Nov 20, 2015

Hello and welcome everyone to 'SXN80's GOOD Fridays!'

This is essentially a Kanye's song of the week, where I will randomly pick a Kanye West song every Friday. I will do a little review on the song and will rate the song out of 10. However, I want to get everyone else involved as well, you I want you guys to rate the song out of 10 with an optional review or an opinion on the song! I'll have a leaderboard on that will tally the average score out of 10. Haven't really put that much thought in how to conclude this but I guess we will see how long this will last.

Week 1
Everything I Am - Graduation
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This song is off the album 'Graduation', it features DJ Premier with him scratching the music in the background during some of Kanye's hooks. I thought this part was dope! Overall the production stands out from the rest of the album in that it probably has the most raw beat compared to the others. I little fun fact about this beat which was mentioned in one of the first lines was that his beat was this was originally meant to be on Common's album 'Be' but he passed it down to Kanye.

Lyrically I like this song, I think "Everything I'm not, made me everything I am" sums up what he is trying to say in this song, the fact that he does feel different from other hip-hop artists inspired him to be himself and it has certainly worked out for him. People talk s--- about him and he doesn't really care.

I rate this song an 8/10 - Probably a bit generous, not expecting people to rate it that high, but I think this is in the top half of the songs on Graduation.


Rules: Just rate the song out of 10 basically - with an optional review.

@KanyeSXN

 

Dec 4, 2015

Week 3
Gorgeous - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
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This song is the 2nd track in what is critically be one of the greatest albums in Hip-Hop. Kid Cudi and Raekwon featuring and the support from two of Kanye's greatest friends; Mike Dean and No I.D., Kanye addresses subjects like racial inequality and his 'road to redemption' by being accepted by the media.

I love his fist verse. He mentions how black people are kind of forced to live down a certain lifestyle and how they get treated differently, compared to white people. And who can forget his last line: "I treat the cash the way the government treats AIDS. I won’t be satisfied til all my n----s get it, get it?" If I recall correctly he blamed the government for why there are aids in Africa. What a line haha.

The way I interpreted his second verse was that he chose a music career to be accepted by people, however that seems to have turned into s--- with the Taylor Swift incident, he is now hated by a lot of people with his actions. That fish sticks line was GOAT! The third verse had plenty of great lines from it as well. I feel like this song was one of Kanye's greatest lyrical songs on the albums. His lyrics were fire.

Kid Cudi was nice on the hook, I still prefer Welcome to Heartbreak, but this hook was still a great listen. Then Raekwon came in at the end, the beat broke down for him and I thought that he wasn't that good compared to Kanye. Talked about his lifestyle and drugs.

Overall, I thought that the was an awesome song. A song that aged better than my first impressions of it. And Kanye, Mike Dean and No I.D. killed that production!

Jakey's rating: 8.5/10 - There were better songs on the album but this was still phenomenal.

Rules: Give this song a rating/10 with and optional opinion/review.

@KanyeSXN

*I'm heading out tonight so had to post this now. Sorry if it's still Thursday wherever you are.

 

Jan 22, 2016

Week 8
Christian Dior Denim Flow - Good Fridays
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We are back again! Figured that because Kanye won't always release his new songs on a Friday, this might work again! And for the first time in this series we are actually review a Good Friday song! Christian Dior Denim Flow, arguably the best song to come out of the whole GOOD Friday Mixtape, Kanye blessed up with 7 minutes of pure gold.

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There were a lot of people featured in this song, hence why the song went for 7 minutes, all of them had their own verse besided John Legend who was on the hook with Kanye, Cudi and Leslie. You can just about here Legend, loved that hook, he added extra hunger and passion to the song. The first verse belonged to Kanye though and well it was pretty interesting... I don't know what he was talking about because the whole verse pretty much consisted of shouting out famous fashion models, I guess he was comparing himself with them, he knows he's the hottest man out with that Christian Dior Denim Flow.

Pusha T had a short verse but I loved how he delivered it. He had Kanye-esque lines, bragging about that clothes he is wearing, the money he's getting paid to attend music award shows and that he's contracted to a label that has a "round table full of bosses". I wished that his verse went on for longer, we all love Pusha.

Ryan Leslie was next in line and sticking to the consistent theme of models, he talks about the flaws in them from his experience, a lot of them get lost in the money and the a lot of them get lost in the drugs. This quickly transits to Lloyd Bank's verse. His life has upgraded (from becoming famous obviously) and often celebrates it with champagne... for breakfast. I liked the verse, but it definitely wasn't my favourite off the song. The song went from fashion to drugs and celebrating up top when these two came on.

The last verse was Kid Cudi, at this point I felt like the song went on for a bit too long but it was nice hearing Cudi. I liked this verse, it was a confident Cudi that didnt really care what people thought about him, he worked his way to create his on image and now he's laughing that there are people trying to copy him.

