), "Watch the Throne" incorporates orchestral and progressive rock influences, unconventional samples, and dramatic melodies in its sound. The braggadocious lyrics exhibit themes of excellence, opulence, decadence, fame, materialism, power, and the burdens of success, as well as political and socioeconomic critique. The album also expresses other topics, such as Jay-Z's thoughts on fatherhood, West's reflection on being deemed a social villain, and their success as performers. Many writers interpreted the subject matter to concern the plight of African Americans struggling with financial success in America.


title: Watch the Throne

text: Seven singles were released for "Watch the Throne", including "H•A•M", "Otis", "Lift Off", "No Church in the Wild", and the "Billboard" Hot 100 top five hit "Niggas in Paris", with all of the singles receiving music videos. Jay-Z and West embarked on the Watch the Throne Tour for promotion that spanned from October 2011 to June 2012 and became the highest-grossing hip hop concert tour in history. The album received widespread critical acclaim from music critics, who mostly praised the rappers' performances and the production. However, some reviewers found the lyrical content uninspiring.


title: Watch the Throne

text: Many critics and publications named "Watch the Throne" to their year-end best-of lists, including "Rolling Stone" and "The Washington Post"


title: Watch the Throne

text: . The album debuted at number one on the US "Billboard" 200, selling 436,000 copies in the first week, and broke the iTunes first week sales record at the time. It reached the top ten in 11 other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom. It was also certified quintuple platinum in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in November 2020.


title: Watch the Throne

text: Jay-Z and Kanye West first worked together on the song "This Can't Be Life", from Jay-Z's 2000 album "", produced by West, then on Jay-Z's 2001 album "The Blueprint", which showcased West's distinctive style of hip hop production at the time. West's early production work on Jay-Z's music helped raise his profile in the music industry. While originally only viewed as a producer, West eventually was seen as both a viable rapper and producer thanks to the success of his debut album "The College Dropout" and its singles. West continued to be one of Jay-Z's main producers on subsequent albums such as "The Black Album" and "Kingdom Come". Jay-Z appeared on Kanye's first two albums as well, and the two frequently collaborated. Further collaborative work by the two included singles such as "Swagga Like Us" from rapper T.I.'s "Paper Trail",


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Run This Town" from Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3", and both "Monster" and “So Appalled” from West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy".


title: Watch the Throne

text: During the promotional stages of West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", a remix of the song "Power" surfaced featuring Jay-Z. Following this, Kanye West announced on Twitter his intention to drop a five-track EP with Jay-Z, titled "Watch the Throne". Also according to the rapper, the track "Monster" was intended for the EP, though that failed to surface. It was later revealed by West that the project had been expanded into a full-length album in an October 2010 interview for MTV. He said in the interview that they planned to record in the south of France.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "It's just protecting the music and the culture. It's people that's in the forefront of the music. "Watch the Throne," like protect it. You just watch how popular music shift, and how hip-hop basically replaced rock & roll as the youth music. The same thing can happen to hip-hop. It can be replaced by other forms of music. So it's making sure that we put the effort into making the best product so we can contend with all this other music, with dance music that's dominating the charts right now and indie music that's dominating the festivals."


title: Watch the Throne

text: Recording sessions for the album took place at Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii; Barford Estate in Sydney, Australia; Electric Lady Studios; The Mercer Hotel; MSR Studios; and Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York City; Le Meurice in Paris, France; and Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England. The songs "That's My Bitch" and "The Joy" were previously recorded for "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" as early as July 2010. Production began in November 2010 in England and continued during available times in Jay-Z's and West's schedules at locations in Australia, Paris, Abu Dhabi, New York City, and Los Angeles. In an interview for "Billboard", Jay-Z said that they often recorded in hotel rooms and that the album went through three iterations, as he and West had scaled back from their original musical direction. He noted difficulties in the recording process, including arguments with West regarding their direction. Following the release of lead single, "H•A•M" in January 2011, Jay-Z stated that the less-than-stellar reception caused a change in the production of the album. Jay-Z announced that it was unlikely that the track would ultimately make the album. The issues at the beginning of production had caused a delay in the release. In an interview for "Rolling Stone", Jay-Z discussed their insistence on recording in person and attributed it to the delay in releasing the album, stating "If we were gonna do it, we were gonna do it together. No mailing it in".


title: Watch the Throne

text: The album's earlier sessions produced a little material that has made the final cut. West had brought a majority of his usual production crew onto the project, the same crew that had assisted in the creation of "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". One of the main exceptions was producer No I.D., who felt that the two artists weren't pushing forward enough with the music. In an interview with "Complex", No I.D. commented about the project that "you're going to sell, because you're already big. But you guys are important to push this forward. Push intelligence and decadence and all of the above forward in a creative manner." While his advice was acknowledged to a degree, he ultimately had very little part in the finished project. In January 2011, they regrouped and rented a block of rooms at the Mercer Hotel in New York City and invited a select group of producers and recording artists. Chauncey "Hit-Boy" Hollis, who produced the track "Niggas in Paris", said of recording at the hotel, "There was music going on in every room. I had a room where I was cranking out beats, and then I'd go into the main room with Jay and [Kanye] and play beats for them. Kanye is really hands-on. I would come in with a beat and he'd be like, 'Take this out, slow it down.' It would make it sound 100 times better. Jay would then mumble different flows to the beat".


title: Watch the Throne

text: Parts of the album were recorded in New York City's Tribeca Grand Hotel. Recording artist and producer Ryan Leslie also confirmed his involvement in the recording of "Watch the Throne". Producer 88-Keys reportedly played 20 of his beats to West and Jay, who only eventually used one on the finished album. The Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, who had worked on West's previous album, is credited as a producer on the track "New Day". "Watch the Throne" was mastered by producer and engineer Mike Dean at the Mercer Hotel.


