Top 5 Kanye West Verses of All Time
By: Matt Tomo
Tags: Writing, Hip Hop, Music, Rap, Kanye West

Kanye West, 2006. (Damian Dovarganes/AP Images)

Kanye West needs absolutely no introduction, so I’ll get right into this countdown of the five best Kanye verses of all time. But first, let me explain what I took into consideration in order to come up with the list.

Basically, and to put it simply, I took everything into consideration — flow, wordplay, quotability, impact, energy, rhyme scheme, everything. (Well, at least I think that’s everything… If I forgot something, just trust that I took it into account too.)

Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about these Kanye verses., because for someone who isn’t known as a “lyrical rapper”, there were definitely a bunch to choose from.

HONORABLE MENTION: The 2nd verse in “White Dress” from The Man With the Iron Fists (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I‘m starting out with an honorable mention of a song that doesn’t appear on any of Kanye’s albums. “White Dress” is a RZA and Kanye joint-produced track from the soundtrack of the 2012 film The Man with the Iron Fists, which was directed and written by RZA.

Kanye raps alone on this track, but his performance is more than enough to carry it, and also more than enough to make it the most memorable song from the soundtrack. Between the two verses (even though you could hardly call the first verse a full verse, since it’s only five lines long), we hear some of Kanye’s best storytelling ever, as he tells a love story between himself and a woman he met “at the club in a tight dress, with dreams of someday wearing a white dress.”

What really makes this verse special is its length, and the way Kanye goes in for the entire duration, without ever really taking much of a pause. As RZA put it, “Kanye’s a dope lyricist, but what he did on this particular song, it’s like, it ain’t 16 bars, he’s going like how Ghostface goes, it’s like 40 bars. Just going, he’s going, he’s killing it.” Kanye himself alluded to this Ghostface comparison, saying that he “tried to make it Ghostface long” — a fitting tribute over a classic RZA beat.

5. The 5th verse in “Gone” from Late Registration

If someone asked me which song is the most under-appreciated in Kanye’s entire discography, I’d say it’s “Gone”. The production is incredible, with hard-hitting snare drums throughout — something that was a recurring sonic theme on Late Registration. But the highlight of the song, which also features great verses from Cam’ron and Consequence, comes over four minutes into the track, following a smooth beat change. This is the point where Kanye delivers the fifth best verse of his career.

The verse opens with two iconic lines that sum up Kanye’s mentality towards his own creativity and how he is perceived in the world, not only by the general public, but by some of the most powerful and wealthiest people on the planet. He raps, “I’m ahead of my time, sometimes years out // So the powers that be won’t let me get my ideas out”. These are sentiments that Kanye continues to reiterate in 2020, fifteen years after Late Registration.

The rest of the verse is constructed around sharp violin notes that pierce through Kanye’s words, most of which are about his supreme self-confidence, and early successes as a musician. “They claim you never know what you got ’til it’s gone // I know I got it, I don’t know what y’all on // Imma open up a store for aspiring MCs // Won’t sell ’em no dream, but the inspiration is free”.

4. The 2nd verse in “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Bonus Track)” from Late Registration

There are two versions of “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” on Late Registration. The first one (in the album’s chronological order) is a remix featuring Jay-Z, and the second one is a “Bonus Track” that only features Kanye. The second one is the one I’m talking about here — the Bonus Track.

I just said that “Gone” was the most under-appreciated song in Kanye’s discography, so I’ll say that the second verse on the “Diamonds From Sierra Leone (Bonus Track)” is the most under-appreciated verse in Kanye’s discography.

The highlight comes when Kanye switches up his flow and raps, “wouldn’t change by the change or the game or the fame // When he came in the game, he made his own lane”. These two lines pretty much sum up the theme of the whole verse, as Kanye talks about his successes in the music industry up until that point, painting himself as an underdog.

