I was perplexed on what to post on my blog this week, when the people in a hip hop group chat I am in were ranking Kanye West's albums from worst to best. While I will not do that, as I could review his albums more in depth in further posts, Kanye has a lot of exceptional songs. His great beats, raw emotion, and interesting samples create for great songs, even if he isn't the best technical rapper. So here are my ten personal favorite Kanye West songs. But first, some very honorable mentions: Through The Wire, Last Call, Hey Mama, Good Morning, Heartless, Street Lights, All of the Lights, So Appalled, Gorgeous, Monster, Blood on the Leaves, Guilt Trip, Saint Pablo, and Famous. 10. Can't Tell Me Nothing West has a lot of confidence, almost to the point of cockiness, and this track is his best demonstration of it. Right away, one of the most iconic openers of his careers, "Wait till I get my money right." That line sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the song, mixing catchiness and inspiration. With lines like "You can live through anything if Magic made it" equal parts inspirational and depressing, the song creates this paradox of emotions that makes it so unique. It's a shout out to haters and critics, an ode to proving people wrong, which is something I'm sure many people can relate to. The song doesn't have to choose between being a good radio single and a relatable song, it can be both. With a chorus that is instantly recognizable, it's one of those songs that can come on and make a majority of the room stop. I don't really have anything bad to say about this song; maybe the outro lasts a little too long if I'm being nitpicky. But it's easily one of his best party songs, and one of his best songs, period. And it brings up an excellent question: How do you parallel double park a car sideways? 9. New Slaves When it comes to Kanye's albums, Yeezus might be his most polarizing. Many people love the stark, brash sound of the album and the experimental sounds it uses. Others find it way too different from his previous work and has basic, egotistical lyricism. But Kanye has always been one to innovate, and this new sound of his was an example of him being ahead of the pack. However, the best song off the project is "New Slaves". Premiered on Saturday Night Live after a much more "lit" performance of the banger "Black Skinhead", the song is a brutal representation of the commercial slavery African-Americans still face today. The first verse addresses the desire of unattainable goods and it just gets more controversial and in your face from there. The second verse is pure frustration and aggression, with Kanye venting about everything: from oppression minorities still face today, the way corporations control, how blacks are still stereotyped, with some anti-paparazzi bars and a sprinkle of braggadocio. It's not a song that is listenable in any mood. But when I'm in that mood, it just hits. The ominous bass line in the background and Kanye's unfiltered lyrics set the tone for the IDGAF attitude of Yeezus. We are all somewhat slaves today -- to the money, to the girl, to bigotry (if you're Donald Trump), to whatever. The song is arguably his most provoking ever, with an incredible outro assisted by Frank Ocean vocals. What makes Kanye so brilliant is when he does the things that nobody else will do, or say the things nobody else will. And this song is a perfect example of that. 8. Diamonds from Sierra Leone This whole song was essentially written because he was upset about not winning an award, which is peak Kanye. Kanye's lyrical abilities aren't his strongest suit, but this song shows those skills at their best. Kanye finding great samples is as much of a certainty as the Catholic church touching young men inappropriately, and the Shirly Bassey intro is no exception. She sings "Diamonds are forever", and throughout the song, Kanye tells this tale of how he wants to be immortalized. The first verse is good, not great, although it still has classic Kanye lines, including this one about two strippers nicknamed "Porsche" and "Minivan" that's so out there only Kanye could pull it off. Why this song finds it way on the list is the second verse. This verse can be considered his magna opus, this culmination of frustration over everything that had happened over the past year. He acknowledges being that mad about an award is petty, but at least he has true passion. He paved his own way in the rap game, and can't even get the recognition of correct spelling on an awards plaque. He keeps upgrading and changing his musical repertoire even after continually getting written off. It's forty bars of passion from one of the most passionate people to ever do it. It was a gushing display of his desire to be remembered. To be engraved in the books, like a diamond. And with that passion, it's no wonder how he just got bigger, and bigger, and is now a rap legend. 