Kanye West dropped the official remix to his super single “Power” over the weekend.  The track features a verse from Kanye’s long-time collaborator Jay-Z and production by Swizz Beatz.  Jay-Z opens the remix strong; he raps about living in the 31st century, makes a Norman Mailer reference, and says this: “In search of the truth, even if it goes through Taylor Swift/Tell her this.”  Yes, this marks the first time a Kanye track alludes to the harsh “imma let you finish” Swift incident from last year’s VMAs.  After Jay-Z does his thing, Kanye hops onto the record with two brand new verses.  In them be brings up topics like social commentary (“Now we’re not all gonna be American idols/but you can at least grab a camera, shoot a viral”) and politics and war (Bring our troops back from Iraq, keep our troops out of Iran/So the next couple bars, I’ma drop them in Islam/They say as-salaam alaikum, say wa alaikum as-salaam/That’s no Oscar Mayer bacon, you should run and tell your mom/Now the question is, how we gon’ stop the next Vietnam/Keep Flex out of Korea, ’cause you know we drop bombs”).  With about 2 minutes left, a Swizz Beatz produced sample of “The Power” by Snap! consumes the track and Kanye goes in for one more verse.  He raps, “Don’t even think you can allude to the rumors/I’m immune to the booze, I’m a prude to you losers.”  When the five minute 15 second track is about to end, Swizzy pops on to kill it: “Chill, ‘Ye, chill/Sh-t’s burnt up already/It’s over.”

Overall the remix is really great.  It does away with the “21st Century Schizoid Man” sample and introduces a different but familiar flow for the chorus.  In many ways the remix is bigger than the original track (Kanye opens up about more topics in the former), but they both hold their own weight.  Be sure to preview the remix below; there’s also a download link for keeps.

Download: Kanye West – Power (Remix) (Featuring Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz)

[audio: Kanye West – Power (Remix) (Featuring Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz).mp3]

Late last night Kanye shared some very exciting news.  He promises to release new music every weekend until Christmas.  On G.O.O.D. Fridays (G.O.O.D. Music is the name of his record label) new songs will be released; he specifies that they may come from him, Jay-Z, and other rappers.  He released “See Me Now” (Featuring Beyonce & Charlie Wilson) last week for the fans, and he realized that the fans deserve new content on a regular basis.  He tweeted: “I know yall need the music so I’m dropping 1 new song every weekend until Xmas. It may be my song it may be a new Jay song etc… I’m calling it good Fridays. Yall know every Friday yall gone have a new joint from our family. We look at the game completely different now. It’s about the fans. No more holding back. That’s why I dropped see me now… It wasn’t about me it was about the Summer the BBQs etc…“  Though Kanye has not mentioned what’s on deck for next weekend, many speculate that “All of the Lights”, the planned second single off his upcoming album that he previewed during his UStream chat, might be it.  Kanye is also finalizing a remix to Justin Bieber’s “Runaway Love” with Raekwon, so that’s in the pipeline, too.

Currently Kanye is in Prague working Dark Twisted Fantasy, an artistic film that will accompany the untitled album when it releases November 16.

[Via KWBlog; Twitter; EW-MusicMix; WSJ; Rap-Up]