Tuesday, April 22, 2014

My Top 10 Kanye West Songs

I've been a fan of Kanye-West-the-rapper since about 2004, though at that point I'd actually been enjoying hits produced by him for years. He performed a concert at UMass back when I was a senior (in 2005), and it was a REALLY good show that mostly showcased his Late Registration album. He even had a full orchestra with him onstage! This was back when he was "Wearing-3-pastel-Polo-shirts-all-with-collars-popped-Louis-Vuitton-Don Kanye," and not yet the "Angry Kanye" that we all know today.

Anyway - for the last few weeks, I've been almost solely listening to Kanye West songs on my iPod at the gym. I start with Black Skinhead for my cardio warm-up, because it's seriously the perfect tempo for doing cardio. (Uh, no seriously. Go listen to it if you're not familz.) Then my iPod will shuffle through all of my Kanye songs for the duration of my workout.

Since all of that workout music has put Kanye on my brain, I wanted to see if I could whittle his discography down to my 10 favorite songs. HERE WE GO.

My Top 10 Kanye West Songs

10. Never Let Me Down (College Dropout)
9. Get Em High (College Dropout)
8. All Falls Down (College Dropout)
7. Monster (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
6. We Don't Care (College Dropout)
5. Gone (Late Registration)
4. So Appalled (MBDTF)
3. All of the Lights (MBDTF)



2. Lost in the World (MBDTF)



1. See Me Now (MBDTF)



Uh... sorry about the graphic artwork on that last one. That's Kanye for you. I'm actually pretty positive that he is a sex addict, if ever there was one.

You might be astute enough to notice that all of my favorite songs only come from 3 of his 6+ albums. Guess it's obvious which are my favorite albums of his! Yeezus is also coming in as a favorite, surprisingly. I say "surprisingly" because that album really did not thrill me at first. It seemed much more abrasive when I first began listening to it. It's grown on me, for sure, but I still don't feel like I've listened to it enough for any of the songs to be on my favorite list.

Other big contenders for this list were:

- We Major
- Drive Slow
- Almost any song on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I seriously love that entire album, straight through. If you haven't seen the 30-minute short film (called Runaway) that coincides with that album, you should check it out here.

I excluded the Jay-Z/Kanye West Watch the Throne collaboration album, because if I included that then there's no way this list could have been narrowed down to 10 songs.

Alright, now tell me the truth:
Are you in the Love Him or Hate Him camp?
If you hate him, you don't have to tell me why. I get it.
If you don't hate him - what are some of your favorite songs? Are you a casual fan, or do you own all of his albums?

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4 comments:

  1. i never really paid attention to kanye. i appreciate him as a symbol of our times and probably a good artist but never heard an album all the way through or really listened that closely to the radio when he was on. that being said, if i ever had tickets to go his concert i would. it would probably be an amazing show.

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    1. He definitely put on a great show back in 2005. Apparently nowadays he stops his shows for a 15-minute rant about whatever he's pissed off about that particular day... I could probably do without that. ;)

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  2. Well I could go on for days about Kanye because I love almost anything he puts his hands on. Can I name my beautiful dark twisted fantasy as one song? No?... My Top Ten (I will go oldest to most recent): 1. Through the Wire 2.Two Words 3. Jesus Walks 4. Late 5. Flashing Lights 6. The Glory 7. Street Lights 8.Devil in a new dress 9. Twisted Fantasy 10. Black Skinhead.

    That was super challenging. Thank God I opted out of including verses on other's songs (common ' s 'the food', etc). Great read Bailey and I agree about Yeezus it creeps up on you.

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    1. Also every show I've been to of his has been worth every penny... rants and all lol

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