Flashing Lights

FLASHING LIGHTS, KANYE WEST

(May 2008)

Summer pre-London: When you go to an SF Giants game, every Giants player has a theme song that plays when they step up to bat. In the 2008-2009 season, left fielder Fred Lewis' theme song was Kanye West's "Flashing Lights." The first time I heard it was during a Giants game, and I turned to Daniel, hearing Connie Mitchell's autotuned chants of "Flashing. Lights?", asking what song this was, and Daniel answered, "'Flashing Lights' by Kanye."

I've never been a big fan of Kanye West. I think that, despite being one of the most (if not the most) talented rapper of his generation, he's a big baby, always whining and crying about not getting this award or that kind of recognition or --

"Hold up, Cesar. I'm real happy for you and your blog, and I'mma let you finish. But Beyonce's got the best blog of all time. OF ALL TIME!!"

Um, fool, do I look like Taylor Swift? (Don't answer that.)

However, I do like his music, and "Flashing Lights" is my favorite Kanye song. For one thing, it's insanely, and I mean insanely, dramatic. It starts off with these filmic strings just crescendoing into this synth riff, with Connie Mitchell being all cracked-out: "Flashing. Lights?" Then, it's all about this relationship between these two extremely vain and narcissistic people who outbling each other until they die. Okay, that last part may not be true, but listening to the song, it sounds like that's what happened. The chorus that Dwele croons: "As you recall, you know I love to show off / But you didn't know I would take it this far!! / What do I know?" And it's like, what is that about? I like to think that the two of them kill each other with a massive blingy diamond chandelier, just like in "The War of the Roses." Otherwise, the song is so much drama without the payoff. I like the payoff. And so does Kanye, based on this song.

I used to love Nip/Tuck. In its prime (seasons 1 - 4, for those of you interested), the show was an addictive and awesomely graphic soap that had an amazing soundtrack. Like, possibly the best on TV. But after it went from a show about organ-harvesting rings and serial killers to a show about teenage vixens and teddy-bear enthusiasts, it still maintained that amazing soundtrack, and the trailer for Season 5.5 was set to "Flashing Lights," and it was an amazing trailer (go look it up on YouTube!), and I fell in love with the song all over again.

The reason for even starting this blog for me is that whenever I'm drunk at a party or whatever and a song I know really well comes on, I'll gasp loudly and be like "Omigod!! I remember the first time I heard this!" And the last time I can remember doing that was in London, when I went to Stacey's birthday party at the new house in Dollis Hill where she and Matt are living with other coursemates. I was already buzzing and then this song blasts on and I did my trademark gasp and statement.

The video for this is really cool, too, because Kanye is locked up in the trunk of a car and his girlfriend (to go with the operatic nature of the song) bashes him in the head with a golf club. Of course. And it's not that bad an image.

Oh, come on now, Cesar! I give you a shout-out in the song: "You know you can't Rome without Caesar!" Why you gonna play me like that?

Okay, you're right. I'm sorry, Kanye.