15 Best Kanye West Tracks

1. Runaway (MBDTF)

Best Line: "Let's have a toast for the douchebags, let's have a toast for the a*******" Obviously the best song by someone as self-involved as Kanye is going to be about Kanye. It's inescapable. Watching the 35 minute experimental movie directed by Kanye called Runaway is a transcendental experience; it is analogous to watching The Dark Knight with Christopher Nolan sitting next to you describing what Batman is thinking at all times. Is Kanye delusional? Of course, but he invites us into his delusion and lets us bask in his glory. Nine minutes and eight seconds of self-indulgence as art may seem like a unique kind of hell, but when Yeezus himself is at the helm it is oddly invigorating. The mere fact that Runaway exists is all the proof Kanye needs to continue making music until he dies (and hopefully he does). A mix of his musical styles, Runaway features the dense orchestration of Late Registration, the auto-tuning and computer-based beats of 808s, the grandiosity in scope of MBDTF (which it belongs to), and some of the "minimalism" he would experiment with in Yeezus. Often accompanied by ballerinas for his live performances, there is a haunting beauty to the song, as though Kanye is saying that he is the tragic hero that his hubris is going to bring down. Kanye doesn't rely on childish jokes like the doctorate degree his penis has received, here he is more interested in understated comedy like, "I don't know what it is with females, but I'm not too good at that s***." This is the credo of a socially awkward generation. When the sample that he punches in to his drum pad yells out "Look at ya, look at ya" Kanye is of course saying, "Look at me. Look at me." Runaway is Kanye's anthem, "This is who I am. I am a douchebag. I am an a******. I know this. You know this. But I am still great. Celebrate me." And like almost everything else Kanye says, it's almost too honest.