Kanye’s Punchlines
Ten years ago, Kanye West and Jay-Z put out a monumental collaboration. Watch the Throne has top-notch productions as well as lyrical substances. For his part, Jay-Z proved to be a lyrical genius. Kanye West who played the role of curating the beats also stepped up his word game. He landed punchlines in almost every song. I started noticed his wordplay on “No Church in the Wild,” in which he rhymed:
When we die, the money we can’t keep
But we’ll probably spend it all ’cause the pain ain’t cheap.
No money can cure the pain, but Kanye also played on “pain” as in expensive champagne. On “Niggas in Paris,” he bragged about being real:
Doctors say I’m the illest ’cause I’m suffering from realness.
The contrast yet similarity between “illest” and “realness” worked well together. On “Otis,” Kanye responded to Jay-Z’s line, “I got five passports, I’m never going to jail,” with:
I made ‘Jesus Walk,’ I’m never going to hell
Couture-level flow is never going on sale
Luxury rap, the Hermès of verses
Sophisticated ignorance, write my curses in cursive.
The reference to the record that made called ‘Jesus Walk’ was just brilliant. I am also impressed that Kanye knew about typeface classification called cursive. On “New Day,” Kanye addressed his son:
And I’ll never let my son have an ego
He’ll be nice to everyone wherever we go
I mean, I might even make him be Republican
So everybody know he love white people.
“New Day” is a heartfelt record, in which he told his son not to do the things he had done like when he addressed George Bush on TV after hurricane Katrina:
And I’ll never let him ever hit the telethon
I mean, even if people dyin’ and the world ends
Or when Kanye provided his son advise on love:
And I’ll never let him ever hit a strip club
I learned the hard way, that ain’t the place to get love.
It could a swipe at Amber Rose, but he sounded genuine. Kanye never shied away from offending white people and strippers. If he is a racist, he admitted it on “Who Gon Stop Me”:
Heard Yeezy was racist, well, I guess that’s on one basis
I only like green faces.
Kanye doesn’t give a fuck about any race except green faces. Then he went hard as a motherfucker on “H.A.M.”:
And if life’s a bitch, bet she sucked my dick, huh
And I bet she fucked the whole clique, huh
Kanye compared life to a bitch; therefore, two bars above were not intended to be sexually explicit. Just when I thought he was not being misogynist asshole, he dropped two vulgar lines:
Had a few white girls, asses flat as shit
But the head’s so good, damn, a nigga glad he hit.
No wait, he actual referred to white girls as cocaine and not as sexual objects. On “Joy,” he injected another wordplay:
I never understood Planned Parenthood
‘Cause I never met nobody planned to be a parent in the hood.
That’s a good one. Kanye had proved that he is witty as fuck. I am sure his new release, Donda, is filled with witty punchlines. I just haven’t had a chance to get my hand on the album yet.