steez you can hear Vol.22: Ye Mix

     Last year at this time, G.O.O.D. music and Kanye West sought to take over the music industry with 5 new album releases.  Pusha T’s DAYTONA, Kanye’s Ye, Cudi and Kanye’s Kids See Ghosts, Nas’ NASIR and Teyana Taylor’s K.T.S.E.  Each album was short, with only 7 songs each (K.T.S.E. being the exception with 8) to cater to an industry more concerned with singles than albums.  While I enjoyed each release in its own way, the strategy didn’t pay off as planned.  Kanye handled all the production for each of these albums and his fingerprints are over everything which puts all these albums in rarified air.  The beats are great but I can’t help but feel Kanye was stretched too thin over the multitude of projects and ideas.  By releasing an album once every week in June he set his expectations too high and the whole thing felt rushed.  In this way, I wanted to craft a playlist that rewrites history.  I seek to re-do Ye in a way that combines all the G.O.O.D. music releases from those recording sessions.  The point of this post is to pick out all the Kanye-centric tracks from the releases and make them into one, cohesive Kanye West album.  Spotify playlist is below, breakdown to follow…

The Reasoning:

In creating this playlist, there were a few stipulations I decided to abide by:

• The original “Ye” and “Kids See Ghosts” albums are here in full*.  Since both albums are directly affiliated and made by Kanye, I decided to include them in full* (aside from 1 omission, see below).
• Cops Shot the Kid, What Would Meek Do?, Rose in Harlem and everything are the other Kanye-centric songs I decided to add from the G.O.O.D. Music releases.  They either feature Kanye or it is a track that I felt went well with the album.
• Omissions:  For awhile I had Hurry from “K.T.S.E” on here but I decided to scrap it as it didn’t really fit.  I also got rid of All Mine off “Ye” for the same reason.

The Breakdown:

1. I Thought About Killing You: The way this song slowly builds makes this the perfect intro for a Kanye album.
2. Feel the Love: Really wanted to make this track number 1 but I thought the transition went really well from “I Thought About Killing You” to this.  Also, the Pusha and Cudi features gives this track a nice G.O.O.D. music touch as we move into the album.
3. Yikes: One of my favorites off Ye, this track sounds like a Life of Pablo era recording but slightly more cleaned up. I like how it fits between the Cudi and Pusha features moving into….
4. Cops Shot the Kid: Kanye likes to drop a banger for track 4 (ie: “All Falls Down”, “Gold Digger” etc.) and I think this NASIR cut fits the bill.
5. Fire: Starting off the side B side of the album is “Fire.”  I think it transitions well into the more Cudi/Kids See Ghosts section of the album that I was going for.
6. Ghost Town: Transitions perfectly from “Fire” and is a nice addition between the (2) Kids See Ghosts tracks.
7. 4th Dimension: I really like how 4th Dimension sounds after “Ghost Town’s” vocals bleed out.
8. Freeee (Ghost Town Pt. 2): I love the transition from 4th Dimension to Freeee so I decided to keep it exactly as Kanye crafted it on Kids See Ghosts. 
9. What Would Meek Do?: As we start Side 3, it was time to let G.O.O.D. music CEO Pusha T back in as him and Kanye trade verses for a track that I think sets up the second half of the album well.
10. Wouldn’t Leave: Heartfelt Kanye song that I felt fit well here after the hard-hitting “What Would Meek Do.”
11. No Mistakes: Another one off the Ye album.  Kanye had “Wouldn’t Leave” and “No Mistakes” back to back so I kept it as is.
12. Rose in Harlem: The only song I included that doesn’t actually have Kanye in it.  I feel like his spirit lives with this song though and this beat is too fire not to include in a project like this.
13. Reborn: Perfect start to the last quarter of the album as it sets it up nicely for a upbeat finish.
14. Kids See Ghosts: Probably my favorite song from all 5 releases, plus it’s been a minute since we’ve got Mos Def feature on a Kanye album so this felt right.
15. everything: In the vein of “We Major” I decided to drop this NASIR cut in at the end.  It’s a tremendous song and a Nas/Kanye collaboration always seems to work well.
16. Violent Crimes: Kanye picked this track to end his 7 song Ye album so I figured it’s placement at the end of mine would be ideal as well.  But it’s not the perfect concluding song….
17. Cudi Montage: “Cudi Montage” is the perfect cap to the album and one of my favorite tracks from these G.O.O.D.music releases.