Kanye West - Through The Wire
Pressed up as a promo 12" well before the release of The College Dropout, and also available on the underground mixtape Get Well Soon, "Through the Wire" is an extremely bold move for an accomplished, oft-imitated producer. Hysterical and heartbreaking at once, the song expresses what was running through Kanye West's head as he recuperated from a life-threatening car accident. In fact, it was recorded during his convalescence, while his jaw was wired shut. Even with the inevitable slur, his words ring loud and clear: "I drink a Boost for breakfast/A Ensure for diz-zurt/Somebody order pancakes/I just sip the siz-zurp"; "In the same hospital where Biggie Smalls died/The doctor said I had blood clots, but I ain't Jamaican, man/Story on MTV and I ain't tryin' to make a band." In a year that saw a few of his biggest collaborations to date -- such as Ludacris' "Stand Up" and Talib Kweli's "Get By" -- "Through the Wire" likewise boasts amped-up, handclap-happy production, assisted significantly by the chorus from Chaka Khan's "Through the Fire," which gets run through West's signature hyper-speed processing. Whether or not it was intended, the song perfectly aided West's sculpting of dual status as underdog and champion, keeping one foot in the underground while another remained in the mainstream. B-side "Two Words," featuring Mos Def and Roc-A-Fella labelmate Freeway, is almost as devastating and will surely make for another College Dropout highlight (two words: violin solo).
Kanye West - Through The Wire
He later said that the idea for the song came to him as he was laid up in the hospital, when in a state of half-consciousness he overheard Chaka Khan's "Through The Fire" playing on the radio. That song's message of perseverance in the face of all obstacles spoke to him, he said, as he fought to recover from his injuries: "Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall / For a chance to be with you, I'd gladly risk it all / Through the fire, through whatever come what may / For a chance at loving you, I'd take it all away / Right down to the wire, even through the fire."
The result was an irresistible hit. In its own way, the ordeal of the accident and his recovery from it gave Kanye West a kind of "street cred" he never could have found otherwise within his ordinary middle-class biography. He had faced down death (or at least grave injury) and triumphed. By spitting his soul through the wire, he became a star.
That all changed when, after a late night in a California studio, West fell asleep at the wheel of his vehicle and collided head-on with another car. The accident shattered his jaw, which was wired to his face during reconstructive surgery and left to heal for several weeks. Within a few days, he had a breakthrough. 041b061a72