Kanye To The: Kanye West

----------------- First Track (No Church) ---------------------

- Heavy beat with lots of bass
- Frank Ocean on the hook
- "What's a mob to a god... what's a god to a king... what's a king to a nonbeliever... who don't believe anything"
- Jay has the first verse, Kanye has a second verse
- Frank Ocean has an interlude inbetween Jay's and Kanye's verse..
- GREAT OPENING TRACK

1) NO CHURCH IN A WHILE-sick beat with heavy drums... frank ocean sings a hypnotizing melodic hook ... jay-z has a great verse... idk if u guys want me to ruin the subject matter its pretty sick though ... theres a sick bridge with sorta distortiony like effects... sounds like what kanye did with bon iver on monster sort of... there were animal noises in the outro too... probably my favorite song on the album it was ****ing amazing

Rolling Stone -

1. The first track we heard, tentatively titled "No Church," is Jay-Z's current favorite of the bunch. It's easy to see why. An apocalyptic rumble of a beat backdrops a diabolically earwormy hook (courtesy of Odd Future crooner Frank Ocean) about religion and power. Jay-Z unspools brainy couplets about great thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Jesus, Kanye and himself; Kanye raps about drugs and sex, among other topics.

Entertainment Weekly -

“No Church” – Features Odd Future R&B wonder Frank Ocean contrasting deities to mortals. Kanye and Jay rap of struggling, then conquering, over the roars of vicious animals.

GQ-

"No Church," the first track of 11 played, one of the few referred to by name, and Jay's favorite at the moment, is a dramatic, dynamic treatise on sin and hypocrisy. Jay explicitly reflects on Socrates question, "Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods?" Deep! Odd Future affiliate Frank Ocean sings the massive, gospel-tinged, Christian-baiting chorus.

-------------- Second Track (Lift Off) -----------------

- Has a nice introduction with horns in the background
- Beyonce on the chorus (obviously)
- "Were gone take it to the moon, we gone take it to the stars..." - Beyonce
- Ye's doing his semi singing rap thing (think Runaway)
- "Showing my tattoo's such a show off" - Ye
- Ye has first verse, Jay has second
- Kanye is on Autotune at one point...
- Samples a countdown of a NASA space launch at the ending on the song...
- It's a real banger, has good radio potential...

2) LIFT OFF- really good synths beyonce has a killer hook and kanye and jay both had pretty good verses on it i dont really remember them though... should be a mainstream success... all the ****es in the room when nuts when it was playing hahah

Rolling Stone -

2. If "Liftoff" isn't a chart hit within the next year, I'll be surprised. Jay-Z and Kanye get downright triumphal over synthesized fanfare à la West's "All of the Lights," and Beyoncé's anthemic hook is the type of thing that makes radio programmers go weak in the knees. Huge.

Entertainment Weekly -

“Lift Off” – This is likely the first single and features Jay’s better half—yep, Beyoncé—who uses her radiant outdoor voice to sing about rising to cosmic heights in life, spilling over tumbling drums and jabbing synths.

AllHipHop-

In the first song, Beyonce completely blasts off to a beat laced with heavy synths. Kanye bursts onto the track, weaving in and out of autotune and various vocal distortions. Very off beat, but in a good way. Jay-Z follows up flowing to very short or truncated verses. Clearly, Beyonce is the ancho to a song that ebbs and flows until it blasts off in a spaceship counting down. (This was actually the second song, but the first seemed to be a partial record that got hacked off.)

GQ -

"Lift Off." The second song played; Jay said he has misgivings about releasing a single for the album, but since they likely will, this would be it. Also, his wife Beyoncé appears on the (literally) space shuttle-launching chorus. So that's nice.

----------------- Third Track (Niggas in Paris) ---------------

- Really heavy hitting type beat
- Sounded like it was produced by Swizz Beats or Lex (someone like that)
- Jay has the first verse
- Ye mentions Mate Kate Olson in his verse
- Sample from Blades of Glory movie (supposedly Kanye's a fan) "No one knows what it means, but it's provocative..."
- "You are now watching the Throne, don't let me enter the throne..."

3) THAT **** CRAZY... HIT BOY PRODUCED its a ridiculous beat sorta like a better version of drop the world and more swagged out... samples blades of glory in one part quoting will ferrel at the beginning and goes "there is one song we will skate too... and one song only..." then the song starts... pretty dope verses from what i could tell should be a favorite its an absolute banger

Rolling Stone -

3. No one boasts like Jay-Z and Kanye West. Here they talk delightful trash over a fearsome beat that grows from icy synthesizer plinks and minimalist snare attack to a fuzzed-out industrial breakdown. Midway through is a bit of sampled dialogue from 2007's goofy comedy Blades of Glory (Kanye's idea): "No one knows what it means," says Will Ferrell, "but it's provocative."

Entertainment Weekly -

“That S— Crack” – A swaggering effort on which Jay compares his skills to Michael Jordan in his iconic Bulls finale and Kanye claims that his version on the royal wedding would include a certain pair of famous twins.

AllHipHop-

Bouncy is the first word that comes to mind with Song # 3. The track almost sounds like a traditional southern Hip-Hop record. Jay's flowing much faster, sort of in the vein of "Big Pimpin'." Jay's rapping double time and then yields to 'Ye, who raps at a slower pace. The song concludes with the crash of a slowed down menacing beat, reminscent of 80s instrumentalists Art of Noise.

------------------- Fourth Tack (Otis) --------------------

- Opens up with another Blade of Glory sample "We're gonna skate to one song, and one song only"
- Otis Redding sample
- Classic soul style Kanye beat...
- Jay and Ye take turns (think Common's Southside)
- "Made Jesus walks I'm never going to hell" - Ye
- "Jay is chillin, Ye is chill, what more can I say" - Jay

Note... this song seemed to be a favorite of everyones... it was really dope!

4) OTIS REDDING... probably my other favorite song from the album... **** was amazing... soul sample for hook and chopped up the sample for the beat and it just builds up really well and is amazing... kanye has an ill verse and it is top 3 on the album