music

Kanye West and I’s Relationship

The Kanye West Iceberg

So I first started listening to Kanye In February 2021 and he pretty quickly became one of my favorite artists. I had heard his most popular songs like Father Stretch My Hands and POWER, but I didn’t know Kanye West. That was until the Kanye West Iceberg was posted on YouTube. This video really changed my life. I became infatuated with everything Kanye West related. And to be honest, he is the greatest artist of all time. There are some Kanye songs that I am shocked even exist. His vision is unlike any other artist ever. He’s the GOAT. (future alex here, yea I recommend everyone go watch it if you like Ye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_CT8dy2mlc. I would also like to add that this was the same time Kanye and Kim divorced, and really all this craziness with him started with that, but this video honestly was huge for the program in my music listening career.)

So I started writing this a month ago…

Obviously since then, he has gone off the rails on Twitter. This post was going to be about how I started listening to Kanye and how he is really the reason I love music as much as I do. Really, that iceberg video is a big reason too. I learned so much about something that I wanted to learn about. I highly recommend for Kanye lovers or people that want to start loving him, although I can’t imagine anyone would want to. (

I miss the old Kanye

I’m listening to Kanye while writing this. Paranoid just came on and the hair on my arms stood up and I want to cry. Ever since he got divorced from Kim, he has just not been the same. He’s always had problems; the VMAs, the political rants on the Pablo tour… but now he’s just downright insane. But damn… I love him so much. I HATE YE. I remember a few days ago when all the Twitter stuff started happening, I got in the shower and I just started crying. And I really thought to myself that maybe it wasn’t him. Maybe it was a clone or something… because my Kanye West would never do this. What would Donda think? He really is his own worst enemy. (wow im impressed with myself this isnt even bad)

Why do I even love this guy

I was too young to witness his prime in real time. I remember the Father Stretch My Hands beat drop being huge on YouTube, but like I said I didn’t know anything really until the Kanye West Iceberg was uploaded in February. And Donda was about to come out. Anybody that followed the Donda album as closely as I did knows how magical was. I remember the first song I heard on the album was Jesus Lord. To this day it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. Please listen to it. It was leaked from his first exclusive listening party. But, I remember staying up late waiting for the second listening party to start. I was so happy. I was hearing all these brand new songs, and I had them all on a MEGA file so I was listening to them everyday. And then the third listening party happened and some of the songs were different, like a Jay-Z verse got replaced by a DaBaby verse. And it was amazing to hear that progression and hear it all come together on the final version of the album. And then the album released at 8am on a Sunday. I was asleep… but I remember waking up to missed calls and texts from so many people I didn’t even know. And junior year had just started. It was just a lot of really cool stuff all happening at once, I don’t know. So that was Donda. (yea the Donda rollout changed my life i think, I was on Twitter a lot and i was 15 and it was summer and I went to Disney World and I went to california… and SOPHOMORE YEAR had just started… and i was on snapchat a lot and it was a good time, really grew a lot musically during this time! and also, I hadn’t heard much music at all, and Donda is an amazing album. It’s maybe not on par with some of his other albums, its long, there are some misses, but some of his most beautiful songs come from Donda, some of his hypest songs come from Donda.)

So I started writing this a year and a half ago…

Yea, i dont know what my direction for this post was going to be, but I just saw Ye live in New Orleans a few weekends ago, I still have the wristband on. It will come off, in shah Allah. It kinda felt like the finale of my Kanye journey. I beat the Ender Dragon. The concert was amazing and it was just about as magical as I could’ve hoped. I would say it maybe even exceeded my expectations. What I do want to say is that Kanye West is an absolutely gifted, creative genius, and is largely responsible for changing rap and paving the way for the explosion of the genre. He beat 50, he made 808s, he made Dark Fantasy, he made The Life of Pablo… these are poems, they are plays, it is art, to the highest degree of what art can be. He is a one of a kind individual that had a lot of unfortunate things happen to him. He’s one of the most talented musicians in the history of music. He is just a human being at the end of the day. And at the end of the day, he was able to make a lot of people happy through his music. BRIDES have walked down the aisle to Kanye West. He is an inspiration, and hopefully one day he says, “Hey guys sorry about all that Hitler stuff I was just going crazy but I’m better now”.

