Tag Archives: kanye west

My iPod #451: Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx – Gold Digger

Leave a reply

With “All Day” circulating the Internet in its official form and the forthcoming album So Help Me God over the horizon, it seems like 2015 is gonna be another busy year for Kanye West. “All Day” is hot fire. Gets me pumped hearing it. Looking forward to the album too. But today’s song comes the rapper’s second studio album Late Registration, released ten years ago this coming August. What the hell.

I remember hearing “Gold Digger” for the very first time. And this isn’t me just saying it, this is something I can vividly recall. Coming back from London Heathrow after the holiday to Belgium, the ‘premiere of Kanye West’s brand new song’ was the main subject on Radio 1. It played. I didn’t think much of it. I was ten, I wasn’t really focusing on it that much I just wanted to get home. My sister, on the other hand, loved it. She was ecstatic. What excited her more was when the music video (as can be seen above) was eventually played on MTV Base weeks later. Those were good times. She then went to Woolworths to buy Late Registration due to boredom when a power cut occurred in our local area. Life went on from there.

“Gold Digger” is one of Kanye’s most popular songs, though you won’t see him performing it anytime soon. He’s very serious about work at the moment. More so than usual. If you haven’t heard the track I dunno where you’ve been in this life. Unless you were born five years ago or something.

Memorable lines are spat, Jamie Foxx imitates Ray Charles, the song is filled with the humourous wit he displayed in his first two albums. Overall, it’s just catchy and funky as anything. Honestly, I don’t know what else to say.

Well, it may have lost its touch due to being replayed immensely over the years. But you still can’t deny its greatness.

My iPod #360: Kanye West – Family Business

1 Reply

“Family Business” is exactly about what it says in the title. It’s Kanye West’s tribute to his family, dead and alive, a particular verse is for a cousin who was incarcerated at the time. But overall, the track is a general salute to those who helped him grow and get where he was back in 2004, or whenever he recorded this track.

It’s probably one of the sweetest tracks Kanye has ever done, not just in terms of quality but to listen to it is very delightful. A cute piano sample starts it all off, with child vocals used during the choir break (which itself is a reference to Rain, Rain, Go Away) and the outro…. It’s a great song to hear if you’re with the people you love.

I love my family, so this is the perfect song.

My iPod #338: Kanye West ft. DJ Premiere – Everything I Am

Leave a reply

“Everything I Am” was a song that was made for Common that was passed on, something Kanye West mentions early in the song.

It was composed using only a Rhodes piano, a vocal sample, and some scratching, this song stands as the album’s most stripped down production. West marries a down-tempo beat to gentle piano chords that are accentuated by soulful cooing sampled from “If We Can’t Be Lovers” by Prince Phillip Mitchell.

This is soulful and mellow beat is complemented with Kanye’s very introspective lyrics about topics such as self-examination, personal troubles, his own flaws and made up gangsters.

The track features a scratched hook by DJ Premier on the vocal sample: “here we go again,” from Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise”. After West had played an early version of this record for Premier and asked him his thoughts on it. DJ Premier answered he liked the lyrics and the beat and offered to put scratches on it.

……. OK, that was a definite cop out. That’s all from RapGenius, I’m sorry.

I couldn’t put a description of the song in better words myself. Mostly because I didn’t know most of the information that is there.

“Everything I Am” is chill, man. I like it just because of its modesty and humour (something you probably wouldn’t say about him today) and because of the cool, laid back beat which you only have to nod your head to and really focus on what the man has to say.

I miss old Kanye maaaaaaan, bring him back, this is what I waaaaant.

Seriously.

My iPod #171: Kanye West – Celebration

Leave a reply

While we all wonder on what Kanye was thinking when he was about to shoot the video for “Bound 2”, it seems quite fitting that today’s song is one of his most underrated from arguably his second best album.

“Celebration” from “Late Registration” is a track where Mr. West actually sounds like he is having fun, and not trying to prove a point about how awesome he is, or how people should gaze and bow at his presence whenever he walks into a room. He may not rap about that last part explicitly, but he might as well do.

No, “Celebration” is a good ol’ mid-noughties hip-hop track about appreciating the good times we share with one another. It actually shows us that Kanye could be funny too; the line where he tells his ‘child’ that he was a mistake because he didn’t use protection, but then saves it by calling it his ‘favourite accident’? That’s priceless.

