Hooooly shit. Kanye, it’s been too long since we’ve heard from you (your music, at least), but hell, this makes up for it. The leaked track from his still untitled next album (Good Ass Job, perhaps?), “Power”, blasted its way onto the internets recently and the punches started flying. The song starts with a vocal beat slightly reminiscent of “Jesus Walks”, with a slight military goose-step feel, ’til the “15 Step”-esque drums drop and keyboard drones texture it all up into a fantastic little package for our ears. Kanye gets good and creative on this one, varying up his methods and rhythm as often as he feels like it. It’s not one of those songs that just goes on too long, either; rather, this is one that has the courage to depart from the main hooks and digress, even to just take the song in a completely different direction in the last minute, which actually ended up being my favorite part of the song. This can be attributed to underground producer Symbolyc One, who helmed “Power”.
The beat is practically as aggressive as Kanye’s lyrics. With lines like “I’m living in the 21st century, doing something mean to it / Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it / Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it / I guess every superhero need his theme music,” and “You short-minded niggas’ thoughts is Napoleon / My furs is Mongolian, my ice brought the goalies in / Now I embody every characteristic of the egotistic,” Kanye’s swagger from College Dropout and Late Registration has clearly returned and then some. The beat is a perfect backdrop for Kanye to drop all formalities and pimp-slap the world into remembering that he’s still on top, and he gives less of a fuck than ever, which should mean we’re in for quite an interesting ride.
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