Truthfully Speaking: Stop Biting Kanye’s Weekly Music Series. Just Stop.

No Idea's Original

Anger, frustration, irritation… those are just a few terms to describe being mad or pissed off (in extreme measures). It happens to us all usually on a daily basis whether it's that idiot cutting you off in traffic on your way to work, finding out you have to retake that Sociology class again for the third time, or that your favorite artist's album has been pushed back for the (insert ridiculous number here) time. Some people choose silence as a way of dealing with their anger while others rant their issues via Twitter. Personally I prefer the latter but 140 characters aren't enough to speak my mind. Here's where issues meet article, "Truthfully Speaking" to be exact. Every week at about this time find out what's fcuking up SBK's patience or needs some attention. Welcome to the world of The Madd Writer.

If you’re a listener of Nas then you’re familiar with the words that make up this article’s title, taken from a song of the same title on his 2002 release "The Lost Tapes". With "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" being released on November 22 and the G.O.O.D. Friday series extending until January, it got me thinking about the recent epidemic of every rapper and producer jumping on the weekly series bandwagon. We’ve seen weekly series from the likes of Joe Budden (Mood Muzik Mondays), Swizz Beatz (Monster Mondays), Timbaland (Timbo Thursdays), Mikkey Halsted (Super Tuesdays) and more that I don’t even care to mention.



Looking at Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Music series, which started back in mid-August with the “Power (Remix)”, it seemed to be another orchestrated aspect of Kanye’s publicity plan to get back into the good graces of the media/press and fans. Along with the personal visits to Facebook, Twitter, and Rolling Stone offices accompanied by exclusive performances, it looks as though Mr. West’s plan paid off with enough anticipation built for MBDTF’s release in two weeks. But going back to G.O.O.D. Fridays, these weren’t just some throwaway tracks that Kanye decided to release for the hell of it; these were planned tracks that Ye did for the fans.

Everyone knows that the wait for an album’s completion and release is a lengthy process and with MBDTF encompassing two years of work, the release of a new track every Friday was with the intent on satisfying fans until the release date. Even though Kanye isn’t breaking any new ground with a weekly series (see: Crooked I’s “Hip-Hop Weekly” series), he has in fact revitalized it if you will and capitalized on the concept better than anyone previously. To say that Kanye doesn’t have influence, as an artist in this regard would be an ignorant statement, just look at the imitators of his basic black/red Sans Serif artwork (word to “Shark Niggas (Biters)”).

In similar fashion to the latest, greatest Hip-Hop/Rap beat that gets flooded with unnecessary freestyles (see: Jay Electronica’s “Exhibit C”, Snoop Dogg’s “I Wanna Rock”) we must now prepare to be bombarded with weekly songs from artists. Well to the next “2Pac workflow” rapper or Mr. “I got a million tracks” save your energy and spare us from your weekly output. Kanye’s G.O.O.D. Fridays was justified, as being apart of his publicity plan but artists just releasing tracks with no album release in sight or just to catch the current trend is just not necessary. As another notch to G.O.O.D. Fridays, most of those tracks could have been album cuts while some of these other artists’ songs are barely acceptable as mixtape tracks.

We’re already flooded weekly with mixtapes and “freeEPs” from rappers on blogs and sites, there’s no need to add weekly songs to the mix of things vying for space on iPods and external hard drives. By this point Kanye has exploited the weekly series the most and there’s not really much for other rappers and producers to gain from it in terms of buzz and promotion. So instead of trying to latch onto the latest musical trend, artists should try being creative enough to produce a new idea or method that works or do like Kanye and revitalize a forgotten concept or one that hasn’t been maximized to its full potential. Music… Artwork… Whatever, it’s all available to be taken to a new level and direction. As a word of advice to artists, it’s okay to be like Kanye just to be Kanye (…You’ll get that one later).

Along with RefinedHype, SBK is a columnist and writer for nappyafro.com. You can read his most recent articles and reviews here.