Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Track Review: Kanye West- Real Friends w/ SWISH release date thoughts


Image result for kanye west real friends

Kanye's new music has been on my radar for some time now. I put SWISH on my most anticipated list, and most recently, I was not a fan of 'FACTS', the NIKE dis track that doubled as a public embarrassment. His rhymes, as they have been for some time, were way past the boundary of egomania, his flow was trash, and he jumped on a typical trap beat emulating some of my least favorite rappers in the game. When this new song was released, I was skeptical, but thought I would give it a try any way. I was actually pleasantly surprised.

The beat was something new; a bouncy, reverb heavy piano and drum loop with a real cavernous quality. Kanye also forgoes the brag raps (for the most part) for a more introspective approach, sharing stories of how his fame has affected the relationships between himself and his friends and extended family. There's a bit in there about him having to buy back his laptop for a ridiculous amount of money from his cousin, who had stolen it. Ty Dolla $ign delivers the hook, and even he doesn't manage to ruin the song (he has his moments, like on Lupe Fiasco's 'Deliver', but the whole auto-tune croon thing is not my bag). That's not to say the track didn't overstay it's welcome a little bit. The loop really didn't switch up, so the mid tempo ballad aspect of the song gets a little stale, especially if you know what comes next.

The more interesting bit, tacked onto the end, was a snippet of the song 'No More Parties in LA', a Madlib produced track featuring Kendrick Lamar. It sounds like Kanye West is tired of Kim dragging him around to events for the publicity, and clearly she never heard this song, since that line about the spray tan is down right savage. As per usual, Kendrick kills the track, even though you only get to hear about 10 seconds of his rap, which has that mile a minute, tongue twisting flow. If 'Real Friends' didn't pique fans' interest, 'No More Parties in LA' definitely did.

All in all, this new track renewed my interest in SWISH after 'FACTS' pretty much decimated it. I'm hoping 'No More Parties in LA' is a sign of things to come, but with Kanye West, you'll never really know what you're getting until you hear the finished product. News of the album release being announced for February 11th are good, but I know how these album release things go. Kanye has taken his sweet time with this album release, since I swore I heard news of him rapping the entire project to Seth Rogen in a car years ago. I just hope this date is legit, and won't come and go with no product.

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