Shrouded in secrecy, concrete details about Watch The Throne have been hard to pin down. Along with Wayne & Em, the billing of Kanye and Jay poses one of rap’s most bankable billings thus the rumors and speculation have been full throttle since word first emerged confirming the project was indeed in the works. And now, MTO got their hands on what they report will be the album cover. They also throw in the requisite Illuminati mentions, almost immediately discrediting themselves.

Toss the new cover in the bin with the other previous guesstimatations regarding the album.

– Tentative tracklist after tentative tracklist.

– We’ve had a single called “Lift Off” slated to feature Beyonce & Bruno Mars.

– The album cover will be made out of metal, perhaps “golden.”

– Jay did indeed put the onus on ‘Ye for finishing the album with his statement that “Ye is just in an extraordinarily creative place—so much so I need to get him to focus so we can finish this,” Jay says. “But music is his refuge right now.”

– The album was rumored to drop on Monday, July 4th without any promo, but it sounds as if that speculation was quickly defused.

– Ryan Seacrest has even gotten into the act by saying a single will be delivered by mid-July.

Over the years, time and again the net has taught me one valuable lesson: avoid the buildup and hype as much as possible and just wait.

Update: DDot says the cover above is the cover we’ll be seeing…whenever we see the cover.

Update: And like that, Jay’s site confirms the cover and Def Jam has the album up for pre-order with August 2nd as the release date. Quite a bit of movement in one day for an album that previously was traveling at glacier speed.