Kanye Has Crossed The Line A Few Times

it kinda feels like if anyone else did the things that Kanye did, well im going to stop myself because our president… is our president and maybe has done some bad things. Just did some research on the 2009 VMAs because I saw someone say something about how Kanye was standing up for black people when he did that and I went and for the first time, watched the Single Ladies music video and the You Belong With Me music video. There’s nothing WRONG with Taylor’s video, it is fine and normal. Single Ladies video is talent, choreography, the lighting was sick too… Beyonce actually did win Video of the Year, Taylor’s award was Best Video by a Female i think. So when Bey won at the end of the night, Taylor came out and everyone gave her a standing ovation, and she was still crying about it like 10 years later. I believe Taylor’s award was fan voted… we will never know Kanye’s intention, but the fact that Taylor’s video beat Bey’s video in anything is blasphemous.

Another line he crossed was when he said he likes Hitler and all that stuff. I can’t forgive him for this like I can the VMAs.

he is only human

we can’t hold things over people’s heads. why not just see the best in everyone? everyone has flaws and problems but everyone also has some good qualities i think. so yea im gonna upload this because i want to make another post and yea

thanks for reading i love yall thank you for engaging and meaningfully engaging it really means a lot it makes me feel like maybe i said something valuable (every word out my mouth) . hope you guys are doing good<3

Is Under The Sun the greatest song of all time??

THIS IS A LISTEN ALONG YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LISTEN AND READ AT YOUR OWN PACE

“I done seen it all oh my God, I swear” – Jermaine Cole

The Sample

The song samples “I’ll be Waiting for You” by The Argo Singers which was released in 1963 and its a pretty nice flip I can’t lie. Shoutout whoever produced it https://youtu.be/5TZCnYZEmuM?t=42. Click that and hear the sample and then go listen to the song and you’ll have a whole new perspective.

That J Cole Verse tho

Okay so. The little breakdown before Cole starts rapping into the bass joining the beat is just amazing. Its almost like I don’t know what to listen to because the beat is so hard but the rapping is so hard too. Like Cole comes on and starts doing dirty gross things to the beat.

“That my lil baby”

I mean this verse is crazy. Cole’s rapping is next level and the verse is barely 30 seconds. He absolutely killed it though and absolutely set the tone for Lute and Dababy.

Kendricks Part

I WOKE UP FOR SOME MOOOOOOONEEEYYYYYY AYYY LIL BITCH TOO MANY OPPS IN HERE TELL ME WHO YOU WITH AYYY

I used to be pissed that Kendrick didn’t have a verse. “How do you get Kendrick Lamar for just a hook🤓?” lookin ahh boi. But he offers a perfect contrast I think. His voice is a little higher than the rest, its familiar and to be fair the hook is amazing.

Lute has the best verse

POTATO OVER MY GUN I MOVE IN SILENCE CUZ N*GGAS BE CLOCKIN MY FUNDS

Like Lute comes in and actually starts going crazy. This song is so crazy bro. The five bar with the squeezing, neeson, reason, treason, see me, rhyme scheme is so sick espeically in the middle of the verse. I feel like this verse is really under appreciated because “What is a Lute?” He’s obviously not as big a name as Cole or Baby but I think its the best verse.

I JUST PUT DIAMONDS ON ALL OF MY TEETH NOW THEY PROBABLY THINK I AINT INTELLIGENT

Okay Baby might have the best start. He even got the extra two lines with no bass. I will say this. Rhyming “Letterman” with “Let-em-in” is crazy like maybe it’s been done before but the way Baby delivers is just different. Than the bass starts and Baby starts going crazy like fr his flow is unmatched. He got the best flow on the song for sure.

