22. Kanye West - “Real Friends”

The production on this track is next level. I mean it’s so good its hard to even properly describe it’s allure, but still I’ll try nonetheless. It’s painfully and perfectly simple, brittle, distant, tinny, drenched in reverb, spacey, ploddingly present – I don’t even know, but something provides it with a sense of magneticism. It draws you in and then sends you floating, almost like drifting through the vacuum of space, uninhibited by gravity (or really anything for that matter), soaking in the rays of sunlight, and slowly rotating as some other-wordly sound of subspace washes over your ears. It’s an eerie beauty, and I love it.

However, the lyrics to the track are mediocre at best. It’s one of those songs that famous people make about famous problems somehow forgetting that the majority of their audience is unable to even remotely relate. Now that’s not to say that us ‘normies’ can’t very well put ourselves in Kanye’s shoes and supplant his storytelling with stories scaled to our own experiences – but still, the basic premise remains a bit out of touch.

Kanye’s verses may come up short, but having Ty Dolla $ign featured on this track saves the vocals. The melodic rasp of Ty’s voice is an absolute perfect fit, complimenting the beauty of the production and Kanye’s self-indulgent ranting in such a way that elevates this track to an even higher plane of existence. Sometimes it’s all about the vibes not the content, and luckily this track has plenty of vibage to soak yourself within.