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Let’s have a toast for the disco cavemen!

It was during the G.O.O.D. Friday leaks that I noticed something developing in the KanYe West oeuvre. I began to notice artists after they had done tracks with him. I’m no fan of Nicki Minaj or the Clipse, but I at least found myself listening to them now instead of pressing fast forward. KanYe was getting eye opening performances from these artists. The Raekwon x Justin Bieber track showed a prescience to tap into rap music’s pantheon with a pop music juggernaut. His ability to secure the RZA on the ‘So Appalled’ track was a watershed moment for my realization.

KanYe West was Quincy Jonesing rap music. Quincy Jones was the O.G. who had the audio senses to craft popular culture music from more serious, dedicated forms of music. He made jazz accessible where it was previously nuanced and specialized. He made R&B that served the millions with his collaborations with the late, great Michael Jackson. Quincy Jones was far from a superb musician himself, but he had an ear for sound that would move the masses. Quincy Jones also knew that music was a global force and he wasn’t confined by even the domestic borders of the American pop charts.

I had to invoke Quincy Jones for the way KanYe was using EVERYONE that he knew in the production of his latest album. He didn’t just feature artists like Rick Ross, Kid Cudi and Common, but producers as well. Swizz Beatz and No ID would be credited on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. MBDTF also introduced me to the vocal stylings of Bon Iver. The extraction of all this varied talent for a single cohesive project is something I thought Quincy Jones accomplished on his LP ‘The Dude’. My dad might have played this album 10 millions times. I don’t think my dad would have fuxed with the latest KanYe disk too tough.

Coincidentally enough, Quincy Jones does not fux with KanYe musically.