Final Thoughts

This is one of the most iconic songs of the 2010s. I mean you have Cole and Kendrick, two mega giants of the rap game at this point, DaBaby who was just starting to really takeoff into the mainstream, and then Lute who is just a guy from Cole’s label. All 3 verses have a case for being the best, they’re all incredible and they each have their own little flair. The Kendrick hook is timeless and I couldn’t imagine another voice. When it comes to rap, it doesn’t get much better than this. People that don’t like this song are racist.

What the hell is jerk rap and what does it mean

New wave jerk rap can be characterized as having heavy bass, claps, sound effects, and the iconic vox vocal sample that acts as percussion. It’s “new wave” because it has nothing to do with the old “jerk rap”. Songs are usually under two minutes with most songs following the chorus, verse, chorus or intro, one long verse format with repetition, changing tempos, and simple melodies…

patchmade by xaviersobased is a great example of what “jerk” rap sounds like because really it is THE jerk song. It was produced by kashpaint, who is the creator of the sound. He created the first piano melodies that xaviersobased used and blew up from. In patchmade and other songs produced by kashpaint, he uses a specific vox sample from That Girl by Pharell. Other vocal chops are commonly used as well. The first use of the Pharell chop was over four years ago with the song ouu ouu (kashpaint) by Bloody!. He is a part of 1c34 which is Xav’s rap collective and label.

The difference between jerk and the mainstream trap space is that jerk is pushing what we consider rap. One account said that a lot of the music in the jerk scene is closer to dance music than trap. And it’s true. A song like Pure Cocaine by Lil Baby is similar to patchmade. Simple piano melody, use of a clap… lyrically, they are similar in a lot of ways. I challenge you to listen to both songs and try to see the similarities because they sound quite different. You can’t really dance to a song like Pure Cocaine. Let’s say there’s two types of lyrics in rap; drugs, money, girls, guns, and then the personality. What is the difference in Lil Baby or Future’s personality in their music? (disrespectful to Future because he really is a trailblazer, but now…) Future and Lil Baby aren’t different enough to both exist in today’s music climate. The mainstream has rules; certain lines you repeat in different ways because it’s “hard”. The first line of Pure Cocaine is a line about his wrist and the weather. Master P has a song called Ice on my Wrist that came out almost 30 years ago. My most listened to song of 2022 (Lineman by 10kdunkin) has, “My wrist is a glacier, it’s changing the climate.” We can sit here and keep making weather related jewelry lines, or we can stop. Actually, I think it’s fine but there needs to be some creativity. The reason I say that is because MadeinTYO has a line, “Rocky mountain wrist, feel like Colorado” and I think that’s pretty creative. On the other hand, the first line of patchmade is “Walk up in the mall, and I ball, b**** I’m patchmade.” Being “patch-made” is a term that comes from the NBA 2K videogames. Basically, certain players would come out better than others after an in-game update (patch), and the players that didn’t get boosted would say the other players were only good because of the patch, and viola. Nobody in the mainstream is talking about video game basketball.

The clothing is different as well. Trap artists such as Lil Baby or Young Thug might focus on Louis Vuitton, Gucci; Future has the famous line on Thought it was a Drought, “I just f***** your b**** in some Gucci flip flops”. Lil Uzi has a chorus that’s, “AP, Muller, my rollie,” and has a different song called New Patek in reference to luxury watches. The jerk scene is much younger, Gen Z, and cares more about the swag era and being comfortable. Supreme, Bape, graphic tees, baggy sweatpants, jean shorts; on the cover of his album install, which patchmade is on, Xav is wearing a supreme shirt, jorts, and a ushanka, which has become a trendy accessory. But it’s also not a very serious accessory especially in the middle of July. (install release date) Also, Xav has a line in another song where he says, “Asics on my feet, boy you still rockin’ Yeezys.” I have Asics because of that line.

