Kanye wants that stadium bad. He wants to fill it up, thousands upon thousands rapping every word, singing to his Chris Martin hook that plays pre-recorded. This has to be the only reason that he would take a near-perfect song and one of his best, his original pre-College Dropout version of "Homecoming" that soared effortlessly over a doo-wop loop, and turn it into "Beach Chair" part deux. Except this isn't really "Beach Chair" part deux. That song was largesse and reverberating bombast, definitely made for the stadium; this thing is bare synth piano riffs over barely-there drums sloshing along while crowd noises fill the ample space in between. It doesn't sound made for the stadium, it sounds made in the stadium -- like a parody of how hip-hop songs actually sound in big venues, all production nuance lost, simultaneously tinny and futilely loud.

One has to wonder how intentional Kanye is about this shit, how self-aware he is when he tags a Chris Martin guest spot on to a song that deconstructs its own arena-sized ambitions, how calculated he's being when he switches out a former hook with one that'll make his storytelling verses go down more universal. I think he knows exactly what's up, realizes that he is creating his own cultural and critical context every time he drops a new song, and he goes about that in a far more clever way than, oh, a guy who says "ayo" to technology over a second-rate Timbaland beat. This is why, despite all of his arrogance and the media over-saturation, I still can't help but be fascinated by Kanye, can't help but get excited when he shows up for a cameo on Entourage, can't wait to hear the rest of Graduation. This is why there now exists a song with Chris Martin singing that I will occasionally choose to listen to.

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