With Kanye West being rumored to drop a new album titled “Bully” soon, I thought it would be fun to go back and look at his very long, subjectively amazing career. In this story, I will be ranking the top 10 Kanye West songs over his 20 year long career.
10. “Slow Jamz” – “Slow Jamz” is Kanye’s first big hit, featuring Jamie Foxx and Twista, off of his debut album “The College Dropout” (track 12). This song uses a sample from a 1981 cover by Luther Vandross of “A House Is Not a Home” by Dionne Warwick. The chorus, sung by Jamie Foxx, actually features a line mentioning Vandross, which is a fun shout out to him. This song has great lyrics and a great performance by Kanye West, and a great delivery by Twista. The chorus is also amazing and this is just overall a great song. However, all the songs in front of it are better. My favorite line in this song is “She got a light skin friend look like Michael Jackson/Got a dark skin friend look like Michael Jackson”
9. “Heard Em’ Say” – “Heard ‘Em Say” is the second track on Kanye’s second album, titled “Late Registration.” This song features Adam Levine, lead singer of the band Maroon 5. This track has a smooth beat to accommodate the laid back lyrics, which provides a more vibey and laid back feel to the song. This song’s lyricism is amazing, like most Kanye West songs, and Adam Levine’s vocals add so much needed depth to the song. It’s also a song that is easily singable, which a lot of people like about music. Overall, I think this song is amazing. My favorite line from this song is “And Gran’ keep prayin’ and keep believin’/In Jesus, and one day that you see him/ ‘Til then walk in his footsteps and try to be him/The devil is alive I feel him breathing’”
8. “Touch The Sky” – “Touch the Sky” is the third track off “Late Registration”, which features Lupe Fiasco. Touch The Sky features a more jazz-like beat, with trumpets as the most dominant part of the beat. The production makes this song very fun to listen to, and the lyrics relate a lot to succeeding and being on top of the world. This is shown in the chorus and is sprinkled in throughout the song, where Kanye claims he will “touch the sky.” Kanye seems to reflect over everything that happened previously to him in his life, and he seems to be admitting that it made him stronger. Lupe fiasco’s verse is the third verse of the song, where his flow accommodates the jazzy beat very well, and his fun lyrics make his verse a very fun listen. Overall, this song is amazing and a very fun song to listen to. My favorite line from this song is, “Yes, yes, yes, guess who’s on third?/ Lupe steal like Lupin the 3rd/Hear like ear ’til I’m beer on the curb/Peachfuzz buzz but beard on the verge.”
7. “All Falls Down” – The first thing I think of when I hear this song is ‘fun.’ “All Falls Down” by Kanye West and Syleena Johnson could be the most popular song on this list, and man does it deserve it. This song is fun, has lyrics you can sing and rap to, it’s relatable, and has a great meaning all in one. I’m not gonna go too in-depth with the meaning of this song because it is pretty straight forward. But, the song goes into how things were when the song was made; with incarceration, interactions between black and white communities, and overall how black people were treated. Kanye talks about how hard it is for uneducated black people to get good jobs and just live in America today in the first verse. In the second verse, he talks about the reactions he gets as a black man in a mostly white country and community. And the third verse talks about the mass-incarceration of black people in America. This song is amazing and is so easy to vibe along with. Syleena Johnson’s vocals add so much, and this song is just truly awesome to listen to. My favorite line from this song is, “We shine because they hate us, floss ’cause they degrade us/We tryna buy back our 40 acres/And for that paper, look how low we’ll stoop/Even if you in a Benz, you still a ***** in a coupe.”
6. “Devil In a New Dress” – “Devil in a new dress” is the only song on this list off of the album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” This song features Rick Ross for a verse, and it samples Smokey Robinson’s “Will You Love me Tomorrow?” This song also can probably contest for the most popular on the list, and for good reason, because it is a very vibey song and a great listen. The song begins with the chorus sung by Kanye, where he talks about dealing with the sin of lust over his girlfriend, where he then makes a note about God and Christianity, and how he feels like he is drifting from him.. He again says something involving losing religion, and the first verse seems like a way of connecting his girlfriend’s beauty to religion, it’s like he’s talking about his relationship with his woman without God. The next verse continues this idea, where in christianity a major part of it is how money can be a false idol, and how that same idea of wanting money is hurting their relationship; Kanye can clearly see his relationship with his girl is falling apart. Then the next verse, Rick Ross’s verse, doesn’t seem to add much to the meaning of the song, despite being a great addition to it. My favorite line from this song is, “May the Lord forgive us, may the Gods be with us/In that magic hour, I seen good Christians/Make brash decisions, oh, she do it/What happened to religion? Oh, she lose it.”
5. “We Don’t Care” – “We Don’t Care” is the second track on Kanye’s first studio album, “The College Dropout”, and this song stuck out to me when I first listened though this album specifically. In my interpretation, Kanye says in the chorus that, despite drug and gang violence, anyone can do anything. This song seems to be targeted to a younger audience, so maybe it’s a message to empower the youth. The first verse supports this as well, where Kanye seems to be saying that I had a rough childhood but look at me now! The choruses following the first actually have children come in and sing part of the chorus, after Kanye says “kids, sing! Kids, sing!” which I think is a really fun feature and part of the song. Overall, this song is super fun, maybe the most fun of his catalog. The chorus is one of kanye’s best, and overall I just love this song. My favorite line from this song is, “This second verse is for my dogs working nine to five that still hustle/’Cause a ***** can’t shine off $6.55.”
