A friend of mine recently told me, “Help me appreciate Kanye West.” He said that with the “fits” he hears of Kanye making in the news, he finds it hard to appreciate his music. Sometimes it can be a little hard to listen to the music when your voice is what’s heard in the media. So with the release of his third solo album (Graduation) only a little over a month away and the release of Common’s latest effort (Finding Forever, produced mainly by Mr. West), I found it appropriate to dedicate this Producer’s Spotlight to Kanye West. This one was really tough. Kanye has produced so much great music over the course of six years, it was really hard to narrow it down to my favorite cuts. Normally I try to keep the Producer’s Spotlight down to the length of one CD, which is around 20 tracks. I had to bump this one up to 30 tracks and I probably could have gone up to 40! There was no way to keep it at 20 songs. Between the work Kanye West has done for Jay-Z, Common, and himself; that’s easily 6 CDs worth of music. Here I wanted to capture the best of the best; the top 30 songs that showcase Kanye West’s talent and diversity. These 30 songs are songs that I could listen to over and over again and are what I believe to be some of Kanye’s best work to date. This isn’t about his MC skills, it’s all about the music here. The following list is in no particular order, just in the order that I think flows best. This one’s for you, B!
Tracklist:
- Mos Def - Brown Sugar (Fine) (from the 2002 movie soundtrack Brown Sugar) Listen
- Sample Credit: Norman Connors - Invitation
- Kanye West - Heard Em Say (from 2005’s Late Registration) Listen
- Sample Credit: Natalie Cole - Someone That I Used to Love
- Sample Credit: Tommy James and the Shondells - Candy Maker
- Kanye West - Stronger (from 2007’s Graduation) Listen
- Sample Credit: Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, stronger
- Jay-Z - Encore (from 2003’s The Black Album) Listen
- Sample Credit: John Holt - I Will
- Twista - Overnight Celebrity (from 2004’s Kamikaze) Listen
- Sample Credit: Lenny Williams - Cause I Love You
- Kanye West - Spaceship (from 2004’s College Dropout) Listen
- Sample Credit: Marvin Gaye - Distant Lover
- Monica - Knock Knock (from 2003’s After The Storm) Listen
- Sample Credit: The Masqueraders - It’s a Terrible Thing to Waste My Love
- Mariah Carey - Stay The Night (from 2005’s Emancipation of Mimi) Listen
- Sample Credit: The Stylistics - Betcha By Golly Wow
- Common - Faithful (from 2005’s Be) Listen
- Sample Credit: D.J. Rogers - Faithful To The End
- Jay-Z - This Can’t Be Life (from 2000’s Dynasty Roc La Familia) Listen
- Sample Credit: Harold Melvin - I Miss You
- Sample Credit: Dr. Dre - Xxplosive
- Kanye West - All Falls Down (from 2005’s College Dropout) Listen
- Sample Credit: Lauryn Hill - Mystery of Iniquity
- Game - Wouldn’t Get Far (from 2006’s Doctor’s Advocate) Listen
- Sample Credit: Creative Source - I’d Find You Anywhere
- Sample Credit:: 2Pac - All Bout U (vocal interpolation)
- Cam’Ron - Down and Out (from 2004’s Purple Haze) Listen
- Sample Credit: William Bell feat. Mavis Staples - Strung Out
- Slum Village - Selfish (from 2004’s Detroit Deli) Listen
- Sample Credit: Aretha Franklin – Call Me
- Alicia Keys - You Don’t Know My Name (from 2003’s Diary of Alicia Keys) Listen
- Sample Credit: The Main Ingredient - Let Me Prove My Love to You
- Janet Jackson - I Want You (from 2004’s Damita Jo) Listen
- Sample Credit: B.T. Express – (They Long to Be) Close to You
- Kanye West - Hey Mama (from 2005’s Late Registration) Listen
- Sample Credit: Donal Leace - Today Won’t Come Again
- Jay-Z - ‘03 Bonnie & Clyde (from 2002’s Blueprint 2) Listen
- Sample Credit: Prince - If I Was Your Girlfriend (Vocal Interpolation)
- Sample Credit: 2Pac - Me And My Girlfriend (Vocal Interpolation)
- Twista - Slow Jamz (from 2004’s Kamikaze and 2005’s College Dropout) Listen
- Sample Credit: Luther Vandross - A House Is Not A Home
- Nas - Still Dreaming (from 2006’s Hip Hop Is Dead) Listen
- Contain Interpolations of: Diana Ross - The Interim
- Sample Credit : Bill Withers - Use Me
- Scarface - Guess Who’s Back (from 2002’s The Fix) Listen
- Sample Credit: - The Originals - Sunrise
- Sample Credit: - Dr. Dre - Xxplosive
- Jin - I Got A Love (from 2004’s The Rest Is History) Listen
