(Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Rap deities Jay-Z and Kanye West celebrated the pending release of their colossal collaboration LP Watch the Throne last night with an out-of-this-world listening party at the Hayden Planetarium in New York's American Museum of Natural History. The appropriately star-studded event brought out guests like Beyoncé, Nas, Idris Elba, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Q-Tip and more for a sneak-preview of the album, which will be released to the public on iTunes August 8.
To accommodate all the attendees, guests were led into the planetarium in three separate groups. Once inside, Watch the Throne played in its entirety with a choreographed display of lights and shooting stars projected on the roof. Both Jigga and 'Ye were in attendance for the event.
The ostensible coming-out party still kept the project under wraps, with all revelers being required to hand over their cellphones and other personal electronics devices before entering the planetarium. Speaking to Hot 97 yesterday, Jay-Z said he was committed to preventing Watch the Throne from leaking prematurely.
"It's not gonna leak. It's not gonna happen," he said. "We've taken great care to deliver this project to the people in one piece."
To help fend off bootleggers, the album will come out digitally on iTunes on the 8th before being released to stores on August 12. A pending video for lead single "Otis" was shot by renowned filmmaker Spike Jonze. Fans hoping to see The Throne live can buy presale tickets for the official Watch the Throne tour starting today.