Favorite Kanye West Produced Tracks

Today I wanna write about four of my favorite Kanye West beats outside of his own music.

Izzo (H.O.V.A.) - Jay-Z (The Blueprint)

It was so cool to see Kanye speak about his experience with Jay-Z writing this song in the Jeen-Yuhs documentary. I love the rhythm, it has a great bounce to it because of the role the hi hat plays. It compliments the rhythm of the kick drum by playing around it. There's a lot of cool rhythm variations. I never knew this samples I Want You Back by Jackson 5. It seems like Kanye slowed it down and chopped the rhythm. I've listened to both songs a million times and I never made that connection, that's so impressive. The door creak and piano both do a great job at circling back to the start of the loop. The loop has a couple of different chops thrown in, like at 0:52. The entire song is simple but it gets to the point and is such a good time.

Wouldn't Get Far - The Game (Doctor's Advocate)

I recognized the vocal sample from the song Ghetto Symphony by A$AP Rocky, it's the part going, "Yeah" and "Louder" which samples Long Red by Mountain. The main sample is built around two sections of the song I'd Find You Anywhere by Creative Source. It's a perfect loop. The drums are simple so they don't over complicate the sample. The percussion is quiet in the mix but it leaves room for everything, the open hi hat still cuts through for bounce. Listening to the original, you can tell how the rhythm of the bass was chopped. This beat always gets stuck in my head.

Sky Might Fall - Kid Cudi (Man on the Moon)

This song sounds like an aggressive take on the production style Kanye used for 808's and Heartbreak. Like Izzo (H.O.V.A.), the hi hats don't play a straight rhythm on this song. It sounds like there's a delay, which lets them fade out in the mix. The tone of the distorted synth bass is layered with a sweet keyboard that plays in the background, there's also a synth that plays a melody with reverb. The bass feels hot and the synths feel cold. I love how the song progresses at 1:58 with the introduction of the string section. The snare stops for 4 bars and it's just the kick and percussion, while the bass and strings play. When the snare comes back in, it accents the rhyme scheme that Kid Cudi is using. It falls on the words say, place, and embrace. The string section also comes in at the end of the first verse at 0:54, and layers the melody for the hook. I love towards the end of the song with just the drums and the "I gotta keep up" at 2:57.

If You Know You Know - Pusha T (Daytona)

What an intro for the album. The beginning of this song is unique because it lacks a true melody. There's a hi hat, some sort of percussion sound, and a vocal sample. The intro follows an 8 bar loop. The percussion sound falls on the 3rd beat of a bar, then a bar plays without it. The vocal sample plays on the fourth beat of the first bar only. When the full song comes in a sample of Twelve O’Clock Satanial by Air (Hard Rock) plays. It seems like the sample was pitched and slowed down. The bass that plays with it compliments the melody of the sample perfectly. It seems like it's a re-recording of the original bass on the sample, it has an amazing sub bass tone. While the sample plays there are two vocal samples that are chopped, they match the song perfectly. At 1:20 there's another really awesome sample and you can hear chants panned in the sides going, "What, What, WhatWhat". This song has such a strong loop with the sample of the guitar, the mixing of the chopped vocal samples, and the bass. There isn't a lot going on in the percussion, it's straight hi hat notes with the snare on 3. The bounce of the kick drum does a great job at keeping the song moving.

Those are some of my favorite Kanye West beats outside of his own albums. Another Kanye produced track that I find so interesting is Find Your Love by Drake. Another great Jay-Z song he produced is Encore, or Takeover. There's also a lot of songs he's produced that I haven't listened to.

Thank you for reading!