Still Dreaming...

Storytelling. One of the best tests of a lyricist’s ability. Yeah, he can rhyme some words, but can he frame and shape a narrative with those same rhyming words? Of course, when I think of storytelling, I think Slick Rick, Rakim, LL Cool J (remember, Mama Said Knock You Out and Walking With A Panther has some of his best music). But there’s a song, I should say a verse, that has been on my radar since I heard it for the first time last year. So, as I let that Hip Hop Is Dead queue up on my iPod Touch and “Still Dreamin” (might be the best song on the album if not for “Black Republicans”) come through the headphones, I prepare to hear ‘Ye spit some of his wittiest and vivid lines, and jumped into my own dream.

Some Dreams stay dreams, some dreams come true

So as I lay my head back, I find myself standing underneath a streetlamp on an otherwise dark street. Kanye stands next to me watching a black BMW pull up in front of a house at 6:30pm. Music plays. ‘Ye spits: “he pulled up @ 6:30 in the 745/as he waving shorty “hi"/you know he showin’ his bling out…”

‘Some flashy dude stepping out on his girl.’ I scoffed. ‘He out here faking the funk.’ Kan just nodded and bobbed his head to the beat that loomed in the background like a phantom. “She got in the car/he drove and pulled his thing out…” I felt myself laughing through my sleep. Still, back in the dream, I shook my head and lifted my eyes up just in time to se a beautiful girl alone, sitting up in her bed preparing to chuck a wedding band out the window.

“How she found out?” I ask Kanye. “She dreamt the whole thing out.” He replied.
“Damn.” I say. Once your married, ain’t that sacred? Kanye tried to explain it to me. I wasn’t really trying to hear him at first, but then he spit “Y’all be going through problems/you gotta work the kinks out/when you go to sleep what do you think bout…”

Nightmares from your dream girl’ll make you scream out

My eyes shot open. The picture he created felt as real as that. You can imagine yourself in that situation. Could I face the wrath of that scorned woman? Popular culture and the women I’ve chosen to associate myself with would say no. And I know most of them would agree when the Louis Vuitton don says “y’all get a divorce she gon’ take everything/except the kitchen sink out.” You can almost feel the animosity. And for those of us who’ve been through that before, you know exactly what it feels like. And for those who don’t Kanye continues his verbal sketch: “Make it so cold/that you gotta pull your mink out.”

Yet even as he paints this great scene for us, he follows by taking us full circle and back to the dreamer at the beginning with the line “nightmares from your dreamgirl/ will make you scream out” So then could that original scenario have been the wild, startling nightmares of someone’s honey dip? Let us not forget that Nas gives us some of his usual potent and thought provoking bars in the song, but I can’t help but to wax poetically about how tangible ‘Ye’s verse seems. Sometimes I forget how good of a writer that Kanye West is in between the beat making.

Still, I don’t hear many people talk about this song. Guess you got some who really are Still Dreamin’