title: Watch the Throne

text: Jay-Z and West worked with several guest recording artists, including Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, and Mr Hudson. "No Church in the Wild", the last song recorded for the album, was conceived by Jay-Z, West, and the song's producer 88-Keys throughout most of June. Producer and recording artist The-Dream sings a verse on the track using AutoTune. The song features R&B singer Frank Ocean, who released his debut mixtape "nostalgia,ULTRA" in early 2011 to critical acclaim. The release of the mixtape interested Jay-Z and West. Jay-Z's wife Beyoncé recommended the involvement of the singer in particular, who appears on both "No Church in the Wild" and "Made in America." Ocean admitted that Jay-Z has intentionally intimidated him during recording sessions but declared his enjoyment of working with the two. Ocean mused about the project:


title: Watch the Throne

text: "I rarely do collabs, so that's just one of the ones you absolutely do. It's like a no-brainer. I didn't really think about any of it. The last thing on my mind was working with artists who I've held in high esteem for years. [...] I worked with Jay on his solo album before I did the "Watch the Throne" sessions. The second time I went it was Barry Weiss, Jay, Beyoncé, Kanye, couple other people, it was a pretty heavy room."


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Lift Off" was recorded in Sydney, Australia. In early May 2011, rumors arose that "Lift Off" was to feature Bruno Mars who had recorded vocals. It was reported that the song would be released as the lead single from the album. However, Mars never appeared on the song and Beyoncé sang several lines during the chorus instead. Additional vocalists Elly Jackson, Connie Mitchell, and Justin Vernon provide the hook on "That's My Bitch", Vernon had previously appeared on West's album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", when West sampled Vernon's band Bon Iver's song "Woods", Vernon also provided additional vocals on songs such as "Dark Fantasy" and "Monster". Swizz Beatz, who produced "Welcome to the Jungle", also provided background vocals to the track, and Kid Cudi contributed additional vocals to "The Joy" and "Illest Motherfucker Alive," bonus tracks on the album's deluxe edition. One of the tracks that was recorded but didn't make the cut for the album was "Living So Italian." It apparently sampled Andrea Bocelli's "Con te partirò" and was described as catchy but for unknown reasons, the song never made it onto the album.


title: Watch the Throne

text: In 2013, Jay-Z released his twelfth studio album "Magna Carta... Holy Grail", in an interview he revealed that two songs on the album were initially recorded for "Watch the Throne", the song "Oceans" which features Frank Ocean and the song "Holy Grail" which went on to feature Justin Timberlake (Although Timberlake's contribution to the track was not anticipated at the time, until the duo collaborated on Timberlake's 2013 comeback single "Suit & Tie" and "Murder" from "The 20/20 Experience" and "The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2" respectively). West and Jay-Z argued for four days about having them included on the "Watch the Throne", however West eventually relented and the duo recorded "No Church in the Wild" and "Made in America". In an interview with Zane Lowe, Jay-Z said: "[There were] no lyrics on 'Holy Grail' and I recorded 'Oceans' and I played those records for Kanye," Jay explained. "And he was like, 'No those have to go on "Watch the Throne",' so we spent four days arguing about those records and I was explaining to him why it wasn't right for this project and I had a whole idea for making this album called "Magna Carta... Holy Grail", the "Holy Grail" part of the name came after."


title: Watch the Throne

text: Julian Benbow of "The Boston Globe" writes that the album's music is as "massive, dour, and relentlessly unconventional" as that of West's previous 2010 album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". Music writer Robert Christgau describes West's production as "a funkier and less ornate variant of the prog-rap of 2010's acclaimed "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"". Music journalist Jody Rosen characterizes the music as "vast, dark and booming," commenting that West "continues in the sonic vein he introduced in "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", lacing the songs with rock dynamics, layering his beats with eerie vocal chorales, piling on proggy flourishes." Conversely, Matthew Cole of "Slant Magazine" finds West's "knack for dramatic, melodically sophisticated tracks [...] channeled away from the Olympian scale" of his previous album "and toward the more commercial vein of Jay-Z's recent work," which he attributes to West splitting production work with several other producers. On the songs' structure, Cole states, "every track eschews the standard verse-hook-repeat format in favor of more dynamic material."


title: Watch the Throne

text: Music journalist Alexis Petridis comments that the album incorporates "unlikely samples." Jon Caramanica of "The New York Times" writes that its production "can be roughly segmented into three categories," noting "Southern-inflected tracks" such as "Niggas in Paris" and "H•A•M", "moody and harsh numbers" like "Who Gon Stop Me" and "Why I Love You", and "the nostalgia that creeps over much of this album, giving it a sonic through-line and mission statement." "Pitchfork"'s Tom Breihan perceives "pure orchestral excess" on some of its songs and describes the album's musical scope as "a tribute to [West's] distinctive taste and sense of style."


title: Watch the Throne

text: The album features themes of opulence, fame, materialism, power, and the burdens of success. Jay-Z's and West's lyrics include boasts of obscene wealth, grandiosity, and social commentary. Sputnikmusic's Tyler Fisher describes "Watch the Throne" as "an album centered around larger-than-life egos." Robert Christgau notes "regal grandiosity" and "glory" as primary themes on the album. Andy Kellman of Allmusic characterizes much of the album's lyrical content as "ruthless flaunting of material wealth and carte blanche industry resources." Rob Harvilla of "Spin" views that their lyrics express elitism, narcissism, "relentless capitalism," and "smug yet undeniable greatness."


