Situation:
Today not really a situation, but KG and I are discussing our top five favorite Kanye West songs.
She Says:
Let me start this by saying I don’t recognize Yeezus. That didn’t happen, so none of my top five songs will be from that album. Yesterday, Yeezy dropped the Swish track list and I just hope its so much better than Yeezus, LOL! Here are MY top five Yeezy tracks.
5. N**gas in Paris (Watch the Throne) – My goodness! What is there not to love about the song? The beat is hot as fuck. One of my all time favorite concert moments was Yeezy and Jay performing this song. When they performed it like three times in a row, everyone at the concert was so hype!
4. Streetlights (808s & Heartbreak) – I just love the smooth melodic flow of this record. A lot of people didn’t like 808s & Heartbreak, but I enjoyed it.
3. Can’t Tell Me Nothing (Graduation) – "I feel the pressure, under more scrutiny / And what do I do? Act more stupidly" You have got to love Kanye’s honesty. But I wholeheartedly feel him on “wait to I get my money right, then you can’t tell me nothing.” When my money gets right, bye bitches!
2. Devil in a New Dress (MBDTF) – I feel like this song showcases Yeezy’s storytelling and production skills beautifully. The beat is dope. The production is spot fuck on. Even the pauses in the song make it all work; especially the guitar solo. Then Yeezy picks Ross to come on the track. Ross’s voice sounds like butter on the beat. This was just perfection Kanye.
1. Through the Wire (College Dropout) – The man rapped this song with his mouth wired shut. I mean. WIRED SHUT! That’s dope enough right there. This song started it all.
AB
He Says:
Yeezy Season is upon us! It’s so crazy to think that from “Through the Wire” till the most recently dropped “No More Parties in LA” Kanye has created and mastered his lane. For many of us, our college and immediate post college years was shaped by the first three albums of the great Yeezus. So in honor of Kanye getting his mojo back, let’s take a second to pay homage to his Top Five Tracks of all time (My opinion clearly).
5. Blood on the Leaves (Yeezus) - The only shining moment on the Yeezus album comes from this track. This has to be one of the best-produced tracks Kanye has ever worked on and spit on. The song has the perfect tempo, good story, and great flow. The beat knocks so hard that it makes sense why Kanye starts this track over 3-4 times at every show he does now.
4. Street Lights (808’s and Heartbreaks) - “Let me know…Do I still got time to grow…Things ain’t always set in stone”. Introspective Kanye is always good for the culture. Street lights has the perfect somber beat where the drums knock just enough to go along with the mellow tone with the track.
3. Last Call (The College Dropout) - Who but Kanye can spend 13 minutes telling the story of how he got on?? Nobody but Kanye could pull this off. He spends about 3 minutes spitting and then tells his story about how people didn’t want him and then how Jay and Dame put him on. The crazy thing is he does this using a Bette Midler sample. I could probably listen to this beat with no lyrics, but the story just makes it that much better.
2. Sin City (Cruel Summer) - Who knew Travi$ Scott and Kanye could make Teyana Taylor sound like a musical goddess?? I sure as hell didn’t. Also who knew Cyhi the Prince could drop the best verse of his life. Sin City is not all Kanye verses, which to some could remove it from this list. But man this song is so dope from the beginning. This joint is like poetry rap with a crazy beat.
1. Through The Wire (The College Dropout) - I remember when this song leaked early back in 2003. I was a freshman at Temple University and my next-door roommate (who was from NY) turned this track on after coming back from the city. The beat, the vibe, the soul, and the lyrics literally changed my perspective on hip-hop music in 4 minutes. My man literally had surgery on his jaw and made a track that changed the landscape of the whole rap game.
KG