Jakey's Rating: 8/10 - This was the best song from the GOOD Fridays back in 2010, great song, great hook.

Rules: Give this song a rating/10 with and optional opinion/review.
@KanyeSXN

Leaderboard:
1: Say You Will - 9.2/10
2: Drive Slow - 8.9/10
3: Two Words - 8.8/10
4: Gorgeous - 8.4/10
5: Everything I Am - 7.8/10
6: Guilt Trip - 7.6/10
7: All Day - 7.6/10

 

Jan 3, 2016

Week 6
All Day - SWISH?
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Going with a more recent song that came out early last year. All Day is suspected to be on Kanye's upcoming SWISH album. This song features Theophilus London, Allan Kingdom and the great Paul McCartney who comes in at the end of the song on the CDQ version.

This song had a whole bunch of people on the production team, however the producer who made the core of the beat was Velous, he talks about it in an interview on Hot97. The beat is fire, it sets the mood of the song being an upbeat, energetic song complemented with simple catchy lyrics that is easy to release your energy out by singing along.

I think a lot of people can agree that the performance at the BRIT awards sounded better than the CDQ version of the song did and I reckon that Kanye believed this as well by posting this tweet:

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You can captivate the passion coming out Kanye's words better when he performed it live. Obviously the visuals helps the performance by making it a lot better because the whole set up was dope. However, there weren't too many people up and about in the crowd though, maybe it wasn't the right place haha.

Theophilius London had a very small role on the song. He only had one bridge and it was quite small. I didn't mind it, he was kind of like a hypeman. All he did was hype up Allan Kingdom how was great on this track. He appeared on the song a couple of times with a few lines that were so catchy, a great addition to the song. "AT THE MOMENT I DISPERRRRERRRERRRSED"

The last part of the song, as mentioned before was Paul McCartney. I'm gonna admit I wasn't the biggest fan of his contribution, it kind of killed the vibe of the song. However this is interesting, wouldn't have seen this if it weren't for RapGenius annotations... Video definitely worth checking out.

Jakey's rating: 8/10 - Awesome song, I really enjoy listening to it.

Rules: Give this song a rating/10 with and optional opinion/review.

@KanyeSXN


Leaderboard:
1: Drive Slow - 8.9/10
2: Two Words - 8.8/10
3. Gorgeous - 8.4/10
4: Everything I Am - 7.8/10
5. Guilt Trip - 7.6/10

 

Nov 20, 2015

Rodeo in stores now

 

Nov 20, 2015

Some1 give Jakey Squid's plus tag

 

Nov 27, 2015

Week 2
Two Words - Get Well Soon
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The next song to continue this GOOD Friday's series is Two Words! This features the likes of Mos Def and Freeway with the Harlem Boys Choir involved in parts of the background. This song was so good that it made it on The College Dropout tracklist, I would consider it to be one of my favourites off that album.

Starting off with Mos Def, I thought that his verse sounded pretty good. Beginning with all the problems that exists in America, however him and Kanye has still came up on top. He's repping his city and despite all the problems that are going on, they will always hustle through it.. I thought Freeway's verse was alright as well, basically telling everyone not to mess with him because he is a dangerous man.

Kanye's verse is awesome. The first half is about him being from Chicago and his story about how he wanted to be an artist in both fields of producing and rapping. People were hesitant but it's now clear he is capable and "Grammy nominated". Then the second half of the verse he talks about how he hasn't changed and that his religious and racial views are still the same.

As for the production, we all know Kanye would never let us down. I thought the production was great from the intro to the outro. And thought that it was an excellent idea to include the Harlem Boys Choir during the hook and towards the end, it really gave an orchestral sound and didn't seem out of place when he put in on The College Dropout from my ears.

Jakey's rating: 9/10 - am I reaching??

Rules: Give this song a rating/10 with and optional opinion/review.

@KanyeSXN

 

Nov 20, 2015

Very relaxing and easy-going song, it's a testament to Kanye's artistry that he can fit a song like this & Stronger on the same album without sacrificing cohesion. I give this a simple 8/10.

 

Mar 5, 2016

Week 9
Wolves - The Life of Pablo

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And we are back once again folks! It's been a while, we have been blessed by Kanye with a new album since I've lasted posted in this thread, so I think it's essential that I review one of the songs from TLOP. This week it's Wolves [ALBUM VERSION], the one that excludes Vic Mensa & Sia. Everyone loves the OG version, but there are a lot of mixed opinions with the album version which is why we are discussing it this week.

Wolves consists features like Frank Ocean on the outro and Caroline Shaw, one can assume in the background as she doesn't have any lines. A big part of this song was dedicated to Kanye's mother Donda, the last few lines emphasises on that by saying "Life is precious, we found out, we found out." The loss of a life can really put things into perspective on how you value life. This classic beat and the production were created by Kanye, Mike Dean, Sinjin Hawke and Cashmere Cat. f--- me it's amazing, literally 30/10. Great stuff! He got rid of those drums, a great touch to this version. I know a lot of people were fans of it, however I wasn't.