4. “Bittersweet Poetry” (unreleased) – “Bittersweet Poetry,” while only being fully released in Japan currently, is the only song off of “Graduation” on this list. “Bittersweet Poetry” features John Mayor to sing the chorus for him, where the chorus seems to be setting up the theme of how relationships can be bittersweet. Kanye speaks of other ‘bittersweet’ things, like things that hurt and are bad for you but feel great, and he relates it to a relationship. He talks about how bad this woman is for him but how he keeps going back, like an addiction. I also think he hints at how he lets anger control him, again like an alcoholic. The second verse he directly relates this bittersweet relationship to drinking alcohol, how the lows of this relationship have made him resort to drinking. Towards the end of the second verse, it seems like Kanye is realizing everything is his fault, maybe again as a result of his drinking habit. Overall, this song is a super fun listen with a great meaning. The lyrics are fun and John Mayor’s feature adds a lot to the song. My favorite line from this song is “You don’t see how ya lies is affecting me/You don’t see how our life was supposed to be.”
3. “Ghost Town” – “Ghost Town” is the last track on his album titled “Ye”. This deep and meaningful song, maybe the deepest of his career, features the likes of PartyNextDoor and Kid Cudi, as well as 070 Shake. The song starts off with PartyNextDoor’s vocals, where the message of this song is shown immediately. This verse starts off with a line saying, “Someday, someday, someday/ I wanna lay down, like God did, on sunday.” This line is showing that Kanye west is comparing his legacy to the Christian God, like he has done many times in his career. However he is also saying that he doesn’t need to do anything else, and wants to rest. He feels like he deserves a break. After Partynextdoor’s verse, Kid Cudi has the deep and heartfelt chorus. This chorus is like a confession for Kanye, saying all he ever wanted was to be loved. However, this line is also saying that his only real desire is to be loved by himself, which is the central theme of the album as a whole. Kanye’s verse is next where he is embodying his bipolar disorder. He admits his addiction to opioids, but he then says he will still perform at this god-like level as mentioned before, regardless of what is happening to him, in reference to the opioid addiction. Through his verse he continues to show how, in his past, he was egotistical and wanted all the shine, because he believed he was the best, and he again admits his opioid addiction. There’s a clear connection between Kanye’s self comparison to a God and his opioid addiction, and I believe this song is him saying him admitting that him comparing himself is a result of abusing drugs. My favorite line from this song is the chorus, which goes, “I’ve been tryin’ to make you love me/But everything I try just takes you further from me”
2. “We Major” – “We major”, a 7 and a half minute song off of “Late Registration”, features rappers, Nas and Really Doe. Really Doe starts off the song with an incredible delivery of the chorus, which perfectly accommodates the vibe that the beat produces. The more jazzy beat of this song called for more upbeat lyrics, and Really Doe delivered his verse perfectly. Kanye West gets the next verse after the post-chorus, also sung by him, which again is delivered perfectly. Kanye mentions kids in troubled neighborhoods joining gangs, and how despite needing friends and someone to look to as family, gang life isn’t the answer. He talks about how gang violence needs to stop, and that being gang affiliated is never healthy. The second verse is delivered by Nas, a very popular rapper and who I consider the best ever. Off rip, Nas mentions his duality, his ability to rap about just about anything. He also incorporates Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and he mentions how he ‘survived’ the rap beef between Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G.. Overall, Nas’s verse is incredible, and adds to an even more incredible song. Overall, my favorite line from this song is, “I heard the beat and I ain’t know what to write/First line, should it be about the *** or the ice?/Four-four’s or black Christ? Both flows would be nice/Rap about big paper or the black man’s plight.”
1. “Family Business” – “Family Business,” despite not being a popular favorite, I believe is truly amazing. The piano in the production is absolutely amazing, and the soulful vibe and heartfelt lyrics make this song. When listening to this song for the first time, I could tell Kanye West was having fun making this song. Kanye uses this song to tell the story of his childhood, and it seems like Kanye is using this song to connect to people with troubled childhoods, or who are going through rough times at home. I can see it as an escape to those people, to have fun and enjoy life through music. It also seems to be a call to everybody that you can do whatever you want to in life, and I feel like a lot of people need to hear that. It’s like saying, no matter how hard it might be right now, or how bad your past was, your future will always hold something in store worth looking forward to. Overall, the production of this song and the lyrics really make this song impeccable. It is a great listen and has a great message to accommodate how fun it is to listen to. My favorite line from this song is, “And you don’t wanna stay there ’cause them your worst cousins/Got roaches at they crib like them your first cousins/Act like you ain’t took a bath with your cousin/Fit three in the bed if it’s six of y’all/I’m talkin’ ’bout three by the head and three by the leg/But you ain’t have to tell my girl I used to pee in the bed.”
