I'm kind of over Kanye West as a solo artist. It's just hard to listen to his polished, overly produced sound. My feeling with Kanye is that he's much better when he's preaching than when he's ballin'. Ya know what I'm sayin'? For example, "Heard 'Em Say" and "Roses" are much better songs than "Touch the Sky".However, I'm inspired to listen to his latest album, due to this lyric in "The Glory":
In two years Dwayne Wayne became Dwayne Wade
Dude! Is Kanye the first to confuse these two? Because I've been talking about this ever since Wayne stepped on the court. Isn't that the guy from "A Different World"? So is Kanye saying that Kadeem Hardison is cool now that he's on Lupe Fiasco albums, or is he simply heralding the greatness of Dwayne Wade? I'm guessing the former.
Related question: which was more shocking? 1) Urkel as a non-nerd on the annual NBA Stay In School Jam, or 2) Dwayne Wayne as a non-nerd in the later years of "A Different World"?
One last note on this subject, since I can't imagine another time I'll discuss Kadeem Hardison: I owned a pair of Dwayne Wayne sunglasses as a kid. Can I still buy these? And can I pull them off, or is it way too hipster bike messenger?
4 comments:
Sorry for commenting on my own post here, but, E, I just realized, doesn't Dwayne Wayne look like Reggie? Oh, man, I'm starting to get the giggle fits!
so, the Dwayne Wayne look a like contest would not be won by LOROX's finest. On the subject of Kanye's lyrics: I think it is just saying that he (Ego West) advanced from a nerd to superstar status. What irks me in the song, and in other hip hop verses, is the speaker's use of "dyke" to express his sexual prowess.
The line: "After each and every show a couple dykes in the van/It's easy"
Here the speaker, in my opinion, is merely suggesting the ubiquitous three some that transpires after a long night of "rocking the crowd." This is not a suggestion that he can make a lesbian renounce Sappho filled pleasures, but rather a take on a male sexual fantasy. Besides the obvious sexism/homophobic nature of the line (see http://www.shilv.org/shshsh/?p=31 for an extended take), Kanye is using a term for a lesbian that in most contexts would not match the "lipstick" variety that inhabits this hypothetical hypersexual situation. While "dyke" takes two less syllables to say than "lesbian," it conjures a bit more flannel and spiked womyn hair than Mr West might wish to inhabit his tour van. Which also begs the question: Has Kanye downgraded from the bus to a van?
As always, your ability to deconstruct hip-hop lyrics surpasses mine (and your desire to do so). You gotta give him props for rhyming "blonde dyke" and "klondike" though in "Stronger". Oh, wait. Actually that rhyme kind of stinks.
tautological rhyme me thinks?
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