TRACK REVIEW: Kanye West - Champions

We are living in the post Pablo world. In the few months that we've had to digest the latest project from Mr West, he's been anything but silent. Endless twitter rants, the announcement of a new album and video game, and controversial edits of The Life of Pablo have kept Kanye very much in his natural habitat, the public eye. Now we have a new single, Champions, set to be the first track from the upcoming Cruel Winter, the second G.O.O.D Music collaboration album which I'm guessing will be dropped sometime late this year or early next. To call this a Kanye West track would be a mistake I think. He is not credited as a producer and raps only a very short verse on the song. Rather, Champions is a team effort, a G.O.O.D Music free for all where everyone gets their chance to brag for 30 seconds or so. As Kanye put it in his interview with Big Boi, where he premiered the track, "when you have the Avengers you have to give them a movie". Kanye obviously sees his label mates in this vein, as the best rappers in the world. Whether there is the evidence to back this up is another matter entirely.

The track takes no time at all to get going, with Quavo coming in with an intro that is also the interlude. It's a catchy few lines but fails to really stir up the energy that the bombastic beat requires. Kanye's verse is first, but before it gets going it's basically already over. I like the line "I'm about to hit the Ye button", but with that kind of set up I really wanted Kanye to go in and start spitting some hard bars. Instead his lines are mostly flat and the verse falls desperately short of what I wanted. Gucci Mane comes in next for one of his two verses, but this one is just 4 lines, again failing to really do anything at all for me. Big Sean doesn't do much to stop the rut either, although at least his verse is more than 20 seconds. Unlike so many people I don't actually hate Sean's delivery. I mean it's nothing special but it's passable. What I can't stand is his lack of adaptability and how he never seems to try anything fresh or new. This verse just reaffirms that. After this we get the obligatory 2 Chainz verse, which incidentally is my favourite on the track. He sounds dope on the beat, which seems to work with his voice instead of clash with it like many of the other rappers do. But even 2 Chainz can't string together any creative metaphors or rhyme schemes, and lyrically the verse is very bare bones. I get that a track like this is purely about bragging and ignorance, but at least give me a few bars people! Verse 5 is given to Yo Gotti, and at this point I've lost track of who's even rapping anymore. The main irony of calling these artists The Avengers is that in the movie each Avenger has his/her own unique superpower, but on Champions, there is barely anything to distinguish the artists from one another. They sound so similar and are rapping about the exact same topics. Yo Gotti's verse can be added to the growing list of throwaways on this track. Gucci closes the track with a really annoying verse, possibly my least favourite. Yet again none of the bars possess any thought or inventiveness, leaving me utterly bored by the end of it all.

The one saving grace for Champions is its hook, which without being super memorable, is at least catchy and distinct from the verses. I like Travis Scott's grandiose delivery and the statement that they run the city, which feels more akin to Kanye's Avengers claim. This is a track where I want to hear glorified arrogance and hyperbole. I think this hook is a good foundation for the rappers to really deliver this, but unfortunately virtually all of them fall flat. Ultimately the hook deserved a more audacious and ambitious set of verses. Something must also be said about the production on Champions, which was done by A-Trax, Lex Luger and Mike Dean. It's a decent turn up beat which sounds a lot like what we heard on Cruel Summer in 2011. Again I think if the rapping had delivered I might have been able to appreciate it a little more, but as it is I feel like it was spoiled slightly by how many of the rappers were going over it.

Champions does nothing revolutionary, in fact in many ways it is a step back for Ye and his G.O.O.D Music A-Team. I have nothing against this kind of hip hop when it's done with originality, but this just sounds so derivative to me. It may have sounded fresh in 2010, or even perhaps in 2013, but this is 2016. I'm looking for a new sound, creative lyrical ideas, especially if Kanye is putting these artists forward as the the pioneers of the genre. I will always hold Ye to a high standard simply because of his unbelievable track record and constant hunger to push the boundaries of what hip hop can be, but I fear he may be sacrificing this in order to follow trends. I don't think we should read too much into this track though. I still see some potential in a 2016 G.O.O.D Music project, but I sure hope it ends up at a higher standard than this.

Score: 50/100