Tag Archives: kanye west

#714: Kanye West – Late

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Coming in right at the end of Late Registration is the album’s (almost) title track ‘Late’. Back in 2005 when the CD was the way to listen to new music, you would have no clue that the song was on the album until you popped the disc into your computer due to it not being mentioned on the album art. So after the single version of ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone’ finishes – or ‘We Can Make It Better’ for people in the UK – a sudden rush of violins and other instruments of the like fill your ears to introduce this hidden track.

Featuring Kanye’s then iconic sampling method of taking soul classics and making them high pitched, he takes the track ‘I’ll Erase Away Your Pain’ by the Whatnauts and manipulates it in a way to make the listener think it’s singing “I’ll be late for that” when it’s actually saying “I’ll erase away”. That sample makes up the rhythmic backbone of the tune, repeating its climbing bassline and high-pitched wailing throughout. Kanye delivers his verses with a very smooth and laidback delivery, almost like it’s freestyle that he’s just saying from the top of his head, he straight up says he doesn’t have a line he can think of at one point during the song.

‘Late’ is one of my favourite songs from the album. For something that’s almost like a throwaway on the album, it includes some of the college-theme metaphors and referential humour that was an essential characteristic of the mid-2000s Kanye. Could vibe to it all day.

My iPod #510: Kanye West – Hell of a Life

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“Hell of a Life” is the tenth track on Kanye West’s arguable magnum opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, his fifth album released in November 2010. In it, Mr. West thinks he’s fallen in love with a porn star and raps to the listener about the various escapades and sexual shenanigans she and him would get up to.

I can remember it becoming one of my favourites straight away upon first listen. There’s a dark undertone to it that is maintained throughout despite the humorous but graphic lyrics Kanye provides, plus there are so many little things that made it so much more enjoyable for me – like the little arpeggio lick that plays after every chorus or the sudden appearance of the background vocals from “Dark Fantasy” during the final verse. It’s one of those songs where every time you listen to it again, you may always hear something new that you never paid attention to before.  It took a few more listens for me to realise the chorus takes its melody from “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath; that may sound strange because it’s very obvious that it does from the get-go, but I was into the melody that much that it went right over my head.

A song with lyrics with sexual imagery and a hard-hitting beat carried by a fuzzy bass line, “Hell of a Life” probably marks the peak of Kanye’s “fantasy” before reality finally hits him in “Blame Game“.

My iPod #499: Kanye West ft. Adam Levine – Heard ’em Say

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“Uh, yeah” are the first ‘words’ we hear uttered by Kanye West on his second album Late Registration, after being ‘woken’ up by the pissed off teacher in the preceding opening skit. And after repeating those words three more times against a booming bass drum, Kanye proceeds to go straight into the first verse in which (and for the rest of the song) he raps about the blunt realities and truths of life alongside a dainty piano sample taken from ballad “Someone That I Used to Love” by Natalie Cole.

I don’t whether to feel happy or sad when listening to this. The soft and smooth instrumentation, from the sweet synthesizers and swooning keyboards are a huge contrast from the confident, joyous curb-stomper opener of “We Don’t Care” – a song released only under two years before. And the falsetto provided by Adam Levine in the choruses doesn’t help but pull on your heartstrings that bit more.

Probably one of the quietest and heartwarming productions Kanye has committed to tape, it is such a pleasant way to get an album such as Late Registration started. Then “Touch the Sky” starts, and then it all seems like it’s back to normal.

Here’s another version of a video you can see.

My iPod #460: Kanye West ft. Mos Def & AL BE BACK – Good Night

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On my physical copy of Graduation, I was lucky enough to have “Good Night” as the final track on the album. This lullaby ends it on a sweet and innocent note after the stadium rock type vibes given by “Big Brother” and features the mighty Mos Def singing on the choruses and – a rapper who I thought was Jay-Z upon first listen – AL BE BACK on the last verse.

To the listener Kanye describes a moment in his life when he was a little kid and was out on a field trip with his grandparents, though shortly realises after that there is no point in dwelling over it so much as what’s done is done however much we’d want to go back in time and do it all over again. All in all, the track sends out a positive message to wake up everyday with a new frame of mind, take advantage of any opportunity that may come your way, and make the most of your life before it’s too late.

My iPod #458: Kanye West – Good Morning

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Kanye West’s third album Graduation, the last in the Dropout Bear/Education trilogy (the latter name I made up myself, probably not a good title), was the one in which the rapper now saw himself to be up there as one of the greatest rappers of this generation. Sure he had released two classics before, but it was the 2007 release where his ultimate goal to become known as one of the greatest of all time was set and established. Though “Stronger” was the first single from it to show the new edgier and focused Kanye, it’s “Good Morning” that starts it all off.

The first thing you hear upon entering the disc into your computer is a brief “Uh”, before the track’s beat kicks in followed by a descending synthesizer which leads into Kanye’s declaratory “Good Morning” and the soulful “oooh” sample that repeats after every time he says the phrase. Can’t get enough of that sample, could listen to that every day. In general the track is Kanye psyching himself up, telling himself to wake up, get focused, and prepare himself for what was coming now that he’d made a name for himself.

The guy never disappoints on his album openers.