Released 10 years ago this week, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of the best albums of the decade and in my opinion the best work of Kanye West’s career.
MBDTF won the Grammy for Rap Album of the Year along with two other Grammys for “All of the Lights.” The album is Kanye’s magnum opus and has contributions from so many heavy hitters in the industry that it really is mind blowing. Across production, features, and writing credits there were contributions from RZA, No ID, Scott Mescudi AKA Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, Swizz Beatz, Pusha T, John Legend, Charlie Wilson, and Beyonce to name a few.
While I know everyone has heard the singles like “All of the Lights,” “Runaway,” and “Monster,” I cannot recommend enough that you watch the above 34 minute film. It is a glimpse into Kanye’s brain and his love for grandiosity. It is wild, and weird, and beautiful. I always said this could have been a legit broadway play and if you’ve ever been to a Kanye concert and seen his set pieces then you know the thought’s probably crossed his mind.
It’s been 10 YEARS since J. Cole dropped his “Friday Night Lights” mixtape. Now if we’re being honest, if we’re in the trust tree together, I’m more of a “The Warm Up” guy, which dropped the year before FNL. Either way, Jermaine has been spitting heat for over a decade and I am now starting to feel old. J. Cole’s mixtapes were A+ chill with a few beers music back in college. This was still in the relatively early days of YouTube, which went live just a little over three years before The Warm Up came out. So yes I was a cheap college kid either ripping mixtapes off DatPiff or cranking the speakers until my walls were shaking blasting YouTube videos three minutes at a time.
With just one week to go before Election Day, Kanye West is here with a new drop to remind you that he is in fact running for president because he is completely out to lunch. BUT, this song actually kinda bangs and has an A+ Star Wars reference right out of the gates.
Next time you text, can it wait? You are talkin’ to a presidential candidate (Candidate) I know you think Obi-Wan gettin’ tired now Don’t jump, Anakin, I got the higher ground
Now whether you are actually considering voting for Kanye after that is up for debate, but it’s nice to see Ye put out a new song that isn’t store brand church gospel music.
Introducing the official #RushHourRap playlist curated by The 300s. Dozens of songs compiled from the past 30 years so you can take my obscure music recommendations with you anywhere. Featuring everyone from household names like Eminem and Kanye to lesser known artists, rappers you need to know, and young guys on the come up.
Some of the deeper cuts of #RushHourRap unfortunately did not make the list because Spotify doesn’t exactly have a plethora of obscure mixtapes. So that means you’ll still need to track down hidden gems like Switch by Lupe Fiasco on YouTube.
But if you’re a fan of our morning rap recommendations then make sure you save and share this playlist because it’s a living breathing entity that I’ll be adding to all the time.
Say what you will about Kanye West and all the drama around him over the years, but you cannot deny the man put out some of the best rap music ever made early in his career. Kanye’s debut album The College Dropout alone featured mega hits like Through the Wire, Slow Jamz, Jesus Walks, and All Falls Down. Those are just the radio hits though.
If you haven’t listened to this album in a while, do yourself a favor and go back and listen to Spaceship, Never Let Me Down (ft. Jay Z), Get Em High (ft. Talib Kwelli and Common), Breathe In Breathe Out (ft. Ludacris) just to name a few. Thats basically the entire album, and I didn’t even mention New Workout Plan.
Kanye is without a doubt the most successful producer turned rapper after spending years mixing beats for guys like Jay-Z. Watching a young Ye at work in the studio really is incredible to see. Just look at Jay’s face when he first hears some of these beats that would later go on The Black Album. That’s inspiring man.
One of my all-time favorite Kanye West stories comes from the Tim Ferris Show when Jamie Foxx told the story of how Slow Jamz came together:
Also, in things I learned today is that the bear mascot that Kanye had become synonomous with over the years for incorporating into several album covers, was a completely unplanned thing.
today in 2004, kanye west dropped his classic debut album ‘the college dropout’ 🐐
the dropout bear wasn’t actually planned out—the mascot just happened to be at the high school kanye shot the cover at 🐻 favorite track? pic.twitter.com/LtsPxImyw2
Washington Post – The NFL is forming a partnership with music mogul Jay-Z in a deal that allows him to help manage entertainment ventures tied to league events and is closely connected to the league’s community activism efforts.