title: Watch the Throne

text: Music critic Greg Kot views that the album is about "mutual admiration" and writes of the rappers' respective personas, "Jay-Z is about imperious flow, bridging his gritty past life on the streets with his current status as a cultural tastemaker and business mogul. [...] West is more desperate, transparent, awkward, vulnerable." Music critic Nathan Rabin states that Jay-Z and West "are a study in contrasts: the businessman and the bohemian, the faithful husband and the drugged-up playboy, the walking press release and the loose cannon. Jay-Z is tidy. Kanye is nothing but rough edges." Jon Caramanica writes similarly, "breaking [...] old barriers is a means to acceptance and stability" for Jay-Z, while "West sounds lonely" with his fame, adding that "For Mr. West every flash of Dionysian extreme is tempered by the realization of its hollowness." In his article "Brag Like That" for Barnes & Noble, Robert Christgau comments that "Jay-Z is a grown man and Kanye is not" on the album and elaborates on their lyrics, stating:


title: Watch the Throne

text: Their lyrics also exhibit political and socioeconomic context, which Jody Rosen denotes as "serious, sober, weighty." Nitsuh Abebe of "New York" views that the album is "about the relationship of black American men to wealth, power, and success. [...] a portrait of two black men thinking through the idea of success in America." He compares it to Yinka Shonibare's 1998 piece "Diary of a Victorian Dandy", "in which the artist luxuriates in all the genteel pleasures of the time." Randall Roberts of the "Los Angeles Times" notes "musings on the spoils of riches and the chaos that accompanies it," adding that "[the] tension between worshiping the spirit and celebrating the bounty drives "Watch the Throne" [...] The record questions faith while clinging to heritage and family, places this moment in an historical context, wonders on the mystery, power and confusion of the gilded life — while rolling around in amulets." Writer Kitty Empire interprets it to be about "black power [...] conceived as a swaggering taunt of achievement, in line with both men's previous works, which routinely double as shopping guides. [...] [T]hey need to humanise all the conspicuous consumption." Claire Suddath of "Time" views the rappers' "bacchanal celebration of the finer things in life" as secondary to the theme of "two men grappling with what it means to be successful and black in a nation that still thinks of them as second class."


title: Watch the Throne

text: The opening track "No Church in the Wild" features a cinematic production style. Singers Frank Ocean and The-Dream lend their voices to the album's grim opener, which sets the mood with a gnarled guitar sample. Over the rock-centric, rolling production, both rappers muse over familiar themes of loyalty, sexuality and maternal solidarity. On the album, the song closes with a segment of Italian avant-prog band Orchestra Njervudarov's 1979 piece "Tristessa", which reappears at the end of several other songs. The pop-oriented "Lift Off" features baroque strings and a chorus sung by Beyoncé Knowles, accompanied with synthesizers. The song contains horns and martial drums as Knowles sings, "We gon' take it to the moon/ Take it to the stars." "Niggas in Paris" incorporates staccato orchestration and fizzing industrial noise, topping it all off with a menacing beat and icy synthesizer notes. The track features an unusual sampling of dialogue from the 2007 film "Blades of Glory", notably the "we're gonna skate to one song and one song only" line. West and Jay-Z's lyrics frame their rags to riches story on the song.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Otis" samples Otis Redding's 1966 song "Try a Little Tenderness", manipulating it into a rhythm track with Otis Redding's vocals and grunts. The sample is used in a way that is reminiscent to past Kanye productions, like the tracks found on his album "The College Dropout". Redding's vocals are chopped up so thoroughly that his voice serves as a mere melodic riff on the track, with both rappers promptly rapping over it in a braggadocious fashion. "Gotta Have It", produced by The Neptunes, incorporates chopped-up James Brown vocal samples and Eastern flute melodies. The song contains haunting backing vocals and an accompanying tambourine with the two rappers trading verses with the vocal riff playing over them. Much like "Otis", the track features sliced-up vocal snippets and an aggressive bass backing, with the two rappings trading lines and making references to the Yung Chris song "Racks" and other contemporary rap trends.


title: Watch the Throne

text: On "New Day", they address future sons about fame. It references the line "me and the RZA connect" from Raekwon's 1995 song "Incarcerated Scarfaces", which was also produced by RZA. The track incorporates a sample of Nina Simone's 1965 song "Feeling Good" through an Auto-Tune voice processor. Both rappers discuss their futures as fathers on the track, flowing smoothly over mellow, lightly psychedelic synthesizer tones. Both Justin Vernon and La Roux appear on "That's My Bitch", spitting off hooks over a quick, melodic beat, with West at his most abrasive lyrically. On "Welcome to the Jungle", Jay-Z laments personal losses and overcoming struggles. Sharing the name with a Guns N' Roses track, Jay describes himself as the "black Axl Rose" over a jittery, treble-heavy Swizz Beatz production.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Who Gon Stop Me" features bombastic production and samples Flux Pavilion's 2011 song "I Can't Stop", reinforced with heavy synthesizer and tone shifts. The song utilizes an often experimental, bass-driven and dub-step influenced style of composition, with West forcefully rapping lines like "this is something like the Holocaust". "Murder to Excellence" addresses black-on-black crime and limited social mobility for African Americans. Midway through the song the beat switches up, with Kanye musing over the horrors of black-on-black violence in the first half, and Jay-Z delivering equally meditated comments on black excellence on the more choir heavy second half. A sample from Indiggo's "LA LA LA" can be heard on the song. At 5 minutes in length, the complete "Murder to Excellence" is the longest track on the album.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Made in America" has themes of family life and the American Dream, with Jay-Z and West discussing their respective rises to fame, while acknowledging those who helped and inspired them. The song has been described as an understated soft-pop track with influence from Michael Jackson and his 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Ocean's hook pays tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz and Jesus on one of the album's more serene tracks. Jay-Z muses on his drug-dealing past with lines like "our apple pie was supplied by Arm & Hammer", with West's verse describing his conflict with fame. "Why I Love You" has Jay-Z lamenting betrayal and how his past protégés failed to maintain without him. The track contains a "sledgehammer beat" which is built around French house duo Cassius' 2010 single "I <3 U So". West's production continues in the sonic vein he introduced in "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", lacing the song with rock dynamics, layering the beat with eerie vocal chorales in the style of progressive rock songs.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Watch the Throne" was released by Roc-A-Fella Records, Roc Nation, and Def Jam Recordings, Jay-Z's and West's respective record labels. On July 4, 2011, it was made available to pre-order on Life + Times, Jay-Z's lifestyle webzine, which redirected to Island Def Jam's website that featured the deluxe version available for $16.99, standard CD for $13.99, a deluxe digital version for $14.99, and standard digital album for $11.99. On July 22, its pre-order was made available on the iTunes Store. Internationally the album was released digitally on August 8 exclusively through iTunes, while its physical release was made available on August 12. Its deluxe CD edition was sold exclusively by Best Buy through August 23, when it became available at other retailers. The sales strategy received criticism from other retailers, who accused the labels of giving preferential treatment to iTunes and Best Buy. One of the most anticipated releases in 2011, "Watch the Throne" became one of the few major label albums in the Internet age to avoid a leak.