Xav has a line in the song, “I can’t f*** with n***** if they right-wing,” and another song goes, “I can’t f*** with the states, this s*** be classist.” In a time like now, this is all more relevant. I’m not voting for a Republican the next time I vote because of that line. There’s another song that is in the same vein as patchmade, called Ova Here by Sleez. She says, “All about justice, yelling free Congo.” I think this musical space that jerk is a part of, as well as digicore, and plugg and whatever… It’s all a lot more political than anything mainstream. Obviously, it’s not so easy for Lil Baby to make a song where he says I don’t f*** with right wingers. But I think it’s also just a young people thing. We WANT to speak out against the shit that makes us mad. There’s something really special about this generation; we’re the first generation to have the internet our whole lives. And we understand the rules and limitations of the internet more than any generation before us.

The point is that Xaviersobased is the goat, and I had to do this assingment for class

12 Stout Street

I had to write 750 words talking about a song I thought everyone should hear, and there were some other rules that don’t matter as much and I chose 12 Stout Street. If you know, you know, if you don’t, you’re about to find out so.

When it comes to “realness”, there was only one song that popped into my head: 12 Stout Street by RX Papi. In the song, Papi mentions his drug abuse, grief with his mother, robbing, and killing etc… It’s incredibly crushing.

When you look up the word “real” on Urban Dictionary, the top result states, “It is said in the comment sections of tiktoks or in the repost messages of reposts you find on your for you page (fyp) on Tiktok.” This is direct 12 Stout Street influence.

Papi always starts his songs with “Real RX”. Around fall of 2021, the song was used with depressing images on Tiktok to make slideshows. People would comment “real” as a way of saying “I agree”.

At the time, it wasn’t just a song; it was a movement. Saying “real” after someone says something you agree with became common even in my day to day life. It’s not to say that the phrase “That’s real” hasn’t existed before, but the song offered that slang to a whole new generation.

But at the same time, the song is much more than a trend. It’s a story about a boy that was failed by his surroundings. The actual 12 Stout Street refers to a house in Rochester, NY where Papi’s father was murdered when he was four. In one line, he says he wishes the house burned down.

He also brings up his mother a lot in the song. He says that his mom didn’t buy him things and that he had to sell drugs and rob people to get money. His mother kicked him out of her house because he robbed someone and gave her the money. It’s maybe the most emotional part of the song with Papi starting the next six lines with “How the f***”.

Papi’s experiences are the same experiences shared by young black men in poverty since the 1980s. Father was killed when he was four, stepfather in prison, mother always working not having time for him… of course he’ll turn to the streets. He even says, “Before Neo or Jet Li, I was the one / My mom ain’t see it but the streets did”. He is literally telling us that the streets saw a potential that his mom never saw which led him down that path.

The Papi we get in this song is much different than the rapper we get in most songs. Typically with hip hop, the substance of the music revolves around drugs, money, women, etc… It’s not common to hear someone TRULY be honest in their music about something that isn’t material.

The song was produced by Gud. He is a part of the group Sad Boys with Yung Lean, and they are Swedish. Gud also makes music under the name Rooster where he sings as well. Lean is known to be a pioneer of the cloud rap genre.

The reason that any of this is important is because Gud is a legend. Musically, he has produced some of the most recognizable songs in the underground (WHICH DOESN”T EXIST!) hip hop world such as Ginseng Strip 2002. If you haven’t heard it, I highly urge you to. He did Agony by Yung Lean.. that’s probably the actual saddest song I’ve ever heard.

Gud has only produced one album that wasn’t associated with Lean or Sad Boys. That album is Foreign Exchange by RX Papi. 12 Stout Street just so happens to be the first song on the album.

I met up with my friend Fred and told him I was writing a paper on 12 Stout Street.

Real.

He started getting excited about the song, talking about how he remembers the slideshows and how people will comment real on posts today. Literally what I was writing about… It feels good when somebody agrees with me.

In terms of streaming, 12 Stout Street has 3 times as many streams as Papi’s 2-10 most popular songs combined. There’s a playlist on Spotify that is 12 Stout Street 300 times. That adds up to about ten hours worth of time. That playlist has 3000 saves on Spotify… a playlist of the same song 300 times.

Of course it’s a significant song. It’s a quiet significant though. If you weren’t on Tiktok towards the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, you don’t know this song, this story. But that is my purpose I guess… To write about the music that is important to me.