The partnership will make Jay-Z, whose given name is Shawn Carter, and his Roc Nation agency a co-producer of the Super Bowl halftime show. It does not contain a provision for him to be the halftime performer, he and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.
“He was very quick to say that he does not want this to be about him performing, that it was broader than that,” Goodell said in an interview. “It quickly went beyond that. Do I hope he’ll perform in the Super Bowl sometime in the next several years? Yes. But I think we’ll all know if that time comes. He’ll know in particular.”
Roc Nation will choose entertainers who will perform in televised NFL promotional spots throughout the season. Carter said he believes Roc Nation will have freedom under the partnership to produce the kind of entertainment that it wants.
The Super Bowl halftime show has been a snoozefest since Janet Jackson threw her titties into Justin Timberlake’s hand all those years ago.
Ever since then the NFL basically overcorrected and trotted out some of the most boring halftime shows ever. In the years post titty-gate we got Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, and The Who, which are all good, wholesome bands, just not anyone I want to see headlining the biggest entertainment night of the year. At least in recent years they’ve started to bring back artists that are under 50 years old again.
Last year though was definitely some old white producer trying to appease everyone with Travis Scott, Big Boi, and Maroon 5 while still somehow pleasing no one.
So this morning I hear the news that the NFL has gone back to the big guns (and probably dumped an 18-wheeler full of cash on his front lawn) and partnered up with Jay-Z for this year’s halftime show. While it makes it pretty clear he won’t be performing any time soon, getting S Dot Carter to produce the league’s halftime show and its musical entertainment as a whole is a HUGE win for the NFL. Reasonable Doubt, The Blueprint 1/2/3, The Black Album, Kingdom Come, hell even the American Gangster soundtrack still BANGS to this day. Thats not even counting all the collabs he’s done over the years like Collision Course and Watch the Throne, which are all-time albums. Now obviously I left out most of his more recent work…but those albums aren’t without their mega hits. I actually went to the Jay-Z/Timberlake show at Fenway a few years back and the Holy Grail beat drops just as hard today. To be perfectly honest I never heard a ton of 4:44 because I’m not a schill and I’m not paying for Tidal just to get Jay’s album, but The Story of OJ is without a doubt a jam. Long story short, I have high hopes for Jay-Z and Roc Nation leading the entertainment wing for the NFL moving forward.
Although it does sound like HOVA has been paying close attention to the Ginger Hammer’s actions in recent years (i.e. Supreme Court cases for equipment violations, but wife beaters and child abusers getting off scot free) and doesn’t expect completely smooth sailing.
“I anticipate that there will be a lot of — with any big organization, in this building right here we have internal problems. Anything that’s new is going to go through its growing pains. We put what we want to do on the table. The NFL agreed to it. So we’re going to proceed with that as if we have a partnership.”
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though that he wants to make some real changes by getting inside the NFL, rather than just criticize it on twitter, but at the end of the day Hov isn’t a businessman, he’s a business, man.
OK. Very rarely will you see me writing a piece about the music industry; that’s typically Red or Joey Ballgame territory. But if you haven’t seen the new video that Lil Dicky (in conjunction with a ton of other big-name artists) dropped last night, you need to. Like right now. Even if you have no idea who Lil Dicky is (and to be honest, I barely do myself), I promise you will not be disappointed.
The song is called “Earth,” and it’s all about how awful and dangerous climate change is. Now, the message itself is nothing profound. And to be honest, if you disagree with any of what they’re saying at this point then I doubt you even possess the ability to be reading this article anyway.
But to see this many big names get together to create a song with such an important purpose is really refreshing. Not only that, but the theme of the video (where basically each artist is represented as an animal or small non-human being in animated form) is also really fun – and outright hysterical at certain moments (e.g. Snoop as a giant pot plant or hearing Lil Jon’s voice screaming “WHAT THE FUCK? I’M A CLAM??!!”).
