I’ve never really been much of a Kanye fan. I know, crazy. His music just never does for me what I feel music is supposed to. On the other hand, rap and R&B are my two favorite music genres and Kanye, a.k.a. “Yeezy,” seems to be the talk of the season after all of his success in 2015. With that, I’m all for new music and second chances so, what more could I ask for than a surprise album to kick off the new year?

Kanye West recently told his fans that his album “Swish” will drop next month on Feb. 11. But, that’s not all. On Dec. 31, Kanye dropped “Facts,” which will be featured on the upcoming album. Soon after, Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, announced that her husband would be releasing music every Friday.

As expected, “Real Friends” and a snippet of “No More Parties In L.A.” hit SoundCloud on Jan. 8. About a week and a half later, Kanye released the full version of “No More Parties In L.A.” After listening to these tracks, skepticism aside, I came to the realization that I was finally a Kanye West fan and I was hungry for more.              

In the song “Facts,” the rapper and recently appointed Adidas ambassador disses Drake with the line “Yeezy Yeezy Yeezy just jumped over jumpman” and then goes on to say that “If Nike ain’t have Drizzy, man they wouldn’t have nothing.” Some might call this confrontational, but it’s actually what I admire so much about Kanye. He’s not afraid to verbalize his thoughts and he’s always confident about the things he says and does. He never doubts himself and, if he does, he hides it well.

On the other hand, “Real Friends” seems to be more about the downsides to fame. Yeezy talks about how he hates when people text him saying, “What’s up fam hope you good. You say I’m good, I’m great the next text they ask you for something.” This track is a blunt tribute to all of Kanye’s “real friends” that stayed genuine throughout his life – before and after fame. Though most of us have yet to reach our own fame, this song resonates with a lot of us considering that we’ve all encountered our share of friends that aren’t really friends.

Lastly, for now, Kanye West slipped us a snippet of “No More Parties In L.A.” featuring Kendrick Lamar. Not much of the song had been released up until Jan. 18. However, the small part that I did hear gave me good reason to believe that it might be my favorite song on the album yet. Listening through the entire 6 minutes of the song once it was released only confirmed my optimism. Then again, it’s almost Friday, which means another song from the much anticipated album.

Overall, I give this (partial) album an A+. So, if you’re in search of a few good songs to listen to this week, or maybe you’re just really bored, hit the link below to listen to “Swish” on Soundcloud:

https://m.soundcloud.com/kanyewest/real-friends-no-more-parties-in-la-snipped