title: Watch the Throne

text: On July 7, 2011, Jay-Z hosted a private listening session at the Mercer Hotel in New York City, previewing the album's songs from his MacBook Pro for a select group of reporters and music journalists. It was also exclusive to two teenage fans who had won access to the session for being the first people to pre-order the album through Jay-Z's Life + Times website. The album's cover and artwork, both designed by Italian designer Riccardo Tisci, were also premiered at the session. Benjamin Meadows-Ingrim of "Billboard", who attended the session, said of the previewed material, "The songs were dramatic and boastful, with Jay-Z often taking the lead lyrically, and the collection showcased the differences between the two artists – Jay-Z, the technical marksman, and Kanye, the emotive chest beater." On August 1, Jay-Z and West held a listening session for the album at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City's American Museum of Natural History. The session premiered the album in its entirety and featured attendance from journalists, models, industry types, and recording artists such as Busta Rhymes, 88-Keys, and Beyoncé Knowles. On August 28, Jay-Z and West performed "Otis" at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.


title: Watch the Throne

text: Jay-Z and West promoted "Watch the Throne" with a 34-date, North American concert tour produced by Live Nation, which began on October 29 and concluded on December 18, 2010. By the end of 2011 the tour had grossed $48.3 million making it the then highest grossing hip-hop tour (until being surpassed by Summer Sixteen Tour) and the eighth highest-grossing tour of 2011.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Watch the Throne" spawned seven official singles, with varying degrees of success. Following West's announcement via his Twitter account, "H•A•M" was officially released as a digital download in January 2011 as the lead single. It charted at number 23 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100. In July 2011, "Otis" became the second single when it was premiered on Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 radio show and subsequently leaked to the Internet. It was sent to rhythmic contemporary and urban contemporary radio on August 9. Its cover art was created by Riccardo Tisci. "Otis" reached number 12 on the Hot 100. A music video for the song was filmed by director Spike Jonze in Los Angeles. Third single "Lift Off" was sent to US urban radio on August 23 of the same year. The track peaked on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at position 6.


title: Watch the Throne

text: The album's fourth and fifth singles were released simultaneously; in September 2011, "Why I Love You" was sent to US rhythmic radio, and "Niggas in Paris" was sent to both rhythmic and urban radio. "Why I Love You" served as a European-centric single while "Niggas in Paris" was promoted as a domestic single. "Niggas in Paris" peaked at number five on the Hot 100. "Niggas in Paris" was sent to Top 40/Mainstream radio on November 8. By February 2012, it had reached digital sales of two million in the United States. The song was promoted with a music video directed by West himself, featuring concert footage.


title: Watch the Throne

text: The sixth single was "Gotta Have It", which impacted Urban radio on December 6, 2011, and Rhythmic radio on January 31, 2012. Seventh and final single "No Church in the Wild" impacted Urban radio on March 20, 2012. Romain Gavras directed a music video for "No Church" though it featured none of the featured performers. "Gotta Have It" peaked at position 69 on the Hot 100, with "No Church in the Wild" peaking at 72. Though not released as a single, "Who Gon Stop Me" peaked at 44 on the chart.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Watch the Throne" received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 42 reviews. Nathan Rabin of "The A.V. Club" wrote that "exhilarating messiness and go-for-broke spontaneity infect Jay-Z and push him outside his comfort zone and into a realm of intense emotional reflection." "Pitchfork"s Tom Breihan felt that it "works best when Jay and Kanye are just talking about how great they are," adding that "Kanye is this album's obvious guiding force ... He displays levels of unequaled audacity." Claire Suddath of "Time" called it "a beautifully decadent album by two of hip-hop's finest artists—men with a lot of things to say and a lot of money to spend." Neil McCormick of "The Daily Telegraph" praised West's "attention to detail" and found their "wit and absurdity [...] entirely suited to the epic scale of productions." Kitty Empire of "The Observer" stated, "Some find this sort of branded gloating distasteful, but at their best both rappers can still make you laugh." Randall Roberts of the "Los Angeles Times" deemed it "a cocksure, fiery, smart, if problematic, collaboration that showcases the pair's distinct lyrical skills." Julian Benbow of "The Boston Globe" observed "an undeniable synergy that they embraced for this project." AllMusic editor Andy Kellman called it "an audacious spectacle of vacuous pomposity as well as one of tremendous lyrical depth."


