January 1-2, 2011 - fresh weekend PERSON of the YEAR celebration!


Would it be fitting for Konway East to pay tribute to anyone other than Kanye West as the 2010 Person of the Year? Didn't think so. To be fair, the guy made an incredible comeback from humiliating a 17 year-old girl on national television last fall. After that incident, he spent several months outside of the country, before heading to Hawaii and composing one of the most critically acclaimed albums in recent memory. He helped promote the comeback effort by releasing free mp3 downloads ever week, most of which were better than stuff other lesser artists expect you to pay for. He also joined Twitter this year, and if it weren't for Justin Bieber, that may have been the highlight of that social media network's year. If you are interested in learning about Mr. Yeezy's music, I've included my 10 favorite songs from his collection below to celebrate his honor. I can't think of a better way to kick off 2011...
Runaway
It's 9 minutes long, but there's not a wasted second in this track. This one song somehow manages to tell the story of his life, his career and his music all at the same time.

Flashing Lights
My least favorite Kanye album produced one of my favorite Kanye tracks where he lets his production skills do most of the talking for once.

Gone
A mostly overlooked track that uses an Otis Redding sample and a lot of instruments that you don't hear on your typical rap production.

Jesus Walks
The title seems obvious, since Jesus was not known as a paraplegic, but the powerful delivery almost makes me believe Jesus is walking among us…like, today.

Love Lockdown
People were relatively down on this album, but I thought a couple of the songs were pretty nice. This was one of them. The bass is killer.

Monster
I think this song could have been great even without any of the lyrics, but you can't complain when Kanye and Nicki Minaj both outdo the great Jay-Z on this one.

Gold Digger
One of two Kanye songs to hit #1, and probably his most radio-friendly hit of all-time. Instantly recognizable…

Amazing
Maybe I'm biased by all those NBA commercials, but I thought this song lived up to its title.

Heard 'Em Say
This song, featuring Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine, which opened Kanye's second album, is a perfect example of outside the box Kanye.

Family Business
This softer side of Kanye was the point on his debut album where you first realize that maybe this guy was not just another rapper doing the same things that had already been done.

2 comments:

  1. Awwww, you forgot to include "Stronger" in the Kanye tribute. The lyrics really show how much this guy loves himself. I'm disappointed, East. ;)

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