35 Moments And Lyrics On Kanye West’s 35th Birthday
Posted on June 8th, 2012
by Karen
by Karen
Today is Kanye West’s 35th birthday. Chances are he’ll celebrate in truly extravagant fashion with famous friends, lots of alcohol and Kim Kardashian. And that’s fine. Around this corner of the world wide web, we’ll recognize the day in our own special fashion.
Below are 35 of my personal favorite moments and lyrics from Dr. Donda’s baby boy. Before someone blows a vein their neck, it’s not a “top 35.” Just a handful of distinctions yours truly felt like highlighting. Feel free to add your own. It’s encouraged, actually.
1. “I don’t know what’s better – getting laid or getting paid/I just know when I’m getting one the other’s getting away…” – “This Way“; Possibly one of the truest lines of the past decade. Perhaps watch a show by Preeti and Priya Young while working and that could be the closest you’ll get to achieving both.
2. Performing “Hey Mama” at the Grammys in 2008 after Dr. Donda West passed away. If this doesn’t emit some sort of emotion, you, my friend, have a lump of coal in your chest.
3. His entire verse on “Run This Town,” which just happens to be one of his best guest features ever.
4. “There must be more good women than percentage wise/So her chance of having a husband just minimized/That’s why a lot of girls say they ain’t into guys/Sleep with other girls part time to improvise…” “Improvise“; This is one of those tracks which never found a home on any album that gets swept under the rug. That doesn’t mean it still doesn’t hit home though.
5. The entire “G.O.O.D. Friday” series.
6. Resurrecting Common’s career with Be in 2005.
7. The verse on “Spaceship.” Unless you’re working your dream job, everyone in America has related to what he said there.
8. “You see, if you ever wanted to be anything/There’ll always be somebody that’ll shoot down any dream/There’ll always be haters, that’s the way it is/Hater niggas marry hater bitches and have hater kids…” – “Bring Me Down” Feat. Brandy
9. Kanye West vs. George Bush. Seven years later, Kanye’s still ticking.
10. This actually just happened. A pair of Yeezy II’s were auctioned off for $90,000. Let that marinate for a moment.
11. “It’s so hard not to act reckless…” – “Can’t Tell Me Nothing“; The unique thing about Kanye is that his singles actually give peaks into who he is as a person, both good and bad. The lead single from 2007’s Graduation remains an important record of not only Mr. West’s, but the entire decade. It was the anthem – and still is – for anyone who lives by the set of their rules.
12. “I’m relaxing my feet is up, I’m leaving you haters/Like when Shaq left the Lakers just to “Heat” it up/I state the stats to stunt, I don’t need to front/Make Black History everyday, I don’t need a month/The survey says by the streets according/Kanye just important as Michael Jordan/Was to the NBA when he was scoring/Ralph Lauren was boring before I wore him…” – “Brand New“
13. In 2007, Kanye and 50 Cent had a personal challenge to see who would sell more copies on their forthcoming albums. Needless to say, Kanye won and became and even bigger star. 50, well, this may have been his example of mainstream relevance (music wise).
14. “Here’s a couple of things I can’t honor man/How you listen to a girl who still wanna man?” – “Talk About Our Love“; Some lyrics know no expiration date.
15. This moment technically hasn’t happened for you or myself. But, back in 2005, Kanye allegedly laid down a handful of tracks with Lauryn Hill for what was supposed to be the follow up to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. They never surfaced though.
16. Was it an asshole move? Yes. Would Kanye have spontaneously combusted had someone done it to him? There’s a good chance. But his now infamous and iconic moment at the 2009 MTV VMA’s will go down in history for any reason you can possibly think of it. It did, however, give us the Twitter classic #kanyeshrug and “I’m going to let you finish, but…”
17. “With so much personality, what do you want from me?/I could be by myself and enjoy the company…” – “Whole City Behind Us“; Kanye’s an asshole. We all know that, but it sounds so good when its on wax.
