American supermodel and reality star and Travis Scott's girlfriend at the time,
Kylie Jenner, first teased the track via her Snapchat story on April 24, 2018,[3] West also teased it on Twitter the following day.[4][5][6] A day before the song's release, Scott revealed its release date and cover art,[7][8][9] the latter of which includes a roller coaster, a skull with fire in its eye sockets, flowers and a gem-encrusted gold watch.[10] On May 11, Scott premiered a vertical video for the song exclusively on Spotify, in which Uzi and West were absent. It was shot at
Six Flags Magic Mountain.[11]
Composition
"Watch" is a
trap song which samples
Ronald Jenkees' 2012 song "Early Morning May" and KSupreme's unreleased song "Expensive Shit".[12][13][3] According to Rolling Stone's Althea Legaspi, "the track opens with an amusement park clip of a child at AstroWorld, and a whimsical, woozy musical vibe follows that befits that theme".[10] Lyrically, Uzi raps about their cash flow,[14] while West raps about
opioid addiction and addresses his controversial social position.[15][16][17] The outro was spoken by Scott's girlfriend
Kylie Jenner.[18][19]
Critical reception
Sheldon Pearce of Pitchfork regarded the song as "an enjoyable ego trip full of empty-calorie raps, reliant entirely on the premise that you are as enthralled by these three artists as they are with themselves". He noted "Pi'erre's superb ear-bending production" as "the song's best feature", writing that "Scott is largely forgettable" due to his "toneless, flat, and unchanging" hums.[20]
Live performances
On May 6, 2018, Scott made a live performance debut of the song during an appearance at Avenue nightclub in Los Angeles.[21]