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FSD Feature: Kanye West’s 25 Best Beats [1999-2005]

Posted on October 19, 2012 by FSD Staff

1. Jay-Z “Takeover” (2001)

Album: The Blueprint

02 Takeover

With a bricolage of sources, this track foreshadows the intent of Kanye’s modern production style. He throws a heavy bass and melody sample from The Doors’ “Five to One” over Jim Morrison’s grumbling utterances, evocative of the Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield vocal samples to come over a decade later on Watch the Throne. The David Bowie “fame,” “lame,” and “brain” line injections hilariously contrast with Jay’s laidback, chuckling diss-style. Kanye rounds out his sample picks with the “we run New York” line from KRS-ONE’s “Sound of Da Police.”

This beat is both nasty and relaxed, much like Jay-Z himself, which makes it a perfect musical pedestal for Hov to perform some holistic arithmetic (“one hot album every ten year average”) on Nas’s nineties discography. Kanye’s hand in this song may have helped put it at the top of Complex’s list of diss tracks. If we’re just talking instrumentals, I’ll let Kanye himself tell you: “The nigga got the “laaaaaaaaaaame” in the back, that shit is crazy creative dog. I know ain’t none of y’all trying to compare the Takeover beat to the Ether beat. Are you serious?”

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12 thoughts on “FSD Feature: Kanye West’s 25 Best Beats [1999-2005]”

  1. guest says:
    October 19, 2012 at 11:33 am

    really? the takeover as number 1? smh

    Reply
  2. chitownkrazy says:
    October 21, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    i’m not reading 26 different pages for what’s spose to be 1 fkin list! greedy bastards just want ad-view money.

    Reply
  3. skinnyboy says:
    October 22, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    I think this is accurate list with the exception of a few tracks( spend the night-marey carey, wouldn’t get far- game, a star is born- jay z )

    Reply
  4. Yinka says:
    October 22, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    Too lazy to go through whole list, but Through The Wire should at least be in top 5

    Reply
  5. chi-girl says:
    November 3, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    Very nice list! Ya’ll shoulda put Camron’s Dead Or Alive, Do Or Die’s Paid the Price, Freeway-Hear The Song.

    Reply
  6. Rick Chyme says:
    November 13, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    This track isn’t a Bette Midler sample, they had to recreate it in order to clear. 5iveit

    Reply
  7. Download Beats says:
    December 17, 2012 at 6:40 pm

    All I know is “Through The Wire” and “Down”(Cam’Ron) are some energetic azz beats

    Reply
  8. Aris Sparks says:
    December 29, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    Do Or Die – Higher was one of my favorites
    An 88 Keys list would be awesome

    Reply
  9. THE PROFESSIONAL says:
    March 22, 2013 at 10:55 pm

    WATCH THE MARDI GRAS ANTHEM SHOT ON LOCATION IN N.O. MARDI GRAS 2013 WE TTU!! MIGHT EVEN SEE SOME BOOBS AND OTHER “THINGS”

    http://youtu.be/kV8alnKBxXA

    Reply
  10. http://www.youtube.com/ says:
    July 24, 2013 at 10:46 am

    I quite like reading a post that will make men
    and women think. Also, many thanks for allowing for me to comment!

    Reply
  11. familybizent says:
    August 5, 2013 at 2:29 pm

    I thought Spaceship should be on this list.

    Reply
  12. familybizent says:
    August 5, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBmIkFIO19U&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLE55B6C48D8AA5973

    Reply

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