"H•A•M" (an acronym for "Hard As (a) Motherfucker") is a song by American rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West from the deluxe edition of their collaborative studio album, Watch the Throne (2011).

She appreciated the song for mixing hip hop with opera and spent seven hours recording her vocals, delivering many takes in high C notes as she aimed for West's desired combination of gospel and R&B to offer a modern sound.

[10] Lex Luger sent them the track for "H•A•M" during recording sessions for West's fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in November 2010, standing as one of the two beats the rapper requested to use.

[11][12] After receiving the track, West added his production work that included a choir and did not allow Lex Luger to listen until it was finalized for the premiere in January 2011.

[14] Lex Luger was the lead producer of "H•A•M" and West served as a co-producer, while Mike Dean contributed additional production and three of them wrote it alongside Jay-Z.

[15][18] The song breaks down into an electro-opera coda at around three minutes in,[6][21] featuring a full-string symphony orchestra,[17][22] military drums,[20] and the choir singing in an alto-soprano vocal range.

[25][26] On January 7, 2011, West tweeted the song's black-and-white cover art, which was created by Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy and shows crowns alongside a vicious barking dog.

[28] It was released for digital download in the United States as the album's lead single on the scheduled date, through Jay-Z and West's labels Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam.

[31] On August 23, 2011, Def Jam, Roc Nation, and Roc-A-Fella released the deluxe edition of Jay-Z and West's album Watch the Throne, including "H•A•M" as the 14th track.

West tweeted to her "I'm really happy for you and I'mma let you be #1", but insisted "H•A•M" was one of the best songs of all time with "LOL" at the end; this was a reference to his incident with singer Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.

[33] During a private listening event at The Mercer Hotel on July 7, 2011, Jay-Z said that the song was reflective of the album having been scaled back from its earlier iterations that were more dramatic and intricately planned.

In a highly positive review at The Village Voice, Rob Harvilla commented that West focuses on white girls and Jay-Z "plays chicken with a Mack truck", further lauding the chorus' loudness and the ensuing "electro-opera breakdown".

[21] Kevin O'Donnell of Spin commended the song's elaborate orchestral production that lives up to the rappers' "outsized baller status" and features a "brash, electronic beat"; he felt West's ambitions continue from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on the "weirdest sounding opera ever" from Cardona.

[5] The Guardian's Michael Cragg saw it as "an audacious, OTT banger" where echoing drums and icy synths accompany "frantic raps", succeeded by a coda from opera singers with a string section as it seems like "a kitchen sink [is] strummed for good measure".

[15] Caballero observed that the backing switches "to a symphony of crashing drums" and a choir on the chorus, finalizing the song is "dark, weird, bombastic and unapologetically indulgent" like West's album.

[17] She offered that West sounds silly on the chorus over instrumentation with a "mechanized drama" invoking the franchise Transformers and Jay-Z seems to enjoy himself more, concluding the song is too explicit and lacking in content to reach the Top 40, yet indicates a positive outlook for Watch the Throne.

[17] Rolling Stone journalist Jody Rosen stated the song has a grand beginning of rising synths that are succeeded by "spooky opera ululating" and it becomes bigger from the choir's singing over the symphony orchestra, setting the expectations for the likes of God or Gandalf.

[22] In Vulture, Amos Barshad described the song as Jay-Z and West's "brand-new tack" at Waka Flocka Flame's style of music over Lex Luger's production as the two rap about "the brashest shit" that they could have thought of.

[36] Brent Koepp of Beats Per Minute viewed the song as "show-boating" from West after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, finding the music to reach a standard below his unique skillset.

[18] Koepp felt Jay-Z and West force in elements like the synth and choir to give the song an epicness; he concluded that the rappers focus "way too much" on its theme with their disappointing verses.

[49] On March 19, Jay-Z and West performed it during VEVO's GOOD Music show for South by Southwest (SXSW) at an abandoned power plant in Austin, Texas.

[51] On May 10, West brought out Jay-Z to perform the song towards the end of his benefit concert for the annual party of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan, New York.

[61] During an appearance for Peter Rosenberg on Hot 97 in July, Odd Future members Tyler, The Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, and Domo Genesis each delivered sandwich-themed freestyles over the song.