Forty four years ago today, one of the greatest rappers of all time was born. Kanye West is a pure jack of all trades. He’s a top level lyricist, producer, and business man so for Ye’s forty fourth birthday, here is my Mount Rushmore of Kanye songs. It won’t be easy, but it’ll be a blast.
The song that’s going in the George Washington slot is Spaceship. If you remember correctly, I ranked Spaceship as the number one song off of College Dropout and since then, nothings changed. It’s in my opinion the greatest song Kanye has ever released. The features from GLC and Consequence are immaculate and are unmatched.
If you want the full deep dive on the song go back to my article about College Dropouts birthday but the long and the short of it is Kanye rapping about working at the GAP, hating his manager, and how he wants to fly away from his current situation on Spaceship.
Sliding into the Thomas Jefferson slot is the sixteenth song off of Late Registration, Hey Mama. While Hey Mama may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it hits me in the right spot. Kanye raps about his relationship with his mother and the hard times they went through when Kanye was growing up.
Whenever I hear Hey Mama, I think of my mom songs like this make me emotional. While my mom wasn’t a single parent that struggled in relationships like Kanye’s, I just can’t explain why, but it makes me sentimental. Like I mentioned, Hey Mama may not make your Mount Rushmore but it’s number two by a mile for me.
The third song and the one that replaces Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore is Homecoming off of Graduation. The song features Chris Martin from Coldplay, which is one of my favorite bands of all time.
A song like Homecoming just gives me a massive blast of serotonin. Anytime I’m driving back from college or if I haven’t been home in a while, I will blast Homecoming at maximum value through my headphones. I’M COMING HOME. Graduation is a stacked album and in my God honest opinion believe that Homecoming is the best song off the album. It beats out Good Life, trumps Flashing Lights, and knocks off Stronger.
Choosing what to fill in the fourth and final slot as President Abe Lincoln was a tough one but it came down to two songs off of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, a fantastic album. I wrestled with Monster and Blame Game and ultimately picked the song that juices me up more and that is Monster.
While I did say that Spaceship had two features that were unmatched, it’s really hard to argue against a dream team like the one assembled on Monster. Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z, and Bon Iver all collaborated on this six minute and nineteen second song to create a jam that can pump you up at absolutely any moment of the day.
Much like Homecoming, Monster faced stiff competition from songs like Blame Game, All of the Lights, and Runaway but edged out all of them to secure Honest Abe’s spot.
You could easily make an argument for four other songs but in my opinion, these four are the best that Kanye has ever released. Happy double fours Kanye.