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Slant Magazine"s Matthew Cole was less impressed, believing West had contributed a "powerhouse production" but that the album "requires you to tolerate the artists' self-mythologizing and put up with their sometimes awkward attempts at experimentation." Andy Gill of "The Independent" was more critical and found their rapping "pretty mediocre", partly because "too often here their complacent, back-slapping laxity leaves tracks floundering." In the "Chicago Tribune", Greg Kot found the record plagued by Jay-Z and West's "self-regard", writing that "they urge listeners to 'watch the throne,' and gaze in awe on their good fortune." Jody Rosen of "Rolling Stone" felt that "on a record this ambitious, this sonically bold, it's a shame two of music's greatest storytellers don't extend their gaze beyond their own luxe lives." Sasha Frere-Jones of "The New Yorker" stated, "Weed the album down to a healthy ten, and [it] doesn't become either classic or coherent, but it does work as an entertaining document of two wildly creative, not particularly wound-up friends."


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Watch the Throne" was one of the top-ranked albums in year-end lists by music critics and publications. "Q" ranked the album number six in its list of the Top 50 Albums of 2011. "Rolling Stone" named it the second-best album in its year-end list, commenting that "What could have been a crash-and-burn anticlimax turned out to be as fun as any record in a dog's age. From the cinematic 'No Church in the Wild' to the Stax-soul update 'Otis,' "Throne" testifies to Kanye West's talent for beats both iconoclastic and pop-savvy." Claire Suddath of "Time" ranked it number three on her top-10 albums list and called it "a beautifully decadent album". Chris Richards of "The Washington Post" ranked it number two on his list and stated, "Instead of blushing over their embarrassment of riches, pop's most intriguing partnership delivered a self-congratulatory opus that was adventurous enough to remind us that they're rap visionaries first, 1 percent bazillionaires second. "The A.V. Club" ranked it number nine on its year-end list, commenting that ""Watch The Throne" thrives on the bristling tension between Kanye's live-wire energy and rule-breaking abandon, and Jay-Z's innate cautiousness. It's an album of the moment—a point underlined by the presence of Frank Ocean on two tracks—yet it has the substance to endure." "Stereogum" placed "Watch the Throne" at number 10 on its list of the "Top 50 albums of 2011" while "Pitchfork" placed the album at number 21 on its list.


title: Watch the Throne

text: In 2012, Complex named the album one of the classic albums of the last decade. In January 2015, the album was placed at number 8 on "Billboard"s list of "The 20 Best Albums of the 2010s (So Far)". In 2018, Revolt listed the album at number one on their list of the 10 rap collaboration albums. In 2019, "Billboard" named "Watch the Throne" the biggest collaborative album of all time, asserting, "From the iconic album artwork to the brash, decadent lyrical themes, esteemed guest list, and recording around the globe, the Throne would set the standard for what a pristine rap album should embody at the highest of levels."


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Watch the Throne" received nominations for Best Rap Album and Best Recording Package at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012. It lost the former to West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". "Otis" was nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, winning the former. At the 55th Annual Grammy Awards in 2013, "Niggas in Paris" won Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song, and "No Church in the Wild" won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Watch the Throne" debuted at No. 1 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart, selling 436,000 copies in its first week. This became Jay-Z's 12th number-one album and West's fifth number-one album in the US. This also became the second highest debut week of 2011, while its first week digital sales of 321,000 downloads served as the second highest one-week sales tally at the time. "Watch the Throne" broke the US iTunes Store's one-week sales record at the time when it sold nearly 290,000 downloads. The album also reached number one on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and the US Top Rap Albums charts. In its second week, the album remained at number one on the chart, selling an additional 177,000 copies. In its third week, the album dropped to number two on the chart, selling 94,000 more copies. In its fourth week, the album dropped to number four on the chart, selling 80,000 copies. In 2011, "Watch the Throne" was the ninth best-selling album in the US, and the first collaborative album to make the year-end top ten in Nielsen SoundScan history. It was also the fourth top selling album on iTunes in 2011. As of July 2013, the album has sold 1,573,000 copies in the US, according to Nielsen SoundScan. On November 23, 2020, the album was certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over five million units in the United States.


title: Watch the Throne

text: "Watch the Throne" was also a success outside the US. In Canada, the album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 25,000 copies in its first week. In its second week, the album remained at number one on the chart, selling 15,900 more copies. In Australia, the album peaked at number two on the Australian Albums Chart and number one on the Australian Urban Albums Chart. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number three on the UK Albums Chart and number one on the UK R&B Albums Chart. The album topped the UK R&B Albums Chart for six non-consecutive weeks between 2011-12. In addition, "Watch the Throne" peaked at number one on the Norwegian Albums Chart and the Swiss Albums Chart. The album peaked at number two on the German Albums Chart the Danish Albums Chart, and at number three on the Scottish Albums Chart. It also debuted within the top ten on the Belgian Albums Chart, the Dutch Albums Chart, the French Albums Chart, the Irish Albums Chart, the Russian Albums Chart and the New Zealand Albums Chart.


title: Hounds of Love

text: Hounds of Love is the fifth studio album by English musician Kate Bush, released on 16 September 1985 by EMI Records. It was a commercial success and marked a return to the public eye for Bush after the relatively low sales of her previous album, 1982's "The Dreaming". The album's lead single, "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", became one of Bush's biggest hits, giving Bush her second number 1 UK single in June 2022. The album's first side produced three further singles, "Cloudbusting", "Hounds of Love", and "The Big Sky". The second side, subtitled "The Ninth Wave", forms a conceptual suite about a woman drifting alone in the sea at night.


title: Hounds of Love

text: "Hounds of Love" received critical acclaim both on its release and in retrospective reviews. It is considered by many fans and music critics to be Bush's best album, and has been regularly voted one of the greatest albums of all time. It was Bush's second album to top the UK Albums Chart and in the US, it reached the top 40 on the "Billboard" 200. It is her best-selling studio album, having been certified double platinum for 600,000 sales in the UK, and by 1998 it had sold 1.1 million copies worldwide. The album was nominated at the 1986 Brit Awards for Best British Album, at which Bush was also nominated for Best British Female and Best British Single for "Running Up That Hill". In 2022, the album re-entered various charts, including reaching number one on the "Billboard" Top Alternative Albums, due to the appearance of "Running Up That Hill" in the Netflix series "Stranger Things".


title: Hounds of Love

text: Bush's fourth studio album "The Dreaming" (1982) had brought her first explorations of solo progressive rock, largely because she could emulate any instrument with the Fairlight CMI, and did not need a band. However, "The Dreaming" performed less well than her previous album "Never for Ever" (1980), spending half as much time on the UK Albums Chart.


title: Hounds of Love

text: In the summer of 1983, Bush (with the assistance of Del Palmer) began laying the groundwork for "Hounds of Love" at her home recording onto 8-track equipment, using a LinnDrum, Fairlight and piano. Wanting to retain the feel and atmosphere of these early recordings, she had them transferred to 24-track to build the final versions around once recording sessions officially began in November 1983. The overdubbing and mixing the album in a process that took a year. The recording sessions included use of the Fairlight CMI synthesiser, piano, traditional Irish instruments, and layered vocals. The chorale in "Hello Earth" is a segment from the traditional Georgian song "Tsintskaro", performed by the Richard Hickox Singers. The lines "It's in the trees! It's coming!" from the beginning of the title track are sampled from a seance scene from the 1957 British horror film "Night of the Demon", spoken by actor Maurice Denham.


title: Hounds of Love

text: The album was produced as two suites, with side one being subtitled "Hounds of Love" and side two a seven-track concept piece subtitled "The Ninth Wave". The album has been described as post-progressive because Bush voices themes of love and womanly passion rather than the usual male viewpoints associated with progressive rock.


title: Hounds of Love

text: "The Ninth Wave" uses a great many textures to express the story: in the style of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Arthurian poems, Bush pursues a vision quest, taking the listener through a death and rebirth. The warmth of familiar sleep is cut by dangerous speed, ice and frigid water, an otherworldly trial and judgement, an out-of-body limbo, and finally a vigorous emergence and grounding in life energy. The disparate musical elements of "The Ninth Wave" were described by Ron Moy as "classically prog" because of their evident experimentation, and because Bush wholly embraces European music traditions without a trace of American influence.


title: Hounds of Love

text: On 5 August 1985, Bush performed the new single "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" on Terry Wogan's BBC1 television chat show "Wogan". The single entered the UK Singles Chart at number nine and ultimately peaked at number three, becoming Bush's second-highest-charting single after her chart-topping debut single "Wuthering Heights".


title: Hounds of Love

text: The album launch party was held at the London Planetarium on 5 September 1985, which was the first occasion when Bush and her bass player boyfriend Del Palmer officially appeared in public as a couple. The invited guests were treated to a playback of the entire album while watching a laser show inside the Planetarium. "Hounds of Love" was released on 16 September 1985 by EMI Records on vinyl, XDR cassette and compact disc formats. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, knocking Madonna's "Like a Virgin" (1984) from the top position. The album marked Bush's breakthrough into the American charts with the Top 40 hit "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)". The album also yielded a set of music videos, one of which was "Cloudbusting", directed by Julian Doyle and co-starring Donald Sutherland. The video, like the song, was inspired by the life of psychologist Wilhelm Reich.


title: Hounds of Love

text: As a companion to the album, a 20-minute videotape and LaserDisc, "The Hair of the Hound", containing music videos for the four singles, was released in 1986.


title: Hounds of Love

text: On 16 June 1997, a remastered version of the album was issued on CD as part of EMI's "First Centenary" reissue series. The "EMI First Centenary" edition included six bonus tracks: 12″ mixes of "The Big Sky" and "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)", and the B-sides "Under the Ivy", "Burning Bridge", "My Lagan Love", and "Be Kind to My Mistakes", the last of which was written for Nicolas Roeg's 1986 film "Castaway" and plays during the opening scene.


title: Hounds of Love

text: A 10" pink vinyl record with four songs taken from the album ("The Big Sky", "Cloudbusting", "Watching You Without Me" and "Jig of Life") was released by Audio Fidelity (catalogue number AFZEP 001) on 16 April 2011 for Record Store Day 2011, limited to 1000 copies worldwide.


title: Hounds of Love

text: In the 2014 Before the Dawn concerts, Bush performed almost all of the album's tracks live for the first time, with the exceptions of "The Big Sky" and "Mother Stands for Comfort". "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" had been already performed live in 1987 with David Gilmour of Pink Floyd at the Secret Policeman's Third Ball.