Music Right Now

If anybody knows anything about me, it’s that I love music. And I realized that I hadn’t written about anything in a while so I’m just going to write about what music I’ve been listening to.

Last year, I tried to expand my taste a lot. I started deep diving into a lot of artists discography’s like Westside Gunn, JPEGMAFIA, Mach-Hommy, Dean Blunt, and MIKE, but as of late I’ve been listening to a lot of underground rap. So I don’t know this is a ramble piece.

Protect

IF YOU NOT BALLHOG, THEN DIE!!

Top 5

Go Pro
bbysit
Lace Em Up
#FreeTank
Hotspot

Protect is next up. He blew up at the beginning of 2024 when BruceDropEmOff promoted one of his songs and was in a music video, and since he has reached close to 300k monthly listeners on Spotify. So, I started writing this a few days ago, and now he’s at 316k so he gained probably close to 30k monthly listeners in a few days. I started listening to him in December, and I discovered him because of a TikTok I saw… Then I was with my friend Fred and I was like, “You know Protect?” and he was like, “Listen to this bro,” and he played bbysit and I never looked back. I think that what sets him apart from other artists is his flow and he’s always talking about ballhog and whatnot. He does everything Osamason does, better. I don’t know I hope he doesn’t get caught in a bad deal or whatever.

MIKE

MIKE is probably the greatest artist of all time. I’m a sucker for artists that produce their own music, and MIKE produces music under the name dj blackpower.

Top 5

Backseat – Tisakorean **dr.grabba mix**
No Curse Lifted (rivers of love)
Pieces of a Dream
Ipari Park
Burning Desire

I had a really difficult time with the top 5. It’s crazy to me how few people listen to dj blackpower. MIKE has 772k monthly listeners while dj blackpower only has 29k. That’s a 26-1 ratio. Only one out of every 26 MIKE fans, know about dj blackpower; it’s heartbreaking because dj blackpower has some of MIKE’s best work. MIKE isn’t for everyone. He does the talking, drowsy kind of rap that Boldy James does, over sample heavy production… A lot of times he doesn’t even rhyme, he’s just talking. His favorite rapper is Earl Sweatshirt, who helped a lot when he was first starting out. He works a lot with El Cousteau, Niontay, and Wiki.

fakemink

Top 5

Hi, I’m Blessed
Secret
Sniffany
Fake It
Mink

Oh fakemink, where do I begin? This dude is basically the modern day Beatles. He is the leader of a new generation of artists from the UK. When I first started seeing stuff about fakemink, I didn’t check him out because he was British and I felt that he didn’t even deserve a chance. I kind of feel like he’s fading away a little bit, though. None of his music in 2025 is that good but maybe he’s planning something.. I don’t know.

the end

so thats all I have, I haven’t written in a really long time and i want to so hopefully this will lead to me wanting to write more and maybe i can figure out how to make the website look nice and not just make it blue… new post coming soon maybe

DNA BY DANNY BROWN

“It’s in my DNA, cause my pops like to get fucked up the same way”

DNA is a song where Danny Brown blames his drug addiction on his parents, saying that they liked “to get fucked up the same way”.

My mom had me when she was 22. Her mom had died a few months prior to finding out she was pregnant with me, and when she went to the doctor she told them that she quit drinking, smoking cigarettes, and smoking pot, her mom just died, and the love of her life is in Iraq. Then the doctor said that I was going to die in her belly because of my mom’s stress levels. And they said the best thing to do was smoke a joint once a week. I remember when she told me that I was like “Bruh it’s your fault I’m addicted to the cart bruh” which is obviously not true. I could never blame her for that. And I remember thinking like damn… If moms do drugs while pregnant, that baby already has an addiction to that thing. Newborns have been shown to exhibit withdrawal symptoms of alcohol, cocaine or what have you.

One of my favorite lyrics of the song is

“I don’t smoke an eighth a day, I might end up a mental patient.”