7. Jesus Walks A mainstream song about Jesus? Wow, there's really nothing Kanye cannot do. This song could be the peak of his early gospel samples, with fluttery John Legend Auto-Tune falsetto, a march beat, children vocals, and Curtis Mayfield. The song is deeply depressing with its graphic first verse of the struggles a young black man may face, yet the song is optimistic by Kanye saying that God is with these people and more. The song doesn't try to push a belief; this is even stated with the line "I ain't here to argue about his facial features, or here to convert atheists into believers." But this song is still very effective at what it does: call out how afraid rap is of religion. That was something holding rap back in the 90s and early 00s; so much of the rap was rap about what happened on the streets: brutality, sex, drugs, even murder. While those things are real and do make for great songs, he makes a valid point: why is God so taboo? The College Dropout didn't really have a successful single, and the fact this one became its most well-known song and one of his most critically acclaimed ever is pretty ironic. He was willing to take away from his spins to do something nobody else had the guts to do. This recurring theme of doing the bold things has made Kanye the artist he is now. Honestly, probably the only reason why this isn't higher is because the first verse was written by somebody else. I don't have anything legitimately bad to say about this song. 6. Gone The final track to his sophomore album Late Registration, this track doesn't have a real direction. The verses are all pretty different, but all are great and it's an awesome way to end the album. It's great storytelling with a beat almost as complex as a whole symphony, each verse getting better and better. After Cam'Ron contributes, we get a verse from Consequence. A graphic verse about losing everything, from money to a loved one to part of his life. And just when you think the song can't get better from there, all the parts of the beat get stripped back until it's just the strings, and another incredible verse. Hey, that's a recurring theme -- Late Registration might have his best verses. "Gone" serves to represent a few different things -- his desire to be gone from the limelight, the album concluded and being "gone" (as this is the final track), and how maybe Kanye won't get his appreciation until he's gone. Any song that features arguably the best verse from three artists deserves to be this high, a beautiful combination of lyricism and instrumentation. 5. No More Parties in L.A. This is probably bound to be the most controversial selection of the list, but when you put Kanye West with one of the best rappers of all time in Kendrick Lamar (yes, he is one of the best already) and one of the best producers in Madlib, it's like combining LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. It's just a plethora of talent, and even if it doesn't quite live up to its absolute potential, it sure comes close. The whole song is about their satisfaction (or rather, a lack of it) with the fake lifestyles in Hollywood. The beat gives off a very old-school sample with a nice sample of Ghostface Killah, arguably the best member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Kendrick is the first person to rap, and he does have a couple cringe worthy lines. Specifically, some of the very first ones: "Well cutie, I like your bougie booty/Come Erykah Badu me, well, let's make a movie." It's bad, but at least it's bad enough where it's laugh inducing. The rest of his verse is a good storytelling verse about a girl who is leaving her old, less fortunate man for him. There are some great rhyme schemes and a very clever math wordplay in the middle of the verse. Yet, Kanye outshines Kendrick here. He reflects on the struggles he went to before he blew up, the various mental issues and other problems he faces as a celebrity, attacks women who chase rich men for child support, and more. It also features one of his most quotable lines of recent memory: "I feel like Pablo when I'm working on my shoes, I feel like Pablo when they see me in the news, I feel like Pablo when I'm working on my house." There is not a single bad bar in his verse, and further proves that Kanye is maybe at his best when he is at his angriest. It's non stop energy for nearly six minutes, Kanye and Kendrick bouncing off the walls with vivid lines all over the place and creating a barrage of entertainment as a result. 4. Otis Despite the relative disappointment of Watch The Throne, "Otis" showed us the full potential of the project. Kanye's ability to flip a sample and make a beat out of it is arguably at its best here, the beat heavily relying on an Otis Redding sample of "Try A Little Tenderness"; Kanye apparently made it in twenty minutes. Jay-Z's verses are a little bit slower flow to compliment the faster delivery of Kanye West. This isn't the most lyrical song, or the most creative. But it's one of the most fun songs, regardless of artist, I've ever heard. Two black men who had to make something for themselves out of nothing, flexing for three minutes. Lots of charisma and the soul from the sample in the background makes for one of Kanye's most replayable tracks. Drake and Lil Wayne were challenging their spot in rap at the time, and for the two of them to come out with this braggadocio response, and to drop a music video where they drive around in a partially destroyed Maybach with models in the backseat... it's one of the biggest flexes I've ever seen. It's so cocky, yet so entertaining and lovable. And if I had to describe Kanye in a few words, I don't think I could do it better than that. 3. We Major Crazy out of all the parts in this song, Kanye might be my least favorite. The song is essentialy "Feel Good 101", everything about the song being sonically amazing to the ears. For starters, the chorus from Really Doe is amongst the best ever. His delivery and the way he plays with the vocal inflections on the verse creates for an incredibly catchy earworm, followed by a Kanye chorus that repeats the line "We major? Come on homie, we major." While repetitive, it does its job. Kanye's verse has good lines but is all over the place in terms of lyrical content that it's a little bit head scratching. But Nas comes through