Kanye West- "We Don't Care" from the album The College Dropout (2004)Kanye never goes long without giving the paparazzi and his detractors fresh ammunition. When he's not working the boards or dropping clunky, but clever lines on the mic, he's having expensive cooked food flown across the globe, posting whiney, 20,000-word, all-cap manifestos on his blog, or smashing the ever-loving shit out of someone's camera in an airport. That said, the man is remains an innovator in hip-hop production and quite the showman, both on wax and on stage. Those things have given him some free reign w/r/t his extra-curricular antics.
Ye isn't the most talented emcee, but he delivers his rhymes in such an unabashed fashion you can't help to issue a free pass or even dig what he's offering. With three solo LPs and hundreds of guest verses under his belt, there's a lot of Kanye to choose from. But the track that doubles as a Kanye primer is this opener from his debut album.
It's not West's best song. It's not even my favorite Kanye track. But if I had to pick one song to illustrate what Kanye's all about, not just as a rapper, but as a producer, it's this one. You could listen to this one track and know what The College Dropout is all about. It doesn't take a genius to decode the album title's meaning, but Ye's three verses here elaborate on the ideology behind achieving material fulfillment without the benefit of college courses.
The pictures West paints could fill the inner-city blight template were the lyrics not so witty and draped over celebratory horn and handclap-heavy beat. With a bit of tweaking, lyrics like "You trying to cut our lights out like we don't live here / Look at what's handed us /Fathers abandon us /When we get the hammers go and call the ambulance / Sometimes I feel no one in this world understands us" could easily get dropped into a song where making listeners upbeat and optimistic is the last thing the artist wants. As it is, West taps everyone on the shoulder to remind them of these all-too-real situations, but at the same time, assure you they're taking it in stride.
And then there's the wordplay. Kanye borders on the ridiculous at times in this category, but he effortlessly makes it across the tightrope walk between clever wordplay and Lil Wayne "how many drugs is he under the influence of right now" wordplay. Again, lines such as "The drug game bulimic it's hard to get weight / Some niggas money is homo it's hard to get straight" brings forth serious situations with a grin without mocking them.
Ye isn't going to be part of many serious "best emcee" discussions as we press on, but the guy knows how to entertain. His mastery on the production side of things is his real bread and butter, but tracks like "We Don't Care" show he's capable of at least hanging in the big boys' neighborhood.
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