Kanye West and Jay-Z dropped the first cut from their 5-track collaborative EP, Watch the Throne, moments ago via Kanye University. The new 6-minute song, “Monster,” features our first listen to Ye’s collaboration with Bon Iver, as well as guest spots by Rick Ross and Nicki Minaj. Aside from “Power,” I have to say this is my favorite piece of new material from West this year.

Download the free “Monster” MP3 here, and stream it below:

**Update: We had to remove the Jay-Z/Jack White photos, unfortunately, per the photographer’s request.

Perhaps even Jay-Z and Jack White knew that the story about them hitting the studio in NYC and Nashville sounded too good to be true as the pair have now provided some undeniable photo evidence, as well as a song name. Uncovered by a French White Stripes fan site (via Rock it Out! Blog) last night were ten professionally shot pictures of Three Quid and Hova laying down their forthcoming track, “Ray Bans,” in the studio.

In the photos below, Jack White can be seen playing guitar with a vocal microphone set up, while Jay-Z is pictured laughing and looking pensive (memorizing rhymes?) atop $20k worth of studio gear.

Check out the photos here.

As far as rap/rock collaborations go, I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more exciting combo than Jack White and Jay-Z. We know that the pair have at least one song in the can, but with all that kinetic creative energy White described from their session in NYC, are they plotting something more (album, EP)? Perhaps.

“I would love to,” White told Times Online about a possible LP. “If we can find the time.” Those exciting pull-quotes are preceded, however, by an even more intriguing bit from interviewer Craig McClean which states that White and Hova are set to reconvene “in a few weeks” at the Third Man record shop/studio/headquarters in Nashville.

Great news, of course, though that wasn’t the only potential future collaboration White discussed in the Q&A…

On one hand, this isn’t too surprising, as both Jay-Z and Jack White have publicly declared their hopes to collaborate someday, but on the other hand, holy crap! It actually happened! In an interview in the new issue of GQ (UK), the Dead Weather/Raconteurs/White Stripes rocker dropped the incredible news…

“I just did a record with Jay-Z,” said White. “We did a song together a few weeks ago. It was incredible. I played him something that I’ve been kicking around for a while and he immediately came out with words for it. It’s unbelievable-sounding.”

Perhaps Hova and White were introduced by mutual collaborator Alicia Keys.

Though White hasn’t made any previous forays into hip-hop (does this count?), Jay-Z is no stranger to rock collaborations, having previously teamed up with Linkin Park, John Mayer, and U2 to name a few.

There were many interesting musical moments during tonight’s “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon—which would be pretty hard to miss if you flipped through the channels during primetime television in the past couple hours. Though the program has only just begun here on the West Coast, we watched the stream on YouTube and want to encourage all those in our timezone to tune in asap to watch some great artists for a great a cause.

Sure, the most anticipated performance of the night was perhaps U2, Jay-Z, and Rihanna’s unveiling of their new song “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour),” but we were more into Bruce Springsteen’s take on “We Shall Overcome,” as well as Neil Young (who just played “Long May You Run” for Conan O’Brien’s final Tonight Show) and Dave Matthews’ cover of Hank Williams classic “Alone and Forsaken.”

iTunes will offer all of tonight’s performances on Monday for the Hope for Haiti Now charity compilation at itunes.com/haiti, but until then, you can watch the Young/Matthews performance here or below, The Boss below or thataway, or check out the new Jay-Z/U2/Rihanna song here.

Most importantly, though, please donate here for the Haiti relief effort if you are able.

The list of musicians, actors, journalists, and celebrities set to appear and/or perform this Friday night on the “Hope For Haiti” telethon keeps growing by the hour, so here’s hoping all this star power will encourage lots of generosity as Haiti struggles to survive and rebuild after last week’s devastating earthquake. Most recently, musicians Bruce Springsteen and Jay-Z have been announced as performers for the telecast, which will air on every major network and a number of cable channels at 8PM EST.

Musically, the most interesting update of late is that Jay-Z and U2 have collaborated on a brand new song for Haiti with producer Swizz Beatz. In fact, the writing and recording of the new tune came about rather quickly. “Last night we wrote a song,” the Edge said (via Consequence of Sound). “Bono got a call from a producer, Swizz. He and Jay-Z wanted to do something for Haiti. So, Bono came up with the phrase on the phone, and last night we were here, we wrote a song–finished, recorded, and sent it back to them.”

E! reports that Bono and Jay-Z are set to perform from the Robert Pattinson-hosted London portion of the telethon (George Clooney will host in Los Angeles, Wyclef Jean in New York City, and CNN’s Anderson Cooper in Haiti).

While all donations made during the event will go to seven different charities, including Red Cross, Oxfam America, and Partners in Health, additional money will be raised on iTunes with songs from the featured performers being made available following telecast.

Remember that minor blogospheric meltdown when it was revealed that MGMT were to appear on Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3? Yeah… what a summer. Well, as we all know by now, the MGMT bros were left off Hova’s final tracklist (I figured they were bumped off by Alicia Keyes or Mr. Hudson or something) and here’s why: “MGMT turned me down,” Jay-z told Gotham (via Digital Spy). Perhaps it was that “Brian Eno” track and they wanted to keep it for their next LP.

R.E.M. are apparently back in the studio, as a recent photo of Michael Stipe with Accelerate producer Jacknife Lee was sent to fansite Murmurs by R.E.M.’s tour manager, Bob Whittaker. Murmurs says the photo depicts Stipe and company starting “work on the new R.E.M. record.” Watch ‘em twiddle them knobs here.

Jay-Z and Alicia Keys brought the house down tonight, many hours before the Yankees beat the Phillies in game 2 of the MLB’s World Series.

Watch below or here as Jay-Z’s rhymes echo off Yankee Stadium walls and Alicia Keys drawls ‘cross Yankee Stadium stalls. Athletes bop their heads and Brooklyn’s own brings it home. It’s fun and less about rap. Perhaps even about baseball a bit.

Either way, a hit’s a hit:

Regina Spektor might be trying her hand at the less lucrative Broadway musical genre by penning the songs for an upcoming Sleeping Beauty adaptation, but she’s probably not going to be in need of cash anytime soon.

According to a press release uncovered by Consequence of Sound, Jay-Z has purchased the rights to a sample of Spektor’s “Chemo Limo,” off 2004’s Soviet Kitsch, for an upcoming track called “Crispy Benjamins,” which is due out later this year.

There are no other details as of now, but CoS speculates that the track could be on an upcoming deluxe edition of The Blueprint 3.

That’s a big move from singing with Ben Folds to jamming with Hova, but, either way, this track should be amazing and it’s nice to see Regina will be getting some much-deserved crispy Benjamins of her own.