Video: Kanye West – Power
Kanye is no stranger to sampling seminal 70s rock acts, just look to Graduation, when he sampled kosmische kings Can on a track with Mos Def. This takes it to the next level, as the lead single from his forthcoming album, whatever it ends up being called, takes a major sample from King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man".
Not sure what the deal is with artists sampling my favourite early 70s rock songs... but I have to say I kinda like it.
When tracks first started to surface for 808s and Heartbreak, I was definitely not a fan, then over time (likely due to overexposure) I started to dig the tracks bit by bit. It could have been the fact that I learned where a bunch of the samples on that album came from (Alan Parsons et al), but that one was a grower for sure.
This Kanye album seems to be a much different approach but still Kanye.
The cynical side of me sees him hand-picking rock geek gems and inserting them into songs in order to coast on their already defined cred, but the rock geek inside me gleefully enjoys hearing the way he's re-purposing classic tunes to reach a modern audience. I assume Crimson kingpin Robert Fripp is cool with it, as it allows him to spend more time noodling and frippertronic-ing on his guitar under black lights and have to worry less about feeding himself and paying the rent.
Final verdict: Should be fun to see how this one plays out.
PS: When the hell are we going to hear the version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" with Maynard James Keenan? Or has the Internet been lying to me all these years?
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