You Are Listening to Kanye Wrong
I JUST KRACKED THE KANYE KODE!!!
2018 has been the year of Yeezy, there is no denying that fact regardless of what you think of the man. Releasing 5 albums over the course of 5 weeks, 36 tracks all produced by Kanye West (the Teyana Taylor record has 8 tracks, only Ye knows why) But It got me thinking, why would Kanye do something like this? Is there a secret code behind this madness? What more is there to discover?
A bit of background on myself for those not in the know. I am a radio DJ here in Santa Barbara and I have my own show called New Noize. Its a specialty all about new and upcoming music from all genres from all over the world. I am constantly working on my craft taking in as much new audio and trying to construct a 2-hour new music show that is a potpourri of new jams for the masses. In my curation process, I create various playlists, both on my iPod(yes I still have an old school iPod that holds about 80 gigs worth of music with no internet connection required) through iTunes and Spotify. Having done this professionally for 10+ years I have seen various patterns, styles and trends emerge from artists of this caliber.
So we all know as of last week Kanye released his final album with Teyana Taylor to bring Yeezy Season to a close. So being the guy that I am, I created a playlist putting all the albums back to back to back to back to back. I would listen to this Kanye Kollection and then like a bolt of lighting from Yeezy himself I decided to construct a new Kanye Playlist where instead of putting his albums back to back, I isolated each track in order. So it goes something like this:
1. If You Know I Know _Pusha-T
1. I Thought About Killing You - Kanye
1. Feel the Love (feat. Pusha-T)-Kids See Ghosts
1. Not for Radio - NAS
1. No Manners -Teyana Taylor
2. Games We Play
2. Yikes
2. Fire
2. Cops Shot the Kids
2. Gonna Love Me
3. Hard Piano (feat Rick Ross)
3. All Mine (feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Valee)
3. 4th Dimension (feat. Louis Prima)
3. White Label
3. Issues / Hold On
4. Come Back Baby
4. Wouldn’t Leave (feat. Jeremih, PARTYNEXTDOOR, and Ty Dolla $ign)
4. Freeee (Ghost Town Pt. 2) (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
4. Bonjour (feat. Tony Williams)
4. Hurry (Ft. Kanye West)
5. Santeria
5. No Mistakes (feat. Charlie Wilson and Kid Cudi)
5. Reborn
5. Everything (feat. The-Dream)
5. 3Way (Ft. Ty Dolla $ign)
6. What Would Meek Do? (feat Kanye West
6. Ghost Town (feat. 070 Shake, Kid Cudi, and PARTYNEXTDOOR)
6. Kids See Ghosts (feat. Yasiin Bey)
6. Adam and Eve (feat. The-Dream)
6. Rose In Harlem
7. How Do You Respond
7. Violent Crimes (feat. 070 Shake, Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign)
7. Cudi Montage
7. Simple Things
7. Never Would Have Made It
8. WTP (Ft. Mykki Blanco)
In the creation of this master playlist I noticed that certain track titles made sense coming one after another. Is this coincidence or have I stumbled upon the codex of Kanye? I mean look at some of these blatant patterns:
2. Games We Play
2. Yikes
2. Fire
2. Cops Shot the Kids
3. Issues / Hold On
4. Come Back Baby
4. Wouldn’t Leave (feat. Jeremih, PARTYNEXTDOOR, and Ty Dolla $ign)
4. Freeee (Ghost Town Pt. 2) (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
4. Bonjour (feat. Tony Williams)
4. Hurry (Ft. Kanye West)
5. Santeria
5. No Mistakes (feat. Charlie Wilson and Kid Cudi)
5. Reborn
5. Everything (feat. The-Dream)
5. 3Way (Ft. Ty Dolla $ign)
6. Ghost Town (feat. 070 Shake, Kid Cudi, and PARTYNEXTDOOR)
6. Kids See Ghosts (feat. Yasiin Bey)
6. Adam and Eve (feat. The-Dream)
But if you start diving deep using all of these tracks in this specific order I laid out this playlist makes sense. For me this is more than just a coincidence. There are tons and tons of articles/videos about Kanye's producing process and his insane ability to sample from so many sources. It's been my experience when patterns emerge like this, it's is done with intent.
The real "OH SNAPS" moments happens when you actually listen to this playlist in this order. The musical production, lyrics, themes and feel just flow and makes sense with the underlying story Kanye is trying to tell. Has Kanye gone FULL Kubrick? Maybe. Am I pulling at straws finding coincidence with no real meaning behind them? Probably. Much like Nicolas Cage in National Treasure I have discovered something that people will talk about for decades to come. I feel like Tom Hanks in DaVinci code only I am dealing with the Kult of Kanye. I have posted this article to reddit in the hopes that this community and all other music aficionados, conspiracy theorists and general population could contribute to my discovery and crack the code. Maybe Mr. West himself will chime in to either debunk this discovery or empower my Carmen Sandiego skills. All in all, it was a fun ride.
Here is the playlist Kayne 2018 Konspircay Link on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/haaris_ahmed/playlist/3NLmECaDr0VKsbfsOmhaKg?si=ZQDMpnHHSP2l7aViDU7Kjw
Here is the Albums in Order playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/haaris_ahmed/playlist/2S9LL2y6BaGqX9CDYdJtam?si=riN3wlSpQBKE3AmBJtQb9w
Pusha T "Daytona" Tracklist:
1. If You Know I Know
2. Games We Play
3. Hard Piano (feat Rick Ross)
4. Come Back Baby
5. Santeria
6. What Would Meek Do? (feat Kanye West)
7. How Do You Respond
Ye Tracklist:
1. I Thought About Killing You
2. Yikes
3. All Mine (feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Valee)
4. Wouldn’t Leave (feat. Jeremih, PARTYNEXTDOOR, and Ty Dolla $ign)
5. No Mistakes (feat. Charlie Wilson and Kid Cudi)
6. Ghost Town (feat. 070 Shake, Kid Cudi, and PARTYNEXTDOOR)
7. Violent Crimes (feat. 070 Shake, Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign)
Kids See Ghosts Tracklist:
1. Feel the Love (feat. Pusha-T)
2. Fire
3. 4th Dimension (feat. Louis Prima)
4. Freeee (Ghost Town Pt. 2) (feat. Ty Dolla $ign)
5. Reborn
6. Kids See Ghosts (feat. Yasiin Bey)
7. Cudi Montage
Nas Nasir Tracklist:
1. Not For Radio (feat. Puff Daddy and 070 Shake)
2. Cops Shot the Kids
3. White Label
4. Bonjour (feat. Tony Williams)
5. Everything (feat. The-Dream)
6. Adam and Eve (feat. The-Dream)
7. Simple Things
Teyana Taylor K.T.S.E. Tracklist:
1. No Manners
2. Gonna Love Me
3. Issues / Hold On
4. Hurry (Ft. Kanye West)
5. 3Way (Ft. Ty Dolla $ign)
6. Rose In Harlem
7. Never Would Have Made It
8. WTP (Ft. Mykki Blanco)