Originally Published on Apr. 28, 2017
The Song of the Day is:
Kanye West – “Street Lights”
From the album 808s & Heartbreak (2008)
A lot of people don’t like Kanye West, I get it, but I’m not one of those people. Kayne is aggressive, cocky, crass, and severely lacks impulse control. However, he is amazingly talented from a production standpoint, one of rap music’s best. He’s also honest in his raps, nobody is going to call him the best MC ever, but doesn’t hold back. If it’s in his life, he’ll rap about it. 808’s and Heartbreak era Kanye found him recovering from a breakup and experimenting with autotuning rap/sung and retro style drum beats and synths. This album experiment was met with a lukewarm response by critics, however it has received a critical reevaluation after artists like Drake and The Weeknd emerged praising it’s influence. To call “Street Light” a rap song is not entirely true, it’s an album cut which got little attention, but I think that its one of Kanye’s prettiest and most optimistic songs (descriptions not generally applied to his music). I listened to this album numerous times, and this song just played along with it. Then one day, there was a certain lighting, or a feeling in the air, something, I’m not sure what, but I locked in with this song. I’ve considered it among his best since.
Hear Today, Grown Tomorrow 