R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen

This is What I Found When I Googled "Rick Ross No Sunglasses"

Miss Those Days: Playlistin'

1. Shiny Suit Theory - Jay Electronica ft. Jay-Z
2. That's My Bitch - Kanye West & Jay-Z ft. La Roux
3. A Different League - Thee Tom Hardy ft. Skyzoo
4. All She Wrote - T.I. ft. Eminem
5. Fuck Tha Bullshit - Young Money ft. Birdman
6. Black & Yell0w Freestyle - Crooked I
7. Home For the Holidays - J. Cole
8. Higher - Do or Die ft. Kanye West
9. Drop - The Pharcyde
10. I Don't Know - Slum Village ft. DJ Jazzy Jeff
11. Thelonious - Common ft. Slum Village
12. Miss Those Days - Celph Titled & Buckwild

Which G.O.O.D. Friday song is the B.E.S.T.?

When Kanye announced that the release date for his new album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, would be pushed from September to November, fans speculated about label drama, internal conflict and whether or not Kanye had gone completely off his rocker. To compensate for the delayed release date, Kanye decided to whet his fans appetites for the album by releasing a fantastic new song every Friday for three months, calling the project “G.O.O.D. Fridays.” Kanye has released a new track every Friday since August, each one bursting with creativity, clever rhymes and a parade of guest stars. Not since Lil Wayne’s heyday have we seen a rapper give away so much free stuff in advance of an album release, and like Tha Carter III, MBDTF should reap the benefits of the extra hype.

So all of these tracks are good (or G.O.O.D. if you will), but which were the best?

All songs can be found at Kanye's Website

Housekeeping: In order for the song to appear on the list, the song must have been released on a Friday and Kanye must have released the full track. This disqualifies “See Me Now,” “Runaway,” “Devil in a New Dress” and “Power (Remix).” Now, on to the list.

12) “Don’t Look Down (ft. Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco & Big Sean)” – Each of the songs listed in positions 6-12 are pretty much equal in my eyes, so the bottom of the list changed about seven or eight times during the process of making the list. “Don’t Look Down” places last, despite a fine hook from Mos Def, who adds a touch of class and street cred to every song he graces with his presence.

11) “Take One For the Team (ft. Keri Hilson, Cyhi the Prince & Pusha T” – Kanye brings his A-game for this track, but brings B-list guests. While I’ve mostly been impressed by Pusha’s Kanye collabs, this one falls flat. The beat is a monster though, with a distorted beatbox and swirling synths that would be a perfect anthem for post-apocalyptic clubs.

10) “Lord Lord Lord (ft. Mos Def, Swizz Beatz, Raekwon & Charlie Wilson)” – Though all of the G.O.O.D. Friday tracks are somewhat overstuffed, “Lord, Lord, Lord,” is the longest and slowest. If you’re gonna record a song this long (7:31), you better have a damn good reason for it, and I’m not sure Kanye couldn’t have shaved off a minute and a half or so of this song. How many times do we have to hear Charlie Wilson repeat the titular phrase before it becomes tedious? 100? 200?

9) “Runaway Love (Remix, ft. Justin Bieber & Raekwon)” – The ultimate test of Kanye’s Midas touch – how can Kanye transform a song by the pre-teen king of garbage into something even remotely listenable, let alone enjoyable? The answer: give it a little “tiger style.” Kanye mixes Justin Bieber’s “Runaway Love” with the RZA’s beat for the ferocious “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthin’ ta Fuck Wit,” allowing Raekwon to spit fire over the same beat he killed seventeen years back.

