Kanye West - Heard 'em Say (B+W version) (2005)
***1/2 (of four)
I've spent a lot of time on the fence in the case of Kanye West. On one hand, he's a visionary hip-hop producer who has created at least a dozen immortal beats. On the other, his formula is simple and repetitious - how many songs with sped-up old-school soul samples as choruses are we expected to put up with? On the one hand, his lyrics are often articulate and thought-provoking. On the other, his arguments are muddled and not completely supported by basic logic. On the one hand, he's ballsy as hell when it comes to calling out White America on their neglect and exploitation of black folks. On the other, his flow is monotonous and amateurish, and his out-of-control ego is not merely an image-selling act.
But if I have one weakness when it comes to rap music, it's listening to a huge star drop the usual bitches/money/drugs/bling routine and wax emotional and philosophical instead. 2Pac's "So Many Tears," DMX's "How's It Goin' Down," The Game's "Hate It Or Love It" and, shit, even Ja Rule's "I Cry" had me at hello. Now here's Kanye West looking back on the wisdom of his elders and mulling over the bleak options of ghetto life - minimum wage not being adequate, having to steal to get a good reputation, being handed the AIDS plague by the government. Not to mention, Kanye West and Jerry Falwell can agree that lottery tickets and cigarettes are both horrible, horrible things.
It's not just the raw honesty of the lyrics and the piano loop on the beat that sold "Heard 'em Say" to me. Or the rather unexpected but perfect mesh of Kanye's flow and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine's soulful falsetto vocals on the chorus (not sped-up, either!). The video is also supremely watchable - well, once you overlook the interspersed clips of Kanye and Adam interplaying rather awkwardly on an empty soundstage. This is thanks to animator Bill Plympton, who brings the song's lyrics to life with black-and-white charcoal and pen and ink cartoons.
There's a little-kid version of Kanye and his family, while grown-up Kanye revisits the entire affair. And in the end, some dude spills gas on the ground, drops a match into it and blows the car holding grown-up Kanye and little-kid Kanye into the sky. Now, we all know Kanye West wants to escape the pains of this world in a spaceship, but in this case he escapes with angel wings. Then returns to earth - no joke - as an angelic cab driver who gives rides to the less fortunate. I don't know if Kanye's above doing a TV show, but this would make an awesome premise for an hourlong drama. Roma Downey and Della Reese have nothing on this shit.
I've spent a lot of time on the fence in the case of Kanye West. On one hand, he's a visionary hip-hop producer who has created at least a dozen immortal beats. On the other, his formula is simple and repetitious - how many songs with sped-up old-school soul samples as choruses are we expected to put up with? On the one hand, his lyrics are often articulate and thought-provoking. On the other, his arguments are muddled and not completely supported by basic logic. On the one hand, he's ballsy as hell when it comes to calling out White America on their neglect and exploitation of black folks. On the other, his flow is monotonous and amateurish, and his out-of-control ego is not merely an image-selling act.
But if I have one weakness when it comes to rap music, it's listening to a huge star drop the usual bitches/money/drugs/bling routine and wax emotional and philosophical instead. 2Pac's "So Many Tears," DMX's "How's It Goin' Down," The Game's "Hate It Or Love It" and, shit, even Ja Rule's "I Cry" had me at hello. Now here's Kanye West looking back on the wisdom of his elders and mulling over the bleak options of ghetto life - minimum wage not being adequate, having to steal to get a good reputation, being handed the AIDS plague by the government. Not to mention, Kanye West and Jerry Falwell can agree that lottery tickets and cigarettes are both horrible, horrible things.
It's not just the raw honesty of the lyrics and the piano loop on the beat that sold "Heard 'em Say" to me. Or the rather unexpected but perfect mesh of Kanye's flow and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine's soulful falsetto vocals on the chorus (not sped-up, either!). The video is also supremely watchable - well, once you overlook the interspersed clips of Kanye and Adam interplaying rather awkwardly on an empty soundstage. This is thanks to animator Bill Plympton, who brings the song's lyrics to life with black-and-white charcoal and pen and ink cartoons.
There's a little-kid version of Kanye and his family, while grown-up Kanye revisits the entire affair. And in the end, some dude spills gas on the ground, drops a match into it and blows the car holding grown-up Kanye and little-kid Kanye into the sky. Now, we all know Kanye West wants to escape the pains of this world in a spaceship, but in this case he escapes with angel wings. Then returns to earth - no joke - as an angelic cab driver who gives rides to the less fortunate. I don't know if Kanye's above doing a TV show, but this would make an awesome premise for an hourlong drama. Roma Downey and Della Reese have nothing on this shit.
posted by daytime at 6:43 AM
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