You probably don’t think of Kanye West as a generous person, and with good reason. His newest album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is the sound of a relentless perfectionist realizing something m(–foul word(s) removed–)ive, warped, vicious, and all-encomp(–foul word(s) removed–)ing, taking only a few seconds to breathe between his bombastic and gaudy orchestral productions. Leading up to the album, he made headlines not so much for the music he’d been making but for all-caps outbursts on his blog and Twitter and for public outbursts; witness: his rant over Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
Yet Kanye West spent several months before the realization of his Dark Twisted Fantasy releasing free music online through his GOOD Fridays series, offering teaser singles, B-sides, and other material every Friday from August through the end of January (with a few weeks missed following the album’s release). He used the service first to release a remix of the album’s first single, Power, which added new verses from Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz as well as a detour into C&C Music Factory’s “The Power” in its second half. He then premiered “Monster,” “So Appalled,” “Devil in a New Dress,” and several other songs that ended up becoming part of the album.
West used the program on a few occasions to reveal what were essentially works in progress; the finished album featured several songs that were considerably different from the versions that he released through GOOD Fridays, most notably the addition of Rick Ross’s verse to “Devil in a New Dress.” However, he also showed his seemingly long-absent goofball side by tackling projects such as a remix of Justin Bieber’s “Runaway Love” with Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon, and later extended something of an olive branch to critics within Dipset by featuring Cam’ron and Jim Jones on “Christmas in Harlem.”
Users who followed West on Twitter would see him writing frantically on Friday nights about how he was running late and working to get something out for the series on several occasions, and many of the tracks that didn’t become part of the new album are utterly worth hearing, such as “Chain Heavy” (which features production from Tribe Called Quest MC Q-Tip), and “Lord Lord Lord” (which prompted Mos Def to announce his now being signed to GOOD Music, West’s record label that’s boasted Common and John Legend, among others).
Love him or hate him, West is as an innovator in his field. Since GOOD Fridays started, countless producers and rappers have started similar projects: Timbaland began “Timbo Thursdays,” Swizz Beats took on “Monsta Mondays,” and Wu-Tang mastermind RZA (who is featured, perhaps not incidentally, on “So Appalled”), is releasing music on “Wu Wednesdays.” However, none of these projects have attracted quite the momentum or excitement that Kanye has to this point. As he finishes up the series in the next several weeks and moves on to his collaborative album with Jay-Z, Watch The Throne, it’s hard not to be excited about what he’ll be doing next, outbursts and all.
Gerald Arnolds is a guest blogger for An Apple a Day and a writer on earning your nursing degree online for the Guide to Health Education.