with a fantastic verse. It's worth noting that Nas still had a beef with Kanye's Roc-A-Fella label owner Jay-Z at the time, and that this song helped squash the beef. His verse was essentially him stating his majority/dominance over the game, while also trying to figure out the next direction to go in his career. The verse also controversially compares himself to Jesse Jackson, saying hip hop is getting killed right in front of him. While maybe a little bit bold, Nas has always been a person to speak his mind, just like Kanye. And I respect that. The last half of the song doesn't have any rapping. But that might be for the better. Tony William's singing adds a soul to the already lush, extravagant, maximal orchestra style beat. And Kanye has an entertaining ad-lib portion near the end of the song, the standout line being "Why you call it Late Registration, Ye? Cause we takin' these motherf-----s back to school!" The chorus is repeated a few times but does not get old, and it's like a musical drug trip. You're entranced in this mystical world, so many things put together. It's really a "major" accomplishment for this song to be this high. 2. Runaway This song is the best apology note ever. I'm pretty sure it was inspired heavily after the Taylor Swift VMA incident. The song is Kanye basically telling the world he's an insensitive asshole... and yet there's nothing he can do about it. Also, this song deserves credit for being able to make a whole arena go crazy with one piano note. The chorus isn't the best singing, but the fact it's not perfect honestly helps it. I take it as a metaphor of Kanye's personality being far from perfect, and like the chorus, you have to take it or leave it. He doesn't rap much in this line, just an eight bar verse. The line "And I just blame everything on you, at least you know that's what I'm good at" is so brutally honest. He's not telling the girl to change for him or giving her fake promises. He's saying he can't change, so if she can't deal with that, she can go. Pusha T comes through with a contrasting verse after another chorus, his mean guy style contrasting with Kanye's apologetic nature. It's like an alternate side of his, filled with the charisma and punchlines we expect from Pusha. However, I also interpret this as potentially being in a world where the girl actually goes, and it's Kanye hiding behind fake confidence. Either way, such a bold and entertaining verse. The last half of the song is the most confusing part, and maybe the best part. It's mostly unintelligible Auto-Tuned vocoder. A lot of people don't understand the point of it, but it's Kanye showing how the media interprets him. How the world interprets him. He says things that may seem dumb out of context, (ex. "Slavery was a choice", "George Bush doesn't care about black people") but it sounded different to him. He tries to explain himself, and address issues people won't, but people just look the other way and misconstrue his words. You can't make out anything intelligible until near the end of it, and yet it says so much at the same time. It's his most emotionally powerful song, and the emotional climax to his best album. And yet, there's one better. 1. Devil in a New Dress There has been a lot said about this song. This post has been long enough, so I'll try to say as much with as little as I can. The song uses religious imagery to describe the things Kanye wishes to do this girl. It checks off everything Kanye does great. Like a lot of his best songs, there are hillarious and borderline cocky lyrics like "The LeBron of rhyme, hard to be humble when you stuntin' on a Jumbotron" and "I ordered the jerk, she said you are what you eat." It uses a sample to great effect, a Smokey Robinson sample of "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" slowed and raised in pitch until it reaches this euphoria, sounding like musical wine being poured out of a bottle and into the cup that is your speaker. Kanye does great, and the song would be great with just him. But what completes the song is the guitar interlude by Mike Dean leading into Rick Ross's verse. Arguably the best verse on the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Ross takes his traditional coke raps and upgrades them. They are elegant, descriptive, and even more charismatic than before. It isn't what you say, but how you say it. And with lines like "When it come to tools fool I'm a Pep Boy/When it came to dope I was quick to export/Never tired of ballin' so it's on to the next sport", you can't get mad at him for rapping about drug dealing if he does it with that much creativity. The verse doesn't really fit the theme of a relationship with this bad girl, but the perspective of Ross could be from the perspective of someone who got poisoned by the fame, like how the women Kanye is talking about in his verse was poisoned. And good Lord, the ending. "I'm making love to the angel of death/Catching feelings never stumble, retracing my steps" -- one of the absolute hardest closers ever. Kanye is like the Chris Paul of the rap game: orchestrating and involving everybody, making guys better than we knew they were ever capable of. The song's themes connect perfectly to the next track on the album, which happens to be "Runaway" ironically, and the other last few tracks on the album. Confident, funny lyrics. An amazing sample. Kanye using his features to the best of their ability. Oozing with creativity. Everything you could want in a Kanye song is present on "Devil in a New Dress". Truly a musical masterpiece. Thanks for reading!
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