The 50 Best Kanye West Songs Ever

30. Touch the Sky

Release Date: March 7, 2006

Album: Late Registration

Writer(s): Kanye West, Justin Smith, Wasalu Muhammed Jaco, Curtis Mayfield

Producer(s): Just Blaze

Notable Lyric:

“Jay favorite line: “Dawg, in due time!”

Now he look at me, like, “Damn, dawg! You where I am!”

A hip-hop legend, I think I died

In that accident, cause this must be heaven”

Lupe Fiasco isn’t the only artist that hitched their star to Kanye only to end up in relative obscurity. And that’s a real shame. Lupe wasn’t conventional — not that Kanye was either — but he was thoroughly talented, as his verse on “Touch the Sky” demonstrates. He would go on to release his own debut album — the excellent Food & Liquor — a year later, and still reliably pumps out records, though none have been as well-received as his first.

Kanye doesn’t slack here either. He’s channeling some of the confidence that would later consume him in Graduation. Unlike the arena rock sound of that album, “Touch the Sky” retains some of the classic-era Kanye production and vague religious themes that characterized so much of his first two albums.

The big horns and hollow drum beat make the whole song seem like it’s accelerating forward throughout its nearly four minute run time. It’s a fun, carefree song that promised good things for both Kanye and Lupe.

Next: 29. H A M