Kanye West is a self-proclaimed genius and has released a lot of music during his two decades in the music industry. With every album, he evolves and always delivers a fresh sound. That said, he is not shy when talking about the quality of his own music.
Having released his debut album, College Dropout, precisely 20 years ago, in 2004, since then, West has released eleven studio albums, three collaborative studio albums, one compilation album, and one video album. With so many bodies of work, it is evident that he is a prolific artist.
As well as being prolific, unlike many MCs and producers today, West can blend genres and fuse different cultures musically. In 2007, the ‘Otis’ lyricist released Graduation, a body of work that saw him effortlessly marry hip-hop with electronic music.
As a turning point in hip-hop, in the interview with B96 radio, West was asked about his favourite Kanye track of all time, to which he responded, ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothin’ elaborating, “I think it was very new and timeless at that time, that like…kinda dark Coldplay-type chords, and singing putting it next to trap drums, that was modern!”
However, a year later, the Chicago act released another groundbreaking body of work in the form of 808s & Heartbreak. With epic tracks such as ‘Love Lockdown’ and ‘Robocop’, Kanye knew it was a smash. However, there was one track that the College Dropout creator loved more than the others.
In a reported conference call with the esteemed record label Def Jam, West passionately spoke about the project’s third single, ‘Amazing’ featuring Jeezy, telling them, “It’s definitely one of those joints in the club that’s gonna go crazy. That’s gonna send it up like we did with ‘Swagger’, like we did with ‘Put On’, and like ‘We always do it this time.’”
He continued, “This is what my job is. My job is to give y’all sh*t that has the model bitches running crazy and has n*ggas bobbing their heads crazy like ‘Can’t Tell Me Nothing’ and ‘Flashing Lights.’”
Following this, at an exclusive listening party, he called the track an example of “pop and hood mixed together.” You can listen to ‘Amazing’ featuring Jeezy in the video below
