Another week and a half, and Kanye’s new album is out. That hasn’t deterred him from releasing new G.O.O.D. Friday songs, though. Even while feuding with NBC and Matt Lauer (and using up a great deal of the goodwill I’ve accumulated towards him by acting like a beeyotch), he’s been in the studio. The latest effort is “Chain Heavy”, a song that (at least when you look at the title) sounds kinda Gucci Mane-ish? Or maybe Soulja Boy-esque? Thankfully, neither of those two assclowns show up on the song. Instead, you get a couple of pillars of lyrical excellence: Talib Kweli and Consequence. I know ‘Ye is trying to step his rhyme game up, but he’s easily the third best MC on this track. Kweli and Cons murder it. Not to say Kanye doesn’t drop a couple of good punchlines.
However, the real star here is the beat, provided by the legendary Q-Tip. As the main architect between A Tribe Called Quest’s sound, Tip doesn’t really get the props he deserves as a beatmaker. Perhaps he was overshadowed by Ali Shaheed Muhammad back then, but even since then, as he’s produced hot beats for Nas and Mobb Deep, he’s still not considered part of the upper echelon of hip-hop producers. That’s kind of a shame, ’cause this beat is fucking sick.
Someone should’ve thought of a better chorus though. It almost ruins the song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLRMKamjxpo