Fine, One More – “Streetlights” by Kanye West
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this is one of the best things Kanye West has ever done. As I’m gathering from the blog comments and the youtube comments and the hip hop sites, West has lost a lot of his base following with this record (or the 6 leaked tracks that we’ve heard so far). However, with every stylistic change in every musical career usually comes a throng of new fans that outnumbers your old base by about 2 million. Not to say that this is a step in a more commercial direction (let’s face it, Kanye is already a household name), but this eliminates that hip hop bias that many music fans tend to have when it comes to actually liking a single enough to buy the record. While “Love Lockdown” and “Heartless” pale in comparison to “Stronger” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” this album could very well out-do Graduation’s first week numbers.
Call me a fanboy, but this is pop music in it’s most evolved form. Nothing spectacular about Kanye’s lyrical ability (but that isn’t really news to anyone), but what’s really grabbing me are the different elements in the style of this track, and the way it’s all put together with absolutely no regard for the label of the outcome. The fact that the biggest hip hop star in the world would completely abandon the genre is a great thing for pop music. It reminds me of when Radiohead destroyed rock ‘n’ roll. It gets me all excited.
Bla bla bla. 808′s & Heartbreak is apparently coming out on November 24 now (Yes, that’s a Monday).
PS: Yesterday also saw a leak of a new (more hip hop oriented) track with Lil Wayne called “Tell Everybody That You Know.”
Posted: November 12th, 2008 under New Music.
Tags: 808's & heartbreak, Kanye West, streetlights