So we finally got around to reading XXL’s Kanye West cover story — which is actually just a stream-of-consciousness-type first-person narrative coming directly from Kanye himself — and simply cannot recommend it enough. Here’s our favorite part:
“How many times have people taunted me because of a color that I had on or how tight my pants were? It’s nothing. I’m at the point now where I can go to ABC Carpet and spend five hours picking out sheets, ‘cause I love colors, like teal and taupe and salmon … When I visited Wayne at Rikers Island, I had a suit on with some slippers, and the guard said, ‘Man, those shoes are amazing.’ And I said, ‘Yes, they are. I’m Kanye West.’”
That is intentionally funny! It’s remarkable: Kanye manages to be both 100 percent self-aware and 100 percent dedicated to maintaining the Ridiculous Kanye West public persona. Wait, why are we talking about this? Because the first of a rumored batch of Bon Iver songs (it’s still unclear what Justin Vernon did on “Monster,” so that one doesn’t count) is here, and it’s a nice bit of classic Kanye contradiction: It’s called “Lost in the World,” and it’s built on Bon Iver’s plaintive 2008 track “Woods” and yet ‘Ye still can’t let more than half a chorus go without talking about how totally ready he is to party tonight. Bonus: “Comment #1” is sampled at the end, most likely meaning a nice chunk of royalty change for the deserving Gil Scott-Heron.
Hear “Lost in the World” at YourAudioFix.com.