Honestly, when you have two versions of a song, and one of them features Jay-Z, one of the greatest rappers of all time, but the version without him is better, because your verses were ultimately better than his…you know you have a classic on your hands. And Kanye clearly knew this too, as he rapped, “I dropped my new shit, it sound like the best of // A&Rs looking like ‘Pssh, we messed up’”.

3. The 2nd verse in “Last Call” from The College Dropout

As the grand finale of The College Dropout, “Last Call” served two purposes — (1) tell the story of how the debut album, and Kanye’s overall career as a rapper, came to be, and (2) to show the world that this “producer rapper” from Chicago had some grade A bars of his own that he was ready to share with the world.

Most of those grade A bars come in the second verse, which has four of the most quotable quotes in Kanye’s entire career. Don’t believe me? I’ll just list them out.

“Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem // Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams” “I’m Kan, the Louis Vuitton Don // Bought my mom a purse, now she Louis Vuitton Mom” “I went to the malls and I balled too hard // ‘Oh my God, is that a black card?’ // I turned around and replied, ‘Why yes // But I prefer the term African American Express’” “Killin y’all n***as on that lyrical sh*t // Mayonnaise-colored Benz, I push Miracle Whips”

If Kanye walked into the booth, rapped just those lines, and walked out, I’d probably still consider it for this article. But the great thing about this verse is, the whole thing is just that good.

Maybe this verse is even better considering that we’re listening to it in retrospect. I say that because you can hear Kanye’s hunger, and you can hear his self-confidence, that existed so strongly from the very beginning of his career, and you now know where that took him in the years that followed, and what he has been able to accomplish since then.

2. The 2nd verse in “No More Parties in LA” from The Life of Pablo

Here’s a take that might be a bit controversial — Kendrick Lamar is the best rapper of his generation, and he has already cemented himself as one of the greatest rappers of all time.

EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE, at the very least, you should be able to admit that it’s a plausible opinion, and that it’s not a totally crazy opinion to have. He has three classics under his belt, out of just four studio studio albums to date. Oh, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for DAMN., and probably should’ve one won for To Pimp A Butterfly as well. He’s topped the charts, and he’s made some of the most politically-charged music of his generation. He’s a conscious rapper who can still make radio hits. His creativity is otherworldly, and his pen game might just be the best in the entire music industry as of right now.

And Kanye West out-rapped him on “No More Parties in LA”.

This verse is legendary, and in the words of Forrest Gump, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

The 1st verse in “Gorgeous” from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The second track from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, “Gorgeous”, is one of the most socially-charged songs of Kanye’s career. Combine that with incredible production by Mike Dean, No I.D., and Kanye, and a flawless hook from Kid Cudi, and it’s easy to see why this song is so revered, not only by Kanye stans, but hip hop heads everywhere.

I wish I could’ve picked all three of Kanye’s verses from this track to be at the top of this list, since they’re all just incredible. But the first verse really hits the hardest in my opinion, starting right from the first few words, as Kanye raps, “Penitentiary chances, the devil dances, and eventually answers”. The way these lines are constructed make them so sonically pleasing. It’s tough to describe, but I actually get a little buzz in my ears when I hear them. They’re perfect.

In the rest of the verse, Kanye continues talking about the ugly truth of racism and social injustices in the United States of America — a theme that prevails throughout the rest of the song, and in other parts of the album as well. He also sums up white privilege, and the differing experiences of white and Black people in America, in a few short lines: “Face it, Jerome get more time than Brandon // And at the airport, they check all through my bag // And tell me that it’s random”.

Kanye has a lot of verses to be proud of, but I think he was especially proud of his three verses on “Gorgeous”. I say that because of his attitude, energy, and overall demeanor when he premiered the verses as a freestyle on Hot97’s Funkmaster Flex Show. It was obvious that these verses really meant a lot to him, and for good reason.

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Those are the top five Kanye West verses, according to me, Matt Tomo. If you think I missed one, or if you though the whole list was crap, or, ideally, if you loved the whole thing and thought it was perfect, be sure to let me know on Twitter @RealMattTomo.