title: Hounds of Love

text: In the UK, most reviews of the album at the time of its release were overwhelmingly positive. In a five-star review, "Sounds" called "Hounds of Love" "dramatic, moving and wildly, unashamedly, beautifully romantic", before going on to state, "If I were allowed to swear, I'd say that "Hounds of Love" is f***ing brilliant, but me mum won't let me". "NME" said, ""Hounds of Love" is definitely weird. It's not an album for the suicidal or mums and dads. The violence of "The Dreaming" has turned into despair, confusion and fear – primarily of love, a subject that remains central to Bush's songwriting." The review then went on to scorn the idea that by signing to EMI Records as a teenager, Bush had allowed herself to be moulded in their corporate image, suggesting that on the contrary, it had enabled her to use the system for her own devices: "Our Kate's a genius, the rarest solo artist this country's ever produced. She makes sceptics dance to "her" tune. The company's daughter has truly screwed the system and produced the best album of the year doing it." "Melody Maker" was more reserved, saying, "Here she has learned you can have control without sacrificing passion and it's the heavyweight rhythm department aided and abetted by some overly fussy arrangements that get the better of her". It was particularly disappointed by "The Ninth Wave" suite on the second side of the record, feeling that "she makes huge demands on her listener and the theme is too confused and the execution too laborious and stilted to carry real weight as a complete entity".


title: Hounds of Love

text: In the US, reaction to the record was mixed. Awarding the record the title of "platter du jour" (i.e. album of the day), "Spin" observed that "with traces of classical, operatic, tribal and twisted pop styles, Kate creates music that observes no boundaries of musical structure or inner expression". The review noted "while her eclecticism is welcomed and rewarded in her homeland her genius is still ignored here – a situation that is truly a shame for an artist so adventurous and naturally theatrical", and hoped that "this album might gain her some well-deserved recognition from the American mainstream". However, "Rolling Stone", in their first ever review of a Kate Bush record, was unimpressed: "The Mistress of Mysticism has woven another album that both dazzles and bores. Like the Beatles on their later albums, Bush is not concerned about having to perform the music live, and her orchestrations swell to the limits of technology. But unlike the Beatles, Bush often overdecorates her songs with exotica ... There's no arguing that Bush is extraordinarily talented, but as with Jonathan Richman, rock's other eternal kid, her vision will seem silly to those who believe children should be seen and not heard." "The New York Times" characterised the album's music as "slightly precious, calculated female art rock" and called Bush "a real master of instrumental textures."


title: Hounds of Love

text: In retrospective reviews, "The Independent" called "Hounds" "a prog-pop masque of an album". "Pitchfork" gave the album a perfect score, noting that the album draws from synth-pop and progressive rock whilst remaining wholly distinct from either style. "Spin" called it an "art-pop classic".


title: Hounds of Love

text: In 2020, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Hounds of Love" at number 68 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.


title: Hounds of Love

text: In a poll of the public conducted by NPR, "Hounds of Love" was voted in fourth place in its list of 150 greatest albums ever made by female artists.


title: Hounds of Love

text: In 1998, "Q" magazine readers voted "Hounds of Love" the 48th-greatest album of all time, while two years later the same magazine placed it at number 20 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever", and the third "Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist" in 2002. In 2006, "Q" placed the album at number four in its list of "40 Best Albums of the '80s". In January 2006, "NME" named it the 41st-best British album of all time. The 19th edition of "British Hit Singles & Albums", published by Guinness in May 2006, included a list of the Top 100 albums of all time, as voted by readers of the book and "NME" readers, which placed "Hounds of Love" at number 70. In 2008, "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" said the album should be given consideration when listing albums released between 1978 and 1988 that have stood the test of time while remaining influential and enjoyable to this day. In 2012, "Slant Magazine" listed the album at number 10 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s". "NME" placed "Hounds of Love" 48th on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.


title: Tretinoin

text: Tretinoin, also known as all-"trans" retinoic acid (ATRA), is a medication used for the treatment of acne and acute promyelocytic leukemia. For acne, it is applied to the skin as a cream, gel or ointment. For leukemia, it is taken by mouth for up to three months. Topical tretinoin is also the most extensively investigated retinoid therapy for photoaging.


title: Tretinoin

text: Common side effects when used as a cream are limited to the skin and include skin redness, peeling, and sun sensitivity. When used by mouth, side effects include shortness of breath, headache, numbness, depression, skin dryness, itchiness, hair loss, vomiting, muscle pains, and vision changes. Other severe side effects include high white blood cell counts and blood clots. Use during pregnancy is contraindicated due to the risk of birth defects. It is in the retinoid family of medications.


title: Tretinoin

text: Tretinoin was patented in 1957, and approved for medical use in 1962. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. Tretinoin is available as a generic medication. In 2020, it was the 230th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2million prescriptions.


title: Tretinoin

text: Tretinoin is most commonly used to treat acne, both inflammatory and noninflammatory. Multiple studies support the efficacy of topical retinoids in the treatment of acne vulgaris. It is sometimes used in conjunction with other topical acne medications to enhance their penetration. In addition to treating active acne, retinoids accelerate the resolution of acne-induced postinflammatory hyperpigmentation. It is also useful as maintenance therapy for people who have responded to their initial treatment, reducing the prolonged use of antibiotics for acne.


title: Tretinoin

text: Tretinoin is used to induce remission in people with acute promyelocytic leukemia who have a mutation (the t(15;17) translocation that gives rise to the PML::RARα fusion gene). It is not used for maintenance therapy.


title: Tretinoin

text: The evidence is very uncertain about the effect of tretinoin in addition to chemotherapy for patients with an acute myeloid leukemia on diarrhoea, nausea/vomiting and heart-related toxicity grades III/IV. Furthermore, tretinoin in addition to chemotherapy probably results in little to no difference in the mortality, relapse, progress, mortality during the trial and infections grade III/IV.


