Where are you Yeezy?

The first time I heard Kanye West's new single Power, I knew he was back. 808 and Heartbreaks was a good CD, and somewhat revolutionary (in the sense of use of autotune), but we can all agree, we wanted more of the cocky, I'm better than you, and I know you think I'm cocky, but that will make me even cockier, Kanye. But the CD did reveal something to us: there was another side to Kanye that he kept buried inside.

Great albums are built on a source of inspiration. Many times, a musicians first album is heralded as one of their greatest because of the amount of pent up emotions that gets vomited onto the entire CD--Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Dr. Dre's the Chronic, and The College Dropout for Kanye.

Kanye's initial CD can be summed in a few lyrics from the song "The Last Call":

Some say he arrogant. Can y'all blame him?
It was straight embarrassing how y'all played him
Last year shoppin my demo, I was tryin' to shine
Every motherfucker told me that I couldn't rhyme
Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem
Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams

There was a lot of heart and soul poured out on every track. He Flipped the bird to record execs with "Jesus Walks" -- 'So here go my single dog radio needs this.... They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus.'

He gave us an insightful reflection of his life after a near life-ending accident with "Through the Wire" -- 'How do you console my mom or give her light support... When you telling her your sons' on life support"

And he even rapped about a time before he got a record deal, 'Let's go back, back to the Gap.... Look at my check, wasn't no scratch.... So if I stole, wasn't my fault.... Yeah I stole, never got caught'

So, you can see where I'm going with this... Kanye's lyrics in his new song Power include these lines:

'Now I embody every characteristic of the egotistic
He know, he so, fuckin’ gifted
I just needed time alone, with my own thoughts
Got treasures in my mind but couldn’t open up my own vault'

I'm excited... I was watching the USA vs. Australia soccer (or futbol) game this morning--at the ungodly hour of 5:30AM--and for anyone who's ever watched a soccer game... you know that build up from pass, to pass, to pass, to pass, to waiting, to pass, to get into a good position, and when they finally get there... you're hanging on the edge of your seat, anticipating for the shot attempt... that's the feeling I have. I will digress for a second and ask... can't we get some sort of shot clock in soccer? And especially one in Lacrosse. Please. Someone try to explain why this shouldn't happen.

So this leads me to my next point. Kanye has the blueprint to one of the greatest Hip Hop albums for this decade. We have a good 3-4 years worth of events that he's harbored inside( Graduation was released in 2007, and again were not counting that 808's album). So in November 2007 - Donde West passes away. Kanye didn't speak about the subject until a year later at a press conference in New Zealand. In 2008, Kanye west and his fiance called it quits, despite being his rags to riches girlfriend. 2009 - Taylor Swift Incident, enough said. The incident itself isn't compelling from a story perspective, but the events that led up to the melt down would make this a very compelling track. Mix in the normal type of bravado we've come to enjoy, and there is no doubt this is going to be a classic.

'I’m livin’ in the 21st century
Doin’ something mean to it
Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it
Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it
I guess every superhero need his theme music'

Fact of the matter is, I'm jazzed about the new album. I can kick Kanye around for being a d-bag at times, but I will be honest.... He's got me wondering... "Where are you Yeezy?