Thursday, March 31, 2016

Song of the Day #290 - Kanye West - Saint Pablo (ft. Sampha)

I just feel like I'm the only one not pretending, I'm not outta control I'm just not in they control

http://www.mediafire.com/download/d27w2l3f1ga78ch/01+Saint+Pablo+%28feat.+Sampha%29.m4a

There's lightning outside my window right now. It's one of those silent storms. Feels like the end of the world, maybe. A 6 minute Kanye song, after some much hyped live performances, has mysteriously surfaced in CDQ. Is this the first taste we're getting of Turbografx-16? If so, it is going to be an album as good as its title, i.e. the absolute best hands down ever ever ever. Is this someone's idea of an April Fools' joke? I mean, at several points during the song I wanted to just laugh, like, is this serious? Is this real life? Sometimes something blows so far past your expectations you can't even recognize it anymore.

Part of the appeal of Kanye is that the narrative around him becomes part of the music itself. Pretty much every news item about him in the weeks since the TLOP release is addressed here... No, not just addressed, but brought to fruition, made musical, made complete and definitive, the final word in these stories. Personal debt, twitter rants, mental health... we see the inside story, the suddenly intimate story, the version that every paparazzi and media figure would have begged to have, broadcasted (although we dunno in what form yet) in verse. And what does Kanye take refuge in, when these trying times? Himself. His own ability. His own success. His own ambition. And oh my god, when he brings back the "We Don't Care" classic finisher from 12(!!!) years ago, and it segues into Sampha's radiant crystalline hook, oh my god.

For another gigantic verse Kanye goes on like this, showing not just his vulnerable and empowered sides, but the processes by which one changes to the other. Not just his faith, but his crises, and his revelations. Not just his success, but his humble past, and his journey. "Checkin' Instagram comments to crowdsource my self esteem" is one of the most... Augh. Man. If you aren't at all motivated by this I honestly feel bad for you. I mean holy shit, this is the real one, if you wanna talk about "level two", here it is. If you want to talk about either MJ, hear him now. If you listen to the piano at the beginning and don't feel like the world is ending in the best possible way I wonder if you're really alive.

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