Kanye West has dropped No More Parties In LA, a Kendrick Lamar-featuring song that he teased us with two Fridays ago.
It’s the best song of 2016 so far, and to be honest, my favourite Kanye West song since Yeezus.
Coming in at a little over six minutes, I am not even mad that it has come a few days late (West has promised a free release every Friday in the lead-up to his new album Swish, but according to his wife, the track was delayed as he was busy working on a Yeezy line.)
The track opens on a slinky soul sample, understated and cool. I love that there’s no gap between the bridge and the verse, that there’s one toe to toe line, Kanye throwing Kendrick the baton. Kendrick’s bars are raspy and poetic, the perfect complement to the sax-laden instrumental.
Much like we recently heard on Untitled 2 , (and, obviously, To Pimp A Butterfly,) it’s these extended verses that allow K-Dot to truly shines. Each line takes him further down a lyrically spasmodic and rhythmically flippant rabbit-hole, only growing more exciting as the phrases move along.
“Scary.””Scary.” Kanye’s comes back in, and it explodes. With subject matter of his extended verses traipsing everywhere from family life to texting while driving, from North’s fashion choices to a bitter line about someone stealing a laptop, it just doesn’t stop.
Some days I’m in my Yeezys, some days I’m in my Vans
If I knew y’all made plans I wouldn’t have popped the Xans
I know some fans who thought I wouldn’t rap like this again
But the writer’s block is over, emcees cancel your plans
I’m 38 years old, a 8 year old with rich nigga problems
Tell my wife that I hate the road so I ain’t never drivin’
It took 6 months to take the Maybach all matted out
And my assistant crashed as soon as they backed it out
God damn
There’s so many quotables, so much so absorb – check out the full lyrics (many with solid annotations) over at Genius.
Kanye West is set to drop his new album Swish on February 11. Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar is heading down under in March, to headline Byron Bay’s Bluesfest and headline sideshows.