Tag Archives: Tweets

G.O.O.D. Friday: Kanye West – “Devil in a New Dress” (Update: he also addresses an apology to Taylor Swift)

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Early this morning (right past midnight eastern time) Kanye West dropped a new track off his upcoming yet-to-be-titled album.  “Devil in a New Dress” features a background tune that is very reminicent of his old work (think The College Dropout and Late Registration).  Though ‘Ye’s blood pressure doesn’t spike here (the song takes a detour from “Power“, the “Power” remix, and last week’s G.O.O.D. Friday track “Monster“), the Bink production grows on you after multiple listenings so give it a preview (and then download it) below.  In a tweet Kanye described the track like this: “classic… instantly gave me a feel I’ve missed in music for so long.”  At only 2 minutes and 52 seconds in length (plus there’s that abrupt ending) I have a feeling this is not the final version of the song.

Predictions for next week: Kanye still has “All of the Lights” up his sleeve (but I’m hearing that he’s waiting to perform it at the VMAs on September 12) and then there’s the Jay-Z collab EP waiting in the wings.  Will the EP drop soon, or will we be handed individual tracks before it releases?  Time will tell.

Download: Kanye West – “Devil in a New Dress”

[audio: Kanye West – Devil in a New Dress.mp3]

Update: Kanye hinted at what’s to come next week.  My predictions were a bit off this time.  “We might drop 2 new Good joints next week!!!” he tweeted.  “I got new joint with Pusha T and Big Sean… The Summer has to have this one …. I might drop it Tuesday if I finish my verse.”

Update 2: After releasing “Devil in a New Dress” Kanye West jumped onto Twitter to express all these thoughts that have clearly been bottled upside him for some time.  Nearly one year after the Taylor Swift incident at the 2009 MTV VMAs, Kanye addresses a second apology to the country singer.  Here are some choice quotes (erm, tweets) from his “stream of consciousness”:

“How deep is the scar… I bled hard.. cancelled tour with the number one pop star in the world [Lady Gaga] … closed the doors of my clothing office.”  “Remember in Anchor Man when Ron Burgandy cursed on air and the entire city turned on him? But this wasn’t a joke. This was & is my real life.”  “I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that’s so beautiful and I want her to have it. If she won’t take it then I’ll perform it for her.”  (Possibly at the VMAs?)  “She had nothing to do with my issues with award shows. She had no idea what hit her. She’s justa lil girl with dreams like the rest of us.”  “She deserves the apology more than anyone. Thank you Biz Stone [Twitter creator] and Evan Williams [Twitter CEO] for creating a platform where we can communicate directly.”  “I’m ready to get out of my own way. The ego is overdone… it’s like hoodies.”  “With new found humility … who am I to run on stage? I would never ever again in a million years do that. Sorry to let you down.”  “It is distasteful to cut people off as a general rule. What’s the point of dressing tastefully if I’m going to act the complete opposite?”  “Yes I was that guy. A 32 year old child.”  “When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE … I take the responsibility for my actions.”  “Why was it made into such a race issue. Taylor loves rap music… I love country music.”

After all this Kanye speaks directly to his haters: “I’ve hurt, I’ve bled, I’ve learned. I only want to do good. I am passionate I am human I am real. I wish I could meet every hater.  I wish I could talk to every hater face to face and change there a opinion of me one conversation at a time.  I wish they all knew how much I really cared about music and pop culture and art and peoples feelings.  I wish they could accept that I’ve grown and only want to do good for the world. I want to help as many people as I can.  I want to help starting with the music and ending with the smile.  I want to win there hearts back so I can continue to bring my take on culture to the masses with a clean opinion.  It starts with this…  [Drumroll, please] I’m sorry Taylor.”

Take what you will from this apology of sorts, but it looks to me that ‘Ye is finally turning the corner here.  He’s not holding back the music and he’s publically expressing himself like never before.  I welcome the “new” Kanye with open arms.  And I am really looking forward to this year’s VMAs.

[Via KWBlog]

Kanye West tweets find a natural home in New Yorker cartoons

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From all the hubbub surrounding @KanyeWest and his tweets you’d never believe that he’s only been using the social networking service for less than a week.  Just hours after he jumped on the bandwagon and started sharing thoughts only Kanye could come up with, comedian and real-life pal Aziz Ansari started an ongoing conversation using the hashtag #PredictingKanyeTweets.  Early ones included: “Just saw a girl with huge titties at Del Taco.”  “Hans Zimmer needs to write a score for whenever I eat a cookie. when I eat cookies shit is mad suspenseful.”  The hashtag made it to Trending Topics for a few hours that first day.

Following #PredictingKanyeTweets is #KanyeNewYorkerTweets.  That’s right, Twitter users are tagging Kanye’s tweets to actual New Yorker cartoons.  Surprisingly they make for near perfect captions.  I’ve posted one above, and there’s a bunch more in the gallery below.  Like Ansari’s hashtag, this new conversation has just begun so make sure to search the hashtag often for a light chuckle throughout the day.  Kanye must be loving this.

