By Odeisel
“Devil In A New Dress” is the latest release on Kanye’s highly publicized G.O.O.D. Music Fridays. The slow player is the least pop song of anything he’s released, thus far on the comeback trail and on surface inspection it’s a pretty dope song that would function as a suitable placeholder or pace-changer mid album.
The bulk of the song is a chipmunked soul sample, as most of his new music harkens back to the College Dropout-era Yeezy. The sample itself has some nice strings in it that pull a bit of extra mood out of the beat. The sample sits atop some strong but dusty drums, subtle high hats and a muddy snare that give it that early 90s feel. There is also an accenting bassline that follows the track for depth. The song lacks a pop singer or a commercial break, a welcome change from the stuff he’s dropped lately. There is a refrain but it blends into the normal stanza delivery so there is very little separation.
Lyrically, Kanye forces a few words to rhyme with his delivery and swagger and there is his regular allegory to fashion and brands. I won’t indulge the Illuminati hunters much, but there are references to Jesus, the devil, the magic hour, et al. (“she love Jesus but she learned a lot from Satan”). Draw your own conclusions. The song concerns itself with relations with a girl that’s been holding out and has Ye looking for some “consummation.” He realizes however that she just wants him for his money (“you got green on your mind I can see it in your eyes”) and after he gets her, she’s mad because Ye ain’t tricking. There are a couple allusions to Ma$e (“don’t ever leave while you’re hot that’s how Ma$e screwed up”) and a few homonym-based double entendres on the last verse that sound eerily similar to something Jay-Z would say (Dior Homme not Dior Homie).
This is probably the best song he’s done since he’s been back. No gloss no floss and no over-swagged delivery. No pop star appearances or sub par production from guest producers who drop lemons and no bad arrangements. Just a slowly muscled delivery from Ye. The way it should be. And he didn’t take the easy way out by sampling “Devil With the Blue Dress On” (maybe he’ll save it for the remix). That’s G.O.O.D enough. “Devil In A New Dress”. Enjoy
Kanye West- “Devil In A New Dress”
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