18. Threatening to have Jay-Z drop Kris Humphries from the Nets. Say ‘Ye, Kris is actually a pretty decent player and pending the Nets can pull of the miracle and bring Dwight Howard to Brooklyn to play alongside Deron Williams, Kim’s ex-hubby wouldn’t be a bad option to pair down in the post with D12.
19. “YOOOO, WHY WON’T YOU LET ME BE GREAT!!! I HAD THE TWO GREATEST DAYS OF MY LIFE AND WHEN I GET BACK TO THE LOUIE SHOW, I READ SOME SHIT CLAIMING I SAID I’M DOWN TO DO PORN AND SOME BISEXUAL PORN. I CAN’T BELIEVE THE AVN (Adult Video News) WOULD POST THAT STORY!” – Kanye West. Stuff like this only happens to Kanye.
20. The night LeBron James’ one-hour TV special (or train wreck), The Decision, aired on ESPN it was confirmed Kanye was in attendance. That right there should have told the world history was about to be made.
21. “And I’ll never let my son have an ego/He’ll be nice to everyone wherever we go/I mean I might even make him be Republican/So everybody know he love white people/And I’ll never let him leave his college girlfriend/And get caught up with the groupies in the whirlwind…” – “New Day“; Nothing really needs to be said here.
22. Remember when he burst out in acapella doing “Golddiger” on a Delta Airlines flight? Two notable things about that. One, he censored the curse words. Two, he’ll probably never fly Delta again.
23. Kanye on Punk’d.
24. “I met this MILF at the All Star getting action/A cougar with more rings than Phil Jackson/Told her beauty is why God invented eyeballs/And her booty is why God invented my balls…” – “Start It Up“; The crazy thing is I’m about 97% sure this conversation actually happened.
25. Look, I’m not sure how true it is, but word on the street is Matt Lauer is not the biggest Kanye West fan in the world. All the more reason their sit-down remains a classic Kanye event.
26. “Lord willing I ain’t killed nobody/But I have a feeling this album/That I’m gonna make a killing/Or not a shilling/This is love it or hate it music/But, at least we made it music/And we didn’t make it industry/This is gon’ be interesting/This’ll be the end of me or I’m finna be an entity…” – “Get By (Remix)“; To this day this serves as one of the most underrated remixes of the 2000’s. Jay and ‘Ye snapped something crazy.
27. Whether noticed or not, “Blame Game” was an incredibly dark record. I’d try to pick one line to highlight, but the entire song was testament to Ye’s tumultuous public love life.
28. When he spazzed on Entertainment Weekly for giving his Glow In The Dark Tour a B+.
29. “My outfit’s so disrespect/You could gon’ ahead and sneeze ’cause my presence blessed you…” – “Live Fast, Die Young“
30. “Act like you ain’t took a bath with your cousins/Fit three in the bed if it’s six of y’all/I’m talking ’bout three by the head and three by the leg/But you ain’t have to tell my girl I used to pee in the bed…” – “Family Business“; From a personal standpoint, the best song Kanye ever recorded.
31. The 2006 Rolling Stone cover depicting him as Jesus. From what I remember, that pissed more than a few people off. I’m pretty sure that was the point though.
32. In the penthouse position with penthouse bitches/See I pimped my crib so I must exhibit/Shit these last years been a haze (Hayes) like Issac/So I close my eyes higher than Asian eyes get/Realize I got the same wings angels fly with/Louis Vuitton feathers now that’s some fly shit…” – “Flight School“
33. Every. Single. Last. Word. Of. “Bittersweet.” Man, listen. Especially, especially that second verse.
34. “I got the money and the fame and that don’t mean shit/I got the Jesus on a chain, man that don’t mean shit/Cause when the Jesus pieces can’t bring me peace/Yo, I need just at least one of Russell’s nieces…” – “Put On“; The best single of 2008.
35. Surviving his near fatal car crash. The landscape of rap would be completely different had the worst case scenario became reality.