i hate to sound like a difficult customer, but i just asked for one track and maybe that could have come with the elevator pitch as a bonus, but instead i got arguments before the supreme court. the very points you make become obscured by the barrage of further arguments, questions, challenges, exhortations, etc. let's go slow here.

so please let me refocus this:

"Everything I am" (Please listen to this and tell me what about it is offensive.)
"Diamonds of Sierra Leone" (Not the remix, the album version)
"Champion"
"Jesus Walks"
"Can't tell me nothin" (Check it! Humility!)
"Good Morning"
"Who Will Survive in America"
"So appalled"
"See Me Now"
"Gorgeous"
"Hey Mama"
"Big Brother"
"Roses"
"My Way Home"
"Crack Music"
"New Day"
"Murder to Excellence"
"Made in America"

---

of aaaaaaaaall these-- which one is the champion? i sincerely wanna try it, but help me out here. less is more.

name just one. the best one. just that one. no prejudicial commentary/intro/nothing. i'll listen and hear for myself, and if i have questions i'll ask for myself. deal?

LESS IS MORE.

I thought I sent you a PM telling you that "Runaway" was, in my opinion, the best song Kanye's ever done and possibly the best hip-hop song of the century. ? But this is tough because you've asked for a specific thing, and I'm not sure Runaway is the best starting place considering what you've asked for.

I think it's the best song in Kanye's catalog. BUT, it's easy to misinterpret. Also, it's not a solo performance, but a collab with Pusha T. So bear with me.

I think that "Everything I Am" is probably the song you need to hear. It's all Kanye, heart and soul. Read the lyrics on Genius or something after you spin it.

Anyone want to suggest something else? Louder and NR are probably still more knowledgable about Ye than I am... so I would defer to them if they made other suggestions.

Jesus, it's not even that I care if you like him or not, Slambang. I just want you to dig around a bit before you start saying you hate everything he stands for. It's not fair to you. I'd put the same energy into a discussion with someone who hated the Beatles because of that damned "bigger than Jesus" quote.

okay! i'll check it out tomorrow. thanks!

"Everything I Am" is a really good choice.

"Jesus Walks" and "Family Business" came to immediate mind as well. But "Everything I Am" is great. Yeah.

while i don't think that one song can capture the whole essence of an ever-evolving artist like Kanye, "Everything I Am" seems like a fairly good introduction. and yeah so is "Family Business".

Yeah, I considered "Jesus Walks" because it's a good example of how serious Kanye is about shedding light on the inequities of the American experience. Also, it's such a classic that even non-fans like SuchFriends can appreciate...

But "Everything I am" is one of those Kanye cuts that is so deeply personal and unhindered by the status quo of the genre that it all but invalidates the claim that there is nothing more to Kanye West than Louis Vuitton, chest thumping and nut busting.

so i listened to "everything i am" a few times

the music wasn't terrible-- i actually liked the piano. and a nice mellow beat.

as for the lyrics-- yes they weren't awful but nothing great either.

the terrible rhymes are part of the genre so i won't count that against him

but the content is basically:

memememememememe
what a great boy i am
memememememememe
people talking about me
what a great boy i am
memememmemememe
etc.

o wait there was this funny moment at the end when he says his 15 seconds are up-- that was good

i definitely don't hate it, but would i call it the greatest thing of the century? no ai weiwei

okay i'm going to go listen to "jesus walks" after i clean my ears with some ornette coleman-- ha ha ha

then i'll also give "family business" a try

FINALLY

"family business" did it

great lyrics at last-- the gospel shit i do not dig much but it's forgiven

jesus walks same thing-- best line probably But if I talk about God my record won't get played

great production all around as well-- you can notice in the slightest detail

the music doesn't do it for me much, but i wasn't expecting different

hey is that from the gatorade commercial? the jesus walk thing?

okay fine, i won't look at him with repulsion again (i think-- ha).

maybe after some relistens i'll start liking it ha ha ha ha

we'll see

ps- i made the mistake of starting to listen to the whole "college dropout" album and i ended up turning off that disco shit midway

Why we even wasting time talking about old Kanye shit when Priest just dropped another jewel on us?? If Ye thought his rap wasn't on the radio because of a few quasi-genuine references to Jesus, Killah Priest is officially banned from the mainstream for speaking the real that no other rap, shit no other artists of any genre, have put out.

...and the beats?? Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit..

Such an uneven album.

easily my least fav Kanye album, even Kanye called it a "failure" at some point. but it's still an important album which has some incredible songs.

while his early stuff generally have more depth, i think that a Sonic Youth fan would likely find the production on Yeezus a lot more appealing than The College Dropout and Late Registration.

Ok, well, since every album is so different, maybe you could listen to at least a few tracks from each album.

I know those first two records don't really sound like "best shit ever" material to a lot of folks. And while I think they're great, I also know that they're hip hop records, and that they don't really blow you away. Graduation is the high point of the first era. A perfect hip hop album.

The real "wow, best shit ever material shows up on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and is hinted at and toyed with on 808's & Heartbreak. These albums transcend the genre, as do Watch the Throne, Yeezus and even Cruel Summer. If you're interested in hearing the stuff that really blows the roof off of contemporary music, you'll probably want to put in the effort to listen to these albums.

Everyone should hear My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy from start to finish.


But do what you want. Just let me know if you ever listen to Runaway or the rest of MBDTF. I'm dying to know what you'd think. Seriously!

Never say i don't try to contribute but all yall ever wanna talk about is kanye this and kanye that..

It's my least favorite too, but I still think all the songs are good, and that some of the skits are even still worthwhile.

Late Registration is brilliant to me, and I really wish it had fewer skits, because the music is just excellent, and the production is subtly brilliant, with it baroque and chamber music elements, jazz tones and orchestral arrangements. I don't think it's at all boring, but I admit I do sometimes get bored listening to College Dropout.

Everything else, though. Shit. If I hear the intro to the first track, I'm locked in.

The skits are terrible imo.

i listened to college dropout because the non-vomity songs were there!


i clicked on your link and got an error message


oh yes-- my mind had erased them


i'll give it a try one of these days