Love Lockdown - Kanye West

Love Lockdown is far and away Kanye’s riskiest song to date. The rappa’ goes sanga’ and doesn’t spit one verse, that is to say Kanye does not rap at all on this track. That’s right, Kanye brings out his vocal chords (and his voice synthesizer) and even sings partly in falsetto.

The song is by no means traditional hip-hop, not even traditional R&B (which is more loosely defined). The beat is made up of three deep 808 notes and is purposely simplistic. Surprisingly, it is Kanye’s voice that carries the song during the verses, and he carries the song well (using the synthesizer).

The poignant chorus is where the song gets really interesting. Caribbean-sounding bongos rush in and the song almost transforms into something you would almost expect to hear at a flamenco bar in Barcelona.

Kanye spills his relationship insight in a trip through his mind. The song is a portrayal of the thought process before someone decides to leave their lover. There is plenty of love to for the relationship to survive, but something just doesn’t connect.

Kanye and his girl are not on the same page and have different levels of commitment towards each other. The rapper confesses “I’m in love with you, but the vibe is wrong… Where I wanna go, I don’t need you.” But it’s not love that’s lost, it’s just love that is different. Kanye is tortured by his feelings, unable to go through with leaving.

But the song is bittersweet. The chorus and name of the song tell the ending to this story, “Keep your love locked down, you lose.” You can derive multiple meanings from the chorus, but the one thing that is evident is that Kanye’s lover is not going to get the relationship she yearns for. Some might mistakenly call it restlessness, but to me it seems more like someone with an personal agenda, one that unfortunately does not include a significant other.