[Via HuffingtonPost]

Kanye West braces for new album by previewing new songs at Facebook, joining Twitter [Update: Rolling Stone visit]

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After spending some time out of the limelight, Kanye West has returned to entertain us with his slick, emotionally-driven raps and different side of his thumping ego.  On Wednesday Kanye visited Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, California to preview four tracks from his upcoming album.  He donned a fresh suit and rapped a capella atop a table inside a fluorescently lit conference room in front of Facebook employees.  He starts with a “fun rap”, that’s the one embedded above.  It rocks.  “Kill the hypocrisy/This is an aristocracy..I’m Socrates/But my skin more chocolatey.”  The next rap is rather short; it may just be a freestyle, but it’s got a sick line in it: “Lost in this plastic life/Let’s break out of this fake-ass party, turn this into a classic night.”  The next song likely titled “Chain Heavy” is dipped in politics and contains this humorous line: “They try to tell me that aliens built the pyramids/I swear life’s on bitch on a period”; it concludes with my favorite line I’ve heard this far: “This is the making of a masterpiece/So we broke out the chains and told our master, ‘Peace’.”  The fourth song is called “Mama’s Boyfriend” and it’s an extremely emotional track about Kanye’s late mother Donde West.  In it he journeys back to the days when his divorced mother started dating other men.  “I’m my mama’s boyfriend/I’m her little husband…Keep your hands off my mama” he screams.  Apprently this track took him 33 years to write and it clearly means a lot to him.  ‘Ye drops so many uses of the n-word in this track, but he says, “I’m allowed to use it.”

Later that day he posted this message targeted to the Facebook employees:  “Many times in life I’ve had to deal with moments of doubt. And as it’s been a minute since I’ve performed any fresh material in front of an audience, this could’ve been one of those moments… but it wasn’t. Your energy was a gift so electric, so genuine, that it really helped me give my best. The energy was so inspiring I had to keep going!  I just hope you got as much from me as I got from you…which was everything!”  Be sure to look after the break to listen to all the tracks.

From one popular social network to another, Kanye finally caved in and joined the Twitterverse.  And you know what?  He actually comes across a non-egotistical funnyman.  Peep his first tweet: “Up early in the morning taking meetings in Silicone Valley.”  This was followed almost immediately by: “Lol I spelled Silicon wrong ( I guess I was still thinking about the other type of silicone ITS A PROCESS!! : )”  Then came some important news regarding his upcoming album: “The album is no longer called “Good Ass Job” I’m bouncing a couple of titles around now.”  Just confirming our suspicions, Kanye.  After giving a handful of shoutouts to various blogs for reporting his Facebook HQ visit, he started to notice how quickly he was garnering a following.  In less than two days he managed to gain a following of nearly 300,000 (he’s currently at 293,687 followers).  With tweets like these: “My thoughts on Twitter so far… at the end of the day, God damnit I’m killing this shit!!!” and “I think Twitter was designed specifically with me in mind just my humble opinion hahhhahaaaahaaa humble hahahahhahaahaaaa” you might think ‘Ye is stroking his ego again, but I think he’s actually starting to satirize himself.  He’s finally realized that he “has the power to let power go” and he’s learning from his past mistakes.  Hilarious comic (and one of Kanye’s friends) Aziz Ansari started trending the hashtag #PredictingKanyeTweets, and Kanye simply retweeted jokes that were on him.  “Damn I wish Hermes made edible snacks, Cheezits just ain’t dope enough for my mouth”, tweeted Ansari.  The fact that he’s not retaliating but instead having fun with his new lease on life through Twitter makes me believe that he’s turning a corner for the better.  But don’t take my word for it.  Follow @kanyewest and form your own opinions.

At the end of the day, it appears as if Kanye wants to begin a new chapter in his career.  After coming out of hiding he decided to tease some tracks and open up his fanbase using the power of social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter.  It’s an interesting and unconventional route to take but it’s one I can commend.  Welcome back Mr. West.  September 14 come now please.

Update: Later in the week Kanye visited a bunch of magazine headquarters including XXL and Rolling Stone.  A video surfaced on YouTube from his meeting with the latter outlet.  Look for it after the break.

[Via KWBlog; KWTwitter] Continue reading Kanye West braces for new album by previewing new songs at Facebook, joining Twitter [Update: Rolling Stone visit] →

All public Tweets will be archived at the Library of Congress & on Google

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Fellow Twitterers, your Tweets are about to become part of United States history.  On Wednesday Twitter announced it will be donating access to the entire archive of public Tweets to the Library of Congress “for preservation and research.”  Every 140-character public Tweet made since 2006 will find a home next to the Declaration of Independence.  According to Twitter founder Biz Stone, “only after a six-month delay can the Tweets will be used for internal library use, for non-commercial research, public display by the library itself, and preservation.”  Can you believe it?  A digital archive of Tweets.  Future tweens will get a glimpse into our world dominated by pop sensation Justin Bieber and they’ll think he was king.  All joking aside, Twitter has functioned as a virtual space where breaking news of births, deaths, tragedies, and triumphs have spread across the globe, and future generations will be able to see how we utilized social networking to quickly disseminate information and share experiences with one another.  Pretty profound if you ask me.

In related news, Stone announced a partnership with Google, introducing a new service called Google Replay.  Replay “lets you relive a real time search from specific moments in time” with Tweets.  In addition to viewing Tweets in an archived digital database at the Library of Congress, Replay is another “new way to revisit tweets related to historic events.”  Right now the service only goes back a few months, but Stone promises it will eventually be able to access Tweets since Twitter’s inception in 2006.  Google is rolling out the feature right now, and it will be made available globally within the next few weeks.  For now, Google Replay can be accessed here.  Try it out!  Search a specific keyword and experience how events relating to it unraveled in time with Tweets.

[Via TwitterBlog; GoogleBlog]