Being a Kanye West fan in public can be complicated. The dude is pretty hated in some circles–from frustrated ex-fans to curmudgeonly non-Kanye West fans who really only know him for getting up on awards show stages when he shouldn’t have. Or, sometimes you will get people who think all this here rippity rap music is bad and just know that Kanye is a popular rapper and hate him for that. Then, throw in a few racists and you’ve got a more complete cast of characters, but there are still plenty of others who don’t fit the bill. No matter who it is, however, it’s probably better to just stay quiet until you are in the company of like-minded individuals.
I am a massive Kanye West fan. I am also a Drake fan, and I am a fan of some of Future’s work, especially his stuff on What A Time To Be Alive and the brand new Evol. I love the song “Jumpman.” With all that in mind, you’d think I’d love Kanye West’s relatively new song/freestyle, “Facts,” which finds Kanye using the flow from “Jumpman” and effectively covering the song with his own lyrics. You would be very, very wrong.
Kanye West should never have covered “Jumpman,” let alone release that cover on the internet. This isn’t because Kanye West is bad, or because he’s not good anymore, or because “Jumpman” was actually just a bad song in the first place. It’s because he wasn’t meant to play the part. Something Drake and Future alike excel at is effortless cool. This is why they made a great pair on What A Time To be Alive, and part of why they’re two of hip hop’s most popular artists right now. “Effortlessly cool” is not something I would use to describe Kanye by any means. Kanye is really quite the opposite, and that’s part of his charm: for his entire career (save Yeezus and perhaps My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) ‘Ye has been the earnest, goodie-two-shoes try-hard of hip hop. “Earnest” seems very against public perception of him, but anyone who’s dived into Kanye’s discography knows that some of his best on-record music has been about how much he loves his mom and what Jay-Z’s friendship and guidance has meant to him. “Goodie-two-shoes” would also strike an outsider as being wrong, but not only has Kanye written songs about his strong belief in family values (and later how much he loves his wife and an incredibly moving song focused on how his mom will never meet his daughter), when he does portray himself like some kind of tough guy trouble maker, it’s all comparatively tiny offenses when put next to the foil of Gangster Rap. The worst thing Kanye describes himself doing in his music is a small theft from the Gap that he committed out of resentment towards his boss and or shift manager at the store. This is absolutely nothing in a genre that has had a rapper threaten to “sow your ass shut and keep feeding you and feeding you and feeding you,” especially when you consider that Kanye came up onto the scene when that type of music was most prevalent. Whether it fits your image of him or not, and no matter how well dressed he is, Kanye West is kind of nerd. Drake and Future are not nerds. They’re the cool new guys in hip hop. Drake is a heartthrob and Future spits out 15 club hits a year. Considering the fact that Kanye does not possess what made the original song great, it’s no wonder “Facts” is bad.
Listen to “Facts” on Soundcloud.
Stray Thoughts:
- I wanted to take a moment to talk about the lyrics. I wanted to focus on why Kanye could have never ever ever ever ever have made a good “Jumpman” remix/freestyle/whatever this monstrosity is, it’s still remarkable just how bad this song is. Kanye just isn’t really that good at bragging about himself. He’s had good lines here and there throughout his career, but the funniest “oh, you” lines where Kanye just sounds silly have always been when he’s bragged about his accomplishments. Not that he doesn’t deserve to brag—he’s one of the top selling artists of our generation and one of the most acclaimed. Something just doesn’t come together, ESPECIALLY on “Facts”. When Drake and Future brag, it feels like some sort of energetic factual statement about how awesome they are rather than straight up bragging about themselves. In “Facts,” Kanye sounds like he’s forcing it, and not even in a focused way. He jumps from topic to topic throughout the song, switching back and forth between dissing Nike and talking about random shit going on in his life, taking a single pit stop to give an unwelcomed opinion on the Bill Cosby scandal. It’s a trainwreck.
- I am more excited for So Help Me God/Swish/Waves/TLOP than any other upcoming album that I know about right now. “Only One,” “Wolves,” “Real Friends,” and “No More Parties in LA” are all some of the best songs that Kanye has made in his career, and any album with three of those on it is bound to be incredible. And, even if it’s not, it should at least be fun.
Brightening the Corners 