8) “Don’t Stop” (Child Rebel Soldier) – “Don’t Stop” is a much higher energy affair than the CRS’s (Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco & Pharrell Williams) last collaboration (the Thom Yorke-sampling “Us Placers”). The beat commands “don’t stop” and it doesn’t; there is no hook to interrupt the thought processes of the MCs. While all three rappers are billed equally, this is Lupe’s show, as he waxes rhapsodic about Jack Sparrow and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

7) “Looking for Trouble (ft. Pusha T, Cyhi the Prince, Big Sean & J. Cole)” – “Looking for Trouble” finds Kanye stepping aside to let the up and coming artists take over. Though released on “Good Friday,” this track will appear on Pusha T’s solo debut. Big Sean steals the show here, substituting his usually laid-back flow with a tenacious sprint through his verse. J. Cole echoes another famous JC, rapping messianic over the song’s final minute and a half. “It’s funny you’ve been sleeping on the one that you’ve been dreaming ‘bout”

6) “Christian Dior Denim Flow (ft. Kid Cudi, Pusha T, John Legend, Lloyd Banks & Ryan Leslie)” – Like UGK’s “International Player’s Anthem” and Big Tymers’ “Still Fly,” “Christian Dior Denim Flow” has a beat that mutates and adapts to each rapper during their verse. Kanye raps through his now-standard Peter Frampton-on-steroids voice distortion box. At around the halfway point, the beat slows down for Banks’ verse, and even more at the end for Cudi’s verse. It’s fitting that Cudi’s verse is the sleepiest, since it often seems like he’s a syrup-fried version of his mentor, Mr. West.

5) “Chain Heavy (ft. Talib Kweli & Consequence)” – “We got the black elite in the hosue tonight,” Kanye announces at the start of the Q-Tip produced “Chain Heavy.” Of all the Good Friday tracks, “Chain Heavy” represents the most logical evolution of Kanye’s College Dropout-style. Talib and Consequence each provided memorable verses to standouts on Kanye’s earlier albums, and “Chain Heavy” harkens back to a time when Kanye was a champion of the underground, rather than a superstar in his own right. Q-Tip’s eerie production brings a classy, old-school touch and Consequence finds 50 ways to use the word “chain” in a sentence.

4) “So Appalled” – The version of “So Appalled” that Kanye released in September is virtually identical to the version that eventually appeared on the album and is one of the few Good Friday tracks that fit equally well on the album and as part of the series of singles. Kanye and company express their disgust at the state of rap music, sneer at their imitators and boast about how much better they are than everybody else. They may have a point. Though “So Appalled” may seem bloated, there is enough musical complexity in the beat and effective punchlines during the verses to keep the song afloat. The highlight: when the RZA shows up, furiously spitting the hook, forever damning all haters to a horrible, shadowboxing demise.

3) “Good Friday (ft. Common, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Big Sean & Charlie Wilson)” – The G.O.O.D. Music All-Stars rap over an old-school Kanye track that would have felt at home on any one of his previous albums (808s excepted). Unlike the rest of Kanye’s recent output, “Good Friday” is easily digestible and not very experimental. Ultimately, the track is a laid-back showcase for all of Kanye’s label-mates. Big Sean delivers a slice of well-delivered smut, Pusha T demonstrates his ability to rap about something other than selling drug and Common briefly drops by remind everyone that he was the first king of Chi-town Hip-Hop. Most importantly, Kid Cudi demonstrates his real value: not as a rapper, but as a unique and smooth singer of hooks. Kanye, sounding distant and ragged, seems grateful for his success and the talent he has found and delights in his ability to give the world what it really wants: REAL Hip-Hop.

2) “The Joy (ft. Jay-Z & Pete Rock)” – Speaking of old-school, producer Pete Rock originally made the beat for “The Joy” (featuring an excellent sample of Curtis Mayfield’s “The Makings of You”) in 1997. “No electro, no metro, a little retro, ahhh perfecto,” chants Kanye, and “The Joy” truly does seem to hold a special place amongst
the Good Friday tracks--only Kanye and Jay drop verses, and it's some of their best work in years. Jay-Z, in particular, uses the old-school beat to reminisce about his childhood, reminding us why he decided to rap in the first place.

1) "Monster (ft. Bon Iver, Rick Ross, Jay-Z & Nicki Minaj)" - Sasquatch. Godzilla. King Kong. Loch Ness. I've already raved about the awesomeness of Nicki Minaj's star-making guest verse, but she's not the only thing that makes "Monster" great. Kanye's greatest talent is his ability to bring out the best in his collaborators, and who else in Hip-Hop would have listened to Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago and said "I want this guy on my album"? Justin Vernon bookends the track with the haunting inner thoughts of a man shunned by society and isolated from his loved ones.