There are six days left until Watch The Throne premieres digitally, ten days left until physical copies hit shelves, and still, miraculously, the album hasn’t leaked. With tour dates now announced and an official tracklist locked down, Kanye and Jay hosted an invite-only listening session at the Museum of Natural History last night to play the 12 finalized tracks in full.

Most attendees would agree that the 6pm sharp arrival time seemed a bit excessive, with only four or five people being let in at a time. Phones were confiscated at the door and ticketed in ziploc bags, which meant that guests enjoying the top shelf open bar were forced to talk rather than tweet and exchange info manually.

Among the media types and the model types there were also rapper types, like Pusha T, who we spotted as he made his way upstairs around 7:30pm for the first listening session. We followed the red trail of his Louboutin sneakers and found Kanye West, smiling from ear-to-ear, at the top of the landing, greeting guests and leading the way to the Hayden Planetarium. At first no clear seating instructions were given, so listeners shuffled to available seats while guests like A-Trak, Q-Tip, Grizzly Bear, Busta Rhymes, and Warner CEO Lyor Cohen filed in. Kanye, still smiling, greeted familiar faces in the crowd with firm handshakes, then Jay-Z rolled in with Beyonce on his arm, and Kelly Rowland and Solange not far behind.

There was no formal introduction before the playback began, but suddenly the lights went off, the ceiling of the planetarium lit up, and Frank Ocean’s voice came floating through the speakers on Watch The Throne’s first track, “No Church in The Wild.” There was no pause in between songs, and it was only after the complete record played that Jay-Z finally took the mic, explaining that the album took 9 months to complete, and went through 3 incarnations.

Through the pounding bass, we could distinguish standout tracks like “New Day,” an RZA-produced number which finds Ye and Jay spitting to their unborn sons, and the Beyonce-featured “Lift Off,” a soaring number that literally put the room on tilt with the space show whirling above. Lead single “Otis” was just a light refresher in the midst of a record dripping with emotion, pain, and some beautifully dark moments.

On the Swizz Beatz-produced “Welcome to The Jungle,” Jay delivers some of his best verses on the album, preempting them with a declaration of himself as the “Black Axel Rose.” On “Made It In America,” Frank Ocean appears for his second feature, shouting out Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz, and Coretta Scott King with swooning vocals that prove he’s destined to become legendary (yeah—we said it). And just like Jay’s Blueprint 3 album, Mr. Hudson appears on the final, rock-infused track “Love You So,” another light refresher compared to the previous tracks.