- Sample Credit: Lenny Williams - Cause I Love You
- Game - Dreams (from 2005’s The Documentary) Listen
- Sample Credit: Jerry Butler - No Money Down
- Talib Kweli - Get By (Remix) (from 2002’s Quality) Listen
- Sample Credit: Nina Simone - Sinner Man
- Sample Credit: Love - Doggone
- Common - The Food (from 2005’s Be) Listen
- Sample Credit: The Chi-Lites - I Never Had It So Good
- Sample Credit: Sam Cooke - Nothing Can Change This Love
- T.I. - Doin’ My Job (from 2003’s Trap Muzik) Listen
- Sample Credit: Bloodstone - I’m Just Doin My Job
- Dilated Peoples - This Way (from 2004’s Neighborhood Watch) Listen
- Sample Credit: Jimmie and Vela – Olde Men
- Keyshia Cole - I Changed My Mind (from 2005’s The Way It Is) Listen
- Sample Credit: Solomon Burke - Get Out Of My Life Woman
- Beanie Sigel - Nothing Like It (from 2001’s The Reason) Listen
- Sample Credit: Dynamic Superiors - Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing
- Kanye West - Late (from 2005’s Late Registration) Listen
- Sample credit: The Whatnauts - I’ll Erase Away Your Pain
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9 Comments
Ooh, I am gonna have to listen to this. You know that I like Kanye (sans the Diddy-like self-promotion). Ok,ok, you got me! (smile)
Berripii — I didn’t know you were a fan of ‘Ye! Well, you should like the tracks highlighted here. Let me know what you think!
Great choice…. missing some great tracks though, e.g. Jesus Walks, Through The Wire, My Way, but you said it yourself, KanYe just got “too much” incredible stuff out there.
I worship Mr West, I love his versatility, his warm flow, his “ear” for amazing beats, his style and so on. And I love that he ejoyed an education which allows him to share his horizon on a way more spiritual and sophisticated level than other rappers.
He is one of the greatest musicians of our time!! Hands down.
I have a question though:
WHERE CAN I FOUND A COMPLETE LIST WITH ALL THE STUFF HE HAS EVER PRODUCED?!?!
I really wanna follow KanYe’s journey and development as an artist from the very beginning.
Thank you and please get back to me @ theanswer.iverson.3@gmx.de
Yo what’s up Dan? I totally agree with your admiration for Kanye West. You’re right, there is way too much good stuff that Kanye has produced to include it all on a mixtape. The idea here was to include tracks that stand out for me, while including lesser known songs or songs that other people may not have known was produced by Kanye.
Anyway to answer your question, I find that Wikipedia is always a good start to find out info on someone, but if you’re interested Kanye West productions, check out this link:
http://www.prodby.altervista.org/producer_list.php?producer=Kanye%20West
This site is hot for hip hop productions and discographies. Currently they have 261 entries listed for Kanye and is probably the most complete you’ll find on the net. Hope that helps!
Thanks so much!!
Appreciate it!
great list! i don’t know how kanye does it, but he does. i don’t like stronger as much though. . id def switch that up with ‘lucifer’
k-
yeah, you may be right on that tip! I loved ‘Stronger’ when I first heard it, but now I’m hearin’ it everywhere and I’m gettin’ sick of it. Lucifer is amazing and def one that I missed. Good lookin’ out!
Yeah,yez is just unique. the first song that introduced me to his production is one i cant remember its title but it was him,game and ludacris. i think it was some pepsi mic pass shit. yeah so, i kept playin that song for days before i lost my ipod, the baseline had me singing in my sleep (no lie).
this list above is great, but lucifer didnt make it….that track was def, and family business too. like u said, dude been working so hard over these few years that its hard to put together a list of his productions without contempalating a DVD mixtape or disctape (disctape?,haha) yea,kanye is just great
Deejawolf: I had to dig and find out what song you were talking about with Ye, Game, and Luda. I was like, “I don’t remember them doin a song together!” You right though, it was a commercial, but for Boost Mobile. The song was called “Where You At? (Boost Mobile Anthem)”.
I don’t have the audio, but found a YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4ko9Ogh75o
Hope that brings back some memories for you!