Anyway, let's talk about that infamous 2nd verse which Kanye changed from the original version. It's typical of Kanye to say a lot of humorous lines that aren't to be taken seriously, but that sandwich line kind of interrupted the mood of the song. I've spoken to people that weren't fans of this verse, as it threw them off. But they haven't persuaded me as I grew to really like this verse. After each day and each listen I gradually enjoyed it more. Let's digest the last lines which seems to break down the whole verse:

Cover Nori in lambs' wool
We surrounded by the f---in' wolves"
"What if Mary was in the club
'Fore she met Joseph with no love?
Cover Saint in lambs' wool
We surrounded by the f---in' wolves"​

Throughout the whole verse Kanye is comparing him and Kim to Jesus' parents Mary and Joseph. They see their children as blessings from God just like Jesus was to this world. The wolves are like the Romans and Pontius Pilate who want to bring them down because they're probably sick of their s--- and feel like they're a bad influence. And it's sad how they will eventually be receiving hate because they were 'born famous'. They were born as innocent children and brought up by infamous parents. The lambs wool is a symbol of protection. Kanye like all parents feels responsible for his children.

Wolves is still an amazing track.

HOWEVER, WILL THIS BE THE FINAL VERSION OF WOLVES??? According to Kanye it won't be:


Jakey's Rating: 9/10 - One cannot simply ruin this song, I'm still a huge fan.

Rules: Give this song a rating/10 with and optional opinion/review.
@KanyeSXN

Leaderboard:
1: Christian Dior Denim Flow - 9.2/10
2: Say You Will - 9.2/10
3: Drive Slow - 8.9/10
4: Two Words - 8.8/10
5: Gorgeous - 8.4/10
6: Everything I Am - 7.8/10
7: Guilt Trip - 7.6/10
8: All Day - 7.6/10


I'm ready to accept criticisms if you don't agree.

 

Jan 8, 2016

Week 7
Say You Will - 808s & Heartbreak
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Say what you will but Say You Will is a classic opener to what is arguable the most influential album in modern day Hip-Hop. The song was solely sung by Kanye West and he was the sole producer as well. However, he did have a little help in writing the song with the likes of Consequence and a couple of other songwriters.

This song was the introduction to what you can arguably say is a groundbreaking Kanye West. 808s is the album that introduced Kanye to auto-tune. A lot events happen between 2007 when he released Graduation and 2008 when he released 808s & Heartbreak. His mother died and he broke up with his fiance Alexis Phifer. Phifer is likely to have had a strong influence on Say You Will.

Say You Will is about a girl Kanye used to be with and had strong feeling for (and still had them in this song). The lyrics on this song are as simple as it gets. The majority of this song emphasises on Kanye telling this girl 'don't say you will'. This could mean anything, it could mean that she will leave, she will comeback. How I interpret this song is that Kanye is saying don't say you're coming back unless you actually do. He alters the words in each chorus but in the first one he says: "Don't say you will, then play you will, I pray you will" the girl is playing with him and he badly wants her to come back.

I think that the last verse defines the whole story of the song.

"I wish this song would really come true
I admit I still fantasize about you, about you"​

The whole song is just a fantasy and the reality is that this girl will never come back.

Kanye has recently remastered this song on a remix which he released on Soundcloud. If you haven't heard it before, you should check it out. Not as good as the original, but it's still fantastic.


Jakey's rating: 9/10 - An emotional introduction to what brings you a roller coaster of feels.

Rules: Give this song a rating/10 with and optional opinion/review.
@KanyeSXN

Leaderboard:
1: Drive Slow - 8.9/10
2: Two Words - 8.8/10
3: Gorgeous - 8.4/10
4: Everything I Am - 7.8/10
5: Guilt Trip - 7.6/10
6: All Day - 7.6/10

 

Jan 3, 2016

9/10, this track is incredible when you're in the mood for it

 

Jan 3, 2016

9/10 I've been bumping All Day non-stop since it came out. The song itself feels like an event, I swear I've seen a display of pyrotechnics come out of my subs whenever the track is playing.

 

Jan 3, 2016

ALL DAY/10

 

Dec 4, 2015

Famously said in his first verse on Heard 'Em Say.

 

Nov 20, 2015

id give this track a 7.5/10 ...The production is excellent and we definitely see Kanye's creativity, for me this is a record I can only listen to when I'm in a chill mood.

this >>>

 

Nov 20, 2015

Beautiful soulful production. It may seem like a lazier beat because of it's dependence on the sample but to be it makes it more beautiful. He enhances the sample and doesn't have to re-invent the wheel and flip it per se.

His verses are great too. One of my favourite Ye tracks.