I had my stretch of needing to smoke everyday. When that addiction starts itching you, it’s unlike anything. I used to be so upset that I didn’t have friends, but I would have to remove myself from situations where I was around people because I wanted to go smoke. It was more important to get high than to make friends. I remember there was a day where I just wanted to get high so bad and my cart had run out or something and I went to my house and was looking everywhere for one. In cushions, my mom’s desk, and I could not find one. And you really do feel like a mental patient. You feel anxious and stressed about nothing and that is what the addiction is.

I think my favorite part of this song is the production. DNA is supposed to act as the first song of “Side B” of his record and if you listen to XXX front to back, DNA sounds much different from the songs that preceded it. Danny himself said he thought the album cover was like a vinyl and he wanted to keep that vibe. The whole second half of the album is different, really. When you listen to the song, the instruments just hit heavy.

This song is very important in Danny Brown’s discography

Danny Brown is known for glamorizing drug addiction. I mean the song before DNA is called Adderall Admiral. The first verse glamorizes it. He mentions his “Versace pillowcases”, “Terry cloth bathrobe”, “white wine in flute glass”. He lives a lavish life, even saying, “Every night, like a bachelor party in Sin City.” The second verse is one of my favorite ever. He says, “Perceived as a villain, no sentiment in my sentence / For instance, in instants, they’ll be calling forensics.” He’s saying that everybody just sees him as some drug addict rapping about his drug use and they aren’t respecting him or acknowledging the talent that he has. He’s a “villain” in the rap game. Danny Brown is one of the few artists today that actually seem to be pushing themselves. But anyways, Danny is agreeing with them, admitting that he could die from it. The next four bars is, “If incidents occur, remember these ain’t just words / Go from talking shit to organs preserved / You soft-serve rappers just hide behind your reverb / And even without effects, you’ll end up dessert”. The first two lines are still about himself. He wants to be remembered for the meaning behind the words and not just the words alone. These next two lines are pretty amazing. He’s saying that other rappers in the game are scared to talk about their own struggles and are just “hiding” behind voice effects. He then goes onto to tell them that even if they didn’t have effects, they’re “dessert”. They are sweet and soft just like dessert or just like soft-serve ice cream. And this line is right after he says no one respects him for his talent. I see it Danny.

The End

The end.

The Big 25

Why is it almost 2025?

Well there is a ton I have to say about 2024 so..

The Big 24

A lot happened in 2024. I started college. That is kind of it.

Music in the Big 24

There was so much good music that dropped this year. Unfortunately, I just didn’t listen to a lot of it so…

My top album of 2024 was Time After Time by Jay Worthy and MadeinTYO.

There’s so much to love about this album. I love that it’s only 24 minutes long. I hate long music; it’s like I don’t want to sit and listen to 22 songs over an hour. 10 songs, 24 minutes is perfect. Actually one of my favorite songs is the longest on the album; Outro is a 3 minute instrumental with no rapping or singing or anything. I just think this album was made with love. It has some of the best production I’ve ever heard and TYO and Jay Worthy have a kind of chemistry that works really well. Hope these guys work together again!!

Westside Gunn dropped two projects back to back, 11 and Still Praying. 11 is only 4 songs long, but all of the songs were magnificent, while Still Praying had a few songs I didn’t care for too much. Still when Westside Gunn hits, he hits hard, and he definitely delivers on these two projects.

Another incredible album is The Genuine Articulate by The Alchemist.

I didn’t even know The Alchemist rapped before this. Like Time After Time, The Genuine Articulate is only 23 minutes long and has only 8 songs. And the production is amazing, I mean The Alchemist is probably the best producer in the space right now, but something about hearing him rap and produce just adds a whole new level of talent to it. Same thing goes for Time After Time.

Honorable mention to the Denzel Curry album I didn’t listen to.

2025 is mine

So I have started to understand that I really have to start doing something with my life. I’m trying to manifest success by saying 2025 is mine. It’s like if I keep saying it, then I will start doing things to make it true as a joke first, but then it will become habit. I’m tricking myself into not being lazy by making it a joke. How wonderful.

I guess there isn’t a lot I have to say about 2024. thanks for reading