My iPod #127: Kanye West – Bound 2

1 Reply
A FACEBOOK CONVERSATION MY FRIEND AND I HAD UPON OUR FIRST LISTEN OF YEEZUS
14th June 2013 (GMT)
Friend: YEEZUS LEAKED                                                                                               19:19
            OMFGODBOSBFOUSBNCONOSIC

Me: No way, where                                                                                                           19:26

       wtg
       wtf
       show me

Friend: BRO ARE YOU STILL THERE?!                                                                         19:40

            ILL SEND YOU THE LINK
           TO DOWNLOAD
           http://www.sharebeast.com/riate2ihstqp                                          (Link doesn’t work anymore)

 

Me: HOLY SHIIIIIT                                                                                                          19:44

 

 

Friend: I JUST STARTED PLAYING IT                                                                           19:44
           I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF MATHS
           MATHS IS SUCH A DICK

 

Me: I was doing biology                                                                                                      19:52
       OMDZ

 

 

Friend: HOLD MY LIQUOR AND IM IN IT                                                                    20:03
           OMDS
           AND NEW SLAVES IN GOOD QUALITY
           HALF WAY THROUGH
           IM ALMOST CRYING

 

 

Me: MATE I’M ON BLACK SKINHEAD                                                                        20:04
       THIS SHIT IS CRAZY

 

 

Friend: LOOL                                                                                                                    20:04
            I AM GOD IS SO BLASPHEMOUS
           HOLD MY LIQUOR MY CURRENT FAV

 

 

Me: THIS IS SO SICK                                                                                                     20:04
        I’M ONLY ON THE 2ND SONG

 

 

Friend: IT IS SERIOUSLY ONLY GETTING BETTER                                                    20:09
           I HAVE CHANGED MY FAV SONG 3 TIMES

 

 

Me: THIS ALBUM GOES IN SO HARD                                                                         20:09

 

 

Friend: BLOOD ON THE LEAVES                                                                                  20:09
           OMDS
           WE AINT GONNA REVISE FOR ANOTHER HOUR
           LMAO

 

 

Me: IT’S FINE                                                                                                                  20:11
       I HAVE TO SIT THROUGH THIS

 

 

Friend: WE HAVE TO, HAVE TO                                                                                   20:11

            SWEET BABY YEEZUS HAHAHAHAMe: 😀                                                                                                                              20:13

 

 

Friend: I CANT TELL WHO SOME OF THE COLLABERS ARE                                 20:14

 

 

Me: SAME
       THE GUY AT THE BEGINNING OF HOLD MY LIQUOR SOUNDS FAMILIAR        20:15
       I THINK HE’S IN DARK FANTASY

 

 

Friend: OMDS KEEP GOING                                                                                          20:15
            KID MOTHERFUCKING CUDI
            COMING UP SOON
            ITS SO PERFECT
           OH YEAAHHH
           OMDS THE LAST TRACK HAS A BEAT LIKE ITS MIXED FROM ALL HIS ALBUMS
           LOVING THIS

 

 

Me: OH MAN…                                                                                                               20:20

 

 

Me: dude.                                                                                                                         20:40
       that was an experience

 

 

Friend: im pulling an all nighter today                                                                                  20:55

           that is my fuel————-

So as you can see…. we were both very excited.

Looking at it retrospectively, I have no idea why I was typing in caps lock. Yeezus isn’t really that good of an album. That’s right I said it.

I think it was just so unexpected. I was revising for my final exam and then my friend messaged me with that, it was just so sudden.

“OMDS THE LAST TRACK HAS A BEAT LIKE ITS MIXED FROM ALL HIS ALBUMS” refers to today’s blog song “Bound 2”, which is definitely one of the better songs from Yeezus – if not the best one.

It is… kinda like my friend said, reminiscent of the many older songs where Kanye utilised his chipmunk sampling producing on his first two albums.

It’s basically Kanye yelling at us over a sample about his, apparently everlasting love with Kim Kardashian but with similes and metaphors all over the place which I’m not able to explain to you.

Yeezus is a very loudly mixed album – it’s partly produced by Rick Rubin so there’s the explanation, so on a lot of the songs there is clicking and crackling everywhere. This song is no exception. Especially in the first few seconds where you can literally hear the cut and paste of the sample. The way it ends is quite abrupt and anticlimactic with the “UH-HUH HONEY” part. Nevertheless, it is a standout on an otherwise standard album.

Oh yeah, it also features vocals by the man who sings “Ooh wee” in “Signs” by Snoop Dogg ft. Justin Timberlake. Charlie Wilson, that’s his name. What a G.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.