Again, I doubt that this will be the cure-all for the worldwide epidemic that is climate change. But there are people out there who might actually be influenced by some of their favorite celebrities voicing their support for the cause. And if that gets at least some out there to pay even a little more attention, then well done, David Andrew Burd (that’s Lil Dicky’s real name apparently). Either way, I can think of worse ways to spend seven minutes of my time.
Without further ado, here it is for your Friday afternoon viewing pleasure:
I have absolutely zero idea what is going on here, but I am all about it. Kanye has been recording his upcoming album Yandhi, which was supposed to be released at the end of 2018 but got pushed back.
It felt so good being on the stage last night with my brother Cudi. After performing again, I realize the new album I’ve been working on isn’t ready yet. I’ll announce the release date once it’s done. Thank you for understanding.
Now Kanye had a lot of bad press last year with his Trump tirade and received mixed reviews on his two projects Kids See Ghosts and Ye. I enjoyed both, but they each felt like a mixtape more than individual completed albums. So maybe he’s doubling down his efforts to put together something special. The guy is no stranger to tweaking his work until the last second, most notably when he essentially crowdsourced Life of Pablo and changed some songs on the albums AFTER it had already been released.
So while I have no idea what in the hell is going on in that above Kanye video, it looks like it JAMS. If Yandhi is anything like his previous christ-like self titled album, Yeezus, then we are in for a trip. Yeezus was yet another example of Kanye releasing music that was ahead of its time that seemed to be bizarre, out there, and borderline manic, but quickly implanted itself in your brain and became unforgettable.
15 years? Preposterous. The College Dropout, Kanye’s debut album, dropped on Feb. 10, 2004 when I was all of 15 so Yeezy has been in my ear for about half of my life. I still remember seeing the video for Through the Wire on MTV and immediately thinking two things: 1.) This is incredible and 2.) Who is this guy because it seems like he’s already a force behind the scenes.
If you’ve never seen some of the behind the scenes footage, this is a good place to start the YouTube rabbit hole. A then unknown Kanye just blowing Jay-Z’s mind with the beat that would later become Lucifer on HOV’s 2003 classic, The Black Album.
All Falls Down is still one of my favorite tracks and the video itself was just Kanye’s POV of a day in the life dropping his girl off at the airport. A pretty uninspiring concept when you say it out loud, but that shot of him rapping in the mirror of the airport bathroom is stilled burned into my brain for some reason. Having Stacey Dash in your video never hurts either.
It seems we living the american dream But the people highest up got the lowest self esteem The prettiest people do the ugliest things For the road to riches and diamond rings
Say what you want about him now, but you can’t deny the guy changed the game as the ultimate standout. You could just as easily call him a contrarian for his self described “pink-ass polos with a fuckin’ backpack. But everybody know you brought real rap back.” In an era when EVERY rapper was rocking baggy jeans and throwback jerseys, Kanye was trying to make it cool to dress dorky. And it worked.
Kanye’s style, polo shirts & cardigans, was a HUGE departure from the baggy jeans and jerseys that were popular at the time.
His campaign as a style icon started with bucking these trends, and making the world follow his lead. pic.twitter.com/UefqywJZrg
Just read this excerpt from an excellent piece about The College Dropout that I found on Sabotage Times:
He might be a superstar now, but he represented the underdog in the beginning. Back in early 2004, when 50 Cent was hip-hop’s undisputed king, street credibility was a prerequisite to success. The son of a photojournalist and an English professor, Kanye had a middle-class upbringing and didn’t fit into that mould. Sure, people loved his production work, but no one was convinced about him as a rapper. Where would this goofy dude fit in? What did he have to rap about?
…He got his record deal at Roc-A-Fella, Jay Z’s label, because co-founder Dame Dash wanted to use his beats for a compilation, not because they believed in him as a rapper. Unbeknownst to anyone at the company, he instead worked on College Dropout, an album that would transform the genre and dispense with those narrow preconceptions about rappers entirely.
The 300s 