Slow Jamz, with Twista and Jamie Foxx, pays tribute to the boudoir-friendly tunes of Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross. So, Jesus Walks and Through the Wire balance laid-back beats with frightening confidence the latter finds Kanye relating the aftermath of a near-fatal car crash over a helium-treated Chaka Khan hook, as if convinced of his own invincibility. As a couple of School Spirit skits make crystal-clear, Kanye is no thug: he’s preppy, God-fearing, a lover not a fighter, and his ingenious rhymes and easy charm come like a breath of fresh air. Sure, the opening We Don’t Care boasts a chorus that nods to the hard-knock ghetto narrative – “Drug-dealing just to get by / Stacking money ‘til it gets sky high” – but it does it with bright horns and a sunny, sing-song hook. That he pulls it off is a lot to do with his peculiar proximity to mainstream hip hop culture. Here, though, Kanye pulled off an audacious stunt that only one with his towering ego would dare attempt: to transform himself not just into a rapper, but a mainstream hit-maker, with a career plan – from dropout to graduate, and beyond – sketched out in front of him. That Kanye today is perhaps hip hop’s most high-profile face is a lot to do with 2004’s The College Dropout.Īt the time of its release, Kanye was probably best known as a producer, his pitched-up soul samples and gleaming synths gracing numerous records from Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella label (most notably, Hova’s own career high water mark, The Blueprint). The song features Syleena Johnson and contains an interpolation of 'Mystery of Iniquity' by Lauryn Hill from her live album MTV Unplugged No 2.0.
Hard to believe, but there was a time before Kanye West – an age where we had to make do without this unshakably confident MC/producer, with his grand media pronouncements, goofy Twitter philosophy, and reliably excellent hip hop records. All Falls Down is the fourth track from Kanye Wests debut studio album The College Dropout (2004) that was also released as the third single for the album.
0 kommentar(er)
