The 50 Best Kanye West Songs Ever

13. Slow Jamz

Release Date: December 2, 2003

Album: The College Dropout

Writer(s): Kanye West, C.C. Mitchell, Burt Bacharach, Hal David

Producer(s): West

Notable Lyric:

“I told her to “drive over in your new whip, bring some friends you cool with”

The problem with people’s complaints about “Love Lockdown” and 808s & Heartbreak in general is that Kanye has always found some comfort in pop sensibilities. For every “Through the Wire” and “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” in his catalog, there’s a song like “Slow Jamz.”

Kanye’s collaboration with Jamie Foxx and Twista wasn’t the first single off of The College Dropout, but it was the first of his songs to reach number one on the Billboard charts.

It achieved that height by very consciously attempting to emulate the mass appeal of R&B. Foxx even lays out the plan for how the song can find a mass appeal by evoking the names of past luminaries of the genre, including Marvin Gaye and Anita Baker.

None of which should be mistaken for a complaint. “Slow Jamz” is among the high points of College Dropout, blending a great Twista verse with some inspired production from West.

Next: 12. Through the Wire