title: Tretinoin

text: Photoaging is premature skin aging resulting from prolonged and repeated exposure to solar radiation. Features of photoaging include fine and coarse wrinkles, change in skin pigmentation, and loss of elasticity. In human skin, topical retinoids increase collagen production, induce epidermal hyperplasia, and decrease keratinocyte and melanocyte atypia. Topical tretinoin is the most extensively investigated retinoid therapy for photoaging. Topical tretinoin can be used for mild to severe photoaging in people of all skin types. Several weeks or months of use are typically required before improvement is appreciated. The benefits of topical tretinoin are lost upon discontinuation. Although it has only been studied for a duration of two years, it may be continued indefinitely. A long-term maintenance regimen with a lower concentration or less frequent application may be an alternative to continued use.


title: Tretinoin

text: Topical tretinoin is only for use on the skin and should not be applied to eyes or mucosal tissues. Common side effects include skin irritation, redness, swelling, and blistering. If irritation is a problem, a decrease in the frequency of application to every other or every third night can be considered, and the frequency of application can be increased as tolerance improves. The fine skin flaking that is often seen can be gently exfoliated with a washcloth. A non-comedogenic facial moisturizer can also be applied if needed. Delaying application of the retinoid for at least 20 minutes after washing and drying the face may also be helpful. Topical retinoids are not true photosensitizing drugs, but people using topical retinoids have described symptoms of increased sun sensitivity. This is thought to be due to thinning of the stratum corneum leading to a decreased barrier against ultraviolet light exposure, as well as an enhanced sensitivity due to the presence of cutaneous irritation.


title: Tretinoin

text: The oral form of the drug has boxed warnings concerning the risks of retinoic acid syndrome and leukocytosis.


title: Tretinoin

text: Other significant side effects include a risk of thrombosis, benign intracranial hypertension in children, high lipids (hypercholesterolemia and/or hypertriglyceridemia), and liver damage.


title: Tretinoin

text: There are many significant side effects from this drug that include malaise (66%), shivering (63%), hemorrhage (60%), infections (58%), peripheral edema (52%), pain (37%), chest discomfort (32%), edema (29%), disseminated intravascular coagulation (26%), weight increase (23%), injection site reactions (17%), anorexia (17%), weight decrease (17%), and myalgia (14%).


title: Tretinoin

text: Respiratory side effects usually signify retinoic acid syndrome, and include upper respiratory tract disorders (63%), dyspnea (60%), respiratory insufficiency (26%), pleural effusion (20%), pneumonia (14%), rales (14%), and expiratory wheezing (14%), and many others at less than 10%.


title: Tretinoin

text: Gastrointestinal disorders include bleeding (34%), abdominal pain (31%), diarrhea (23%), constipation (17%), dyspepsia (14%), and swollen belly (11%) and many others at less than 10%.


title: Tretinoin

text: In the cardiovascular system, side effects include arrhythmias (23%), flushing (23%), hypotension (14%), hypertension (11%), phlebitis (11%), and cardiac failure (6%) and for 3% of patients: cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, enlarged heart, heart murmur, ischemia, stroke, myocarditis, pericarditis, pulmonary hypertension, secondary cardiomyopathy.


title: Tretinoin

text: In the nervous system, side effects include dizziness (20%), paresthesias (17%), anxiety (17%), insomnia (14%), depression (14%), confusion (11%), and many others at less than 10% frequency.


title: Tretinoin

text: In the urinary system, side effects include chronic kidney disease (11%) and several others at less than 10% frequency.


title: Tretinoin

text: For its use in cancer, its mechanism of action is unknown, but on a cellular level, laboratory tests show that tretinoin forces APL cells to differentiate and stops them from proliferating; in people there is evidence that it forces the primary cancerous promyelocytes to differentiate and mature into neutrophils, allowing normal cells to repopulate the bone marrow. A recent study showed that ATRA inhibits and degrades active PIN1.


title: Tretinoin

text: For its use in acne, tretinoin (along with other retinoids) are vitamin A derivatives that act by binding to two nuclear receptor families within keratinocytes: the retinoic acid receptors (RAR) and the retinoid X receptors (RXR). These events contribute to the normalization of follicular keratinization and decreased cohesiveness of keratinocytes, resulting in reduced follicular occlusion and microcomedone formation. The retinoid-receptor complex competes for coactivator proteins of AP-1, a key transcription factor involved in inflammation. Retinoids also down-regulate expression of toll-like receptor (TLR)-2, which has been implicated in the inflammatory response in acne. Moreover, tretinoin and retinoids may enhance the penetration of other topical acne medications.


title: Tretinoin

text: The combination of the 10% benzoyl peroxide and light results in more than 50% degradation of tretinoin in about 2 hours and 95% in 24 hours. This lack of stability in the presence of light and oxidizing agents has led to the development of novel formulations of the drug. When microencapsulated tretinoin is exposed to benzoyl peroxide and light only 1% degradation takes place in about 4 hours and only 13% after 24 hours.


title: Tretinoin

text: Tretinoin is synthesized from beta-carotene. The beta-carotene is firstly cleaved into beta-carotene 15-15'-monooxygenase through site 1 double bond oxidized to epoxide. The epoxide is attacked by water to form diol in site 1. NADH, as a reduction agent, reduce the alcohol group to aldehydes.


title: Tretinoin

text: Tretinoin was co-developed for its use in acne by James Fulton and Albert Kligman when they were at University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s. Phase I trials, the first conducted on human subjects, were performed on inmates at Holmesburg Prison during a long-running regime of non-therapeutic and unethical testing on prison inmates at Holmesburg. The University of Pennsylvania held the patent for Retin-A, which it licensed to pharmaceutical companies.


title: Tretinoin

text: Treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia was first introduced at Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai by Wang Zhenyi in a 1988 clinical trial.