This Recording

The iTunes Playlist: Kanye West

If you have not read it, Kanye’s blog is one of the great things humans have ever created. We admire Ye here at This Recording – Danish even collaborated with him. Ye reminds us of what SpongeBob Squarepants would be if SS were a cocky rapper.

ye & say & sam ronson

We also believe Ye would be in the Bible were it written now, and we have treasured this anecdote for some time:

I think in the daily life of a black male, we gay-bash way more than we disrespect women. We would call a gay guy a fag to his face. But if we walked up to a woman and said Aiight, bitch! we would know that was disrespectful. I remember five years ago I was in this clothing store in Greenwich Village with my old girlfriend. I said the word “fag” kind of loud and there were some gay dudes in the store. My girlfriend was like, ‘Yo, c’mon, step into the new millennium’.

Well, my level of consciousness has since raised. And I actually think that standing up for gays was even more crazy than bad-mouthing the president. In the black community, someone could label you gay and bring your career down. But that was me showing what black people are really about today, or at least what we need to be about.

Below is Kanye’s celebrity playlist on iTunes, with his short descriptions surrounding each choice. All the songs are exactly the ones he picked, except for Aimee Mann doing Coldplay’s “The Scientist.” Yes, he chose his own songs, but then again so did Heidi Klum and Seal.

“A Thousand Miles” – Vanessa Carlton (mp3)

See I always liked this song until I saw the movie White Girls. This must be the white song that all black people like, you know every year there’s a song that black people like and this is that. I love the string arrangements. Ron Fare is really up on the strings.

“Sleep to Dream” – Fiona Apple (mp3)

ye & prince harry and william

“12:51″ – The Strokes (mp3)

Ah man, I love this song so much that I almost fucked up the mix down on my album because you can barely hear their lyrics. I went in the mix on my computer trying to make the guitar louder, trying to make it sound like The Strokes, and Common was like, “Come on man, that don’t sound like hip hop. Come on man, turn them drums up.”

“The Scientist (live)” – Aimee Mann (mp3)

This is a song where the video really made me go back and look at it. ‘The Scientist’ is one of the dopest videos, it’s one of my top five videos of all time, but I also like the song.

“Torn” – Natalie Imbruglia (mp3)

Once again another black people’s favorite white song, because it’s a really dope remake, and she had a couple of dope songs on that album.

“Lucifer” – Jay-Z (mp3)

Man, I love this beat right here. I was going to use it on my album but I felt like ‘Jesus Walks’ and ‘Lucifer’ needed their own space on different albums.

“Jesus Walks With Me” – Kanye West (mp3)

john legend’s blog

“Selfish” – Slum Village feat. Kanye West & John Legend (mp3)

This melody is just really infectious and mature, it’s like that grown-man music.

“Distant Lover” – Martin Gaye (mp3)

You can’t just explain why you like any Marvin Gaye song, but this one inspired the track for Spaceship.

“Spaceship” – Kanye West, GLC & Consequence (mp3)

“Am I High” – N.E.R.D. (mp3)

‘Am I High’ is mine and everybody else I know’s favorite song on the N.E.R.D. classic album In Search Of…

“Scar Tissue” – Red Hot Chili Peppers (mp3)

Red Hot Chili Peppers are my favorite group of all times, he says ‘broken jaw’ on it too so you know I like that.

“The Reason” – Hoobastank (mp3)

Them my home boys I always see them we go to places like England and Canada. We always kicking it backstage you know just having a good time.

“99 Problems” – Jay-Z (mp3)

Man, Jay-Z was just snapping on these raps so hard and the way he did the other voices in middle, man he was killing that.

kanye also loves these fixtures. kanye’s blog is here

“Electric Relaxation” – A Tribe Called Quest

OK, this is what takes me back to the reason that I wanted to do music or I wanted to bring back the game and I finally got a chance.

“How Many MCs” – Black Moon (mp3)

Nigga, this is how you know I’m really hip-hop if I picked this. This is a classic.

“The Rain” – Missy Elliott (mp3)

This is actually my favorite. I remember we use to always have arguments about what’s Missy’s best song, well this is my favorite Missy song.

Feist and Ye after the grammys…canadians intrinsically fear college-educated rappers.

PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING

Please remember the victims of Cloverfield.

Dick Cheney asks: are women worth the bullshit?

Becca wants to get Knocked Up.

ye in the studio