20 of Kanye West's Deepest Cuts
But which cut is the deepest?
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An Educated Guide of Cuts - We are in the midst of a lituation, and Kanye West is at the helm of it all. After a public spat with Wiz Khalifa over changing his upcoming album title from SWISH to WAVES, Kanye pulled a Kanye (again), tweeting frantically and looping in Amber Rose tangentially. Muva bit back, but this morning we all woke up to a treat as she and Kim Kardashian-West posed together for a selfie. Peace was restored. Just yesterday Kim K tweeted a poll asking fans to pick which West album title they really wanted. So let's bring it all the way back to the music, despite wanting to stay tuned into to the tea-spilling. As you may recall, Kanye revealed an updated version of the handwritten tracklist he posted earlier, an additional track has made the cut, titled “Ultra Light Beam.” The mark Kylie Jenner left on the lined sheet of paper is now surrounded by additional ...
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Grav – 'Line for Line' Featuring Kanye West, 1996 - This track was released in 1996, taking us back to Kanye’s early days with Chicago rapper Grav's album Down to Earth giving Kanye his debut on vinyl. Featuring both production and verses from Kanye, via Correct Records, this album holds his first commercially released work at the ripe age of 18.(Photo: Mark Mainz/Getty Images)
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GLC – 'Flight School' Featuring Kanye West and T-Pain, 2009 - Originally dropping with just Kanye and T-Pain, it later was revealed that this track was actually for GLC. Off the album Love, Life & Loyalty, the production was handled by all three, with some Auto-Tune treatment on T-Pain’s vocals.(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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Kanye West – 'Heavy Hitters' Featuring GLC, 2002 - This joint was never released on an official album, but was the B-side for “Jesus Walks.” Hear we have some West introspection, talking about how he’s ahead of the game he’s changing, with lyrics like, “This makes everything else sound played” and “I told dude, ‘You can’t even rap on my interlude.’” (Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images)
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Dilated Peoples – 'This Way' Featuring Kanye West, 2004 - The Kanye-produced single “This Way” made for Dilated Peoples’ first Billboard Hot 100 hit, with its music video featuring John Legend. With Kanye’s verse ending with “I don’t know what’s better, gettin’ laid or gettin’ paid, I just know when I’m gettin’ one, the other’s gettin’ away” and an ear-worm chorus, this track is quintessential to both Dilated Peoples' and Kanye West's catalogs. (Photo: Gonzales Photo/Kim Matthai Leland/Corbis)
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Talib Kweli – 'Wack N****z' Featuring Common, Kanye West and Consequence, 2015 - Last summer, Talib released an album of unreleased tracks and B-sides, including this gem featuring Kanye, Common and Consequence. The album was titled Train of Thought: Lost Lyrics, Rare Releases & Beautiful B-Sides Vol. 1, and Kanye was on production duty in addition to getting some bars in.(Photo: Peter Kramer/Getty Images)
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Consequence – 'The Good, the Bad, the Ugly' Featuring Kanye West, 2007 - While this track wasn’t a single, it did get the visual treatment — filmed in black and white — and was named after the 1966 classic film starring Clint Eastwood. Produced by Kanye, this track was released on Consequence’s Don’t Quit Your Dayjob album as well as Kanye’s Freshman Adjustment mixtape two years prior. (Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
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Lorde – 'Flicker (Kanye West Rework)," 2014 - While the original version peaked at No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 list and was titled “Yellow Flicker,” Kanye’s rework was included on the soundtrack for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay’s first volume. The track was compared to the production we see on Yeezus, with a stripped down, sinister vibe. (Photo: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
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Foxy Brown – 'My Life,' 1999 - Co-produced with The Mad Rapper and appearing on Foxy Brown’s sophomore Chyna Doll album, “My Life” is more so a look at early Kanye production and doesn’t feature his vocals, but is still a treasure worth unearthing.(Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
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Maroon 5 – 'This Love (Kanye West Remix),' 2004 - Taking a single from 2002’s smash album by Maroon 5, Songs About Jane, Kanye gave it his remix treatment, appearing as a bonus track on an international version released two years later in 2004. It’s just delightful, really.(Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for CBS Radio Inc.)
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Dwele – 'Hold On (Remix)' Featuring Kanye West and Consequence, 2004 - Originally recorded in 2004, this track was released in 2009 on Dwele’s self-titled album, but only with Kanye’s verse. The original featured Consequence and appeared on Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music: Remixed & Unreleased mixtape, as well as on the Freshmen Adjustment Vol. 3 compilation.(Photo: Sebastian Mlynarski/Getty Images)
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Ghostface Killah – 'Back Like That (Remix)' Featuring Kanye West and Ne-Yo, 2006 - On this track produced by Xtreme, the storytelling lyrics go through a situation we all can relate to: the ex-lover that is still in love with creating drama. The track also samples Jay Z’s “Song Cry” and Willie Hutch’s “Baby Come Home” and balances its soulful, laid-back vibe with a little street flavoring.(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Kanye West – 'Christmas in Harlem' Featuring CyHi the Prynce and Teyana Taylor, 2010 - Produced by Hit-Boy, the song is full of Marvin Gaye and Shuggie Otis samples and plays up to the holiday theme well. While incredibly hard to not be cheesy when talking seasonal songs, this rendition of holiday cheer is executed so well, you can get caught up in it regardless of the time of year.(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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Cassie – 'King of Hearts (Remix)' Featuring Kanye West, 2012 - Kanye gave this track a bit more of himself than his remixes typically see, completely flipping the track from R&B to electro-pop and not contributing any vocals. Kanye making a dance record? Alright by us!(Photo: D Dipasupil/Getty Images)
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Kanye West – 'Christian Dior Denim Flow' Featuirng Kid Cudi, Pusha T, John Legend, Lloyd Banks and Ryan Leslie, 2010 - As part of Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Fridays series leading up to the release of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, “Christian Dior Denim Flow” is basically just an epic posse cut. That’s right, epic. (Photo: Daniel Boczarski/Redferns)
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Kanye West – 'Don’t Look Down' Featuring Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Big Sean, 2010 - Also released nearing the end of G.O.O.D. Fridays, this cut was the track that had people wishing Kanye would continue the series forever. With talks of Kanye bringing it back in 2016, “Don’t Look Down” is definitely the type of cut people are eagerly looking out for.(Photo: Jerritt Clark/Getty Images for Roc Nation)
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Kanye West – 'White Dress,' 2012 - Kanye was enlisted to bless the soundtrack to the RZA’s directorial debut, The Man With the Iron Fists. The track features production credits from the RZA, Tapez and Boogz, with Kanye exploring topics alluding to marriage and the lavish lifestyle of jet-setting alike, and of course, features the memorable line, “You like piña coladas, getting caught in the rain or rocking flannels all summer like Kurt Cobain.” The film was produced by Quentin Tarantino and starred Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu and the RZA himself.(Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
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Kanye West – 'Keep the Receipt' Featuring ODB, 2005 - Linking up with ODB (at a time when he was known as Dirt McGirt) both ask, “Do anybody else make hits anymore?” Previously unreleased, the track was included in a mixtape in 2015 for Trackless Magazine, the Roc-A-Fella Edition. A new old classic.(Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images for DirecTV)
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Kanye West – 'Two Words' Featuring Mos Def, Freeway and Boys Choir of Harlem, 2004 - The B-side for Kanye’s debut single “Through the Wire,” off College Dropout, “Two Words” is vintage Kanye at its best, with ’Ye also releasing an instrumental version. The video itself is an interesting one to check out, shouting out everyone from Consequence to Michael Jordan to the Dropout Bear.(Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage)