Kanye West has been dropping jaws since his 2004 debut, The College Dropout, and the number of NSFW bars per album has increased exponentially. Occasionally ignorant and often misogynist, these filthy lyrics are intended to shock and awe — and they succeed.
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It lays bare one of the more uncomfortable (and compelling) truths about West — that for all his musical genius, his sense of humor remains firmly entrenched in the gutter. As evidence, we’ve collected 10 of his foulest, filthiest, most NSFW lyrics.
10. “I’m In It” (Yeezus)
“Chasin’ love, all the bittersweet hours lost/ Eatin’ Asian p—y, all I need was sweet and sour sauce”
This embarrassing line is almost too weak to include, but snuck its way in based on offensiveness alone. And they’re not even the most foul bars on the track.
9. “New Slaves” (Yeezus)
“F–k you and your Hampton house/ I’ll f–k your Hampton spouse/ Came on her Hampton blouse/ And in her Hampton mouth”
The repetition in these bars makes it clear what West thinks about your Long Island bourgeois beaches, and hints at a proclivity for rapping about spreading his seed.
8. “The Joy” (Watch the Throne)
“Gave her a handshake only for my man’s sake/ She in her birthday suit cause of the damn cake/ Now there’s crumbs all over the damn place/ And she want me to come all over her damn face”
The basic AABB rhyme structure here makes it seem dumber than it actually is — until you consider the “damn cake” is his money and the birthday suit/cake metaphor adds another layer. And Kanye skeets, yet again.
7. “Hell of a Life” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
“Make her knees shake, make a priest faint/ Make a nun come, make her cremate”
This man made a pun that ties cremation to a nun’s orgasm. W-T-F. (Again, not even the nastiest bars on this track).
6. Don’t Like (Cruel Summer)
“In that p—y so deep I could have drowned twice/ Rose gold Jesus piece with the brown ice/ Eating good, vegetarian with the brown rice/ Girls kissing girls, cause it’s hot, right?/ But unless they use a strap-on then they not dykes”
Drowning in genitalia, Jesus, lesbians, sex toys — this verse has it all. It also makes one wonder just how many lesbians Kanye has actually met, considering his litmus test for their homosexuality is whether or not they enjoy using fake penises.
5. “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” (The Life of Pablo)
“Now if I f–k this model/ And she just bleached her asshle/ And I get bleach on my T-shirt/ I’mma feel like an asshole”
This painfully ignorant misunderstanding of how skin bleaching works mars what is otherwise an incredible run that starts off The Life of Pablo. It does makes one wonder, however, how much better his Yeezy season 4 models would have fared if he had if he had spent more time considering their heels and hydration than the color of their balloon knots.
4. “Drunk in Love (Remix)” (Beyonce (More Only))
“Woo! You will never need another lover/ Woo! Cause you a milf and I’m a motherf–ker/ Told you give the drummer some, now the drummer comin’/ I’m pa rum pa pum pumin’ all on your stomach”
Kanye directs his seed — in a different direction this time — to the beat of the “Little Drummer Boy.” This is a God Dream.
3. “Monster” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
“So mommy, best advice is just to get on top of this/ Have you ever had sex with a pharaoh?/ Put the p—y in a sarcophagus/ Now she claiming that I bruised her esophagus/ Head of the class and she just won a swallowship/ I’m living in the future so the present is my past/ My presence is a present, kiss my ass”
Nicki Minaj badly shows up Kanye with her fierce verse on this MBDTF track, but these bars, which reference violent oral sex, aggressive narcissism, and Egyptian burial rites, may have overshadowed it by sheer ignorance.
2. “I’m In It” (Yeezus)
“Uh, she cut from a different textile/ Uh, she love different kinds of sex now/ Uh, black girl sippin’ white wine/ Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign/ And grabbed it with a slight grind/ And held it ’til the right time/ Then she came like AAAAAHHH!”
Despite having two entries on this list, this song isn’t the most offensive from 2013’s provocative Yeezus (that honor would go to the travesty that was “Blood on the Leaves”). But this line comparing the sexual practice of “fisting” to the black power fist John Carlos and Tommie Smith raised in ’68 in Mexico City? That’s just wrong, man.
1. “Hell of a Life” (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy)
“Never in your wildest dreams/ Never in your wildest dreams, in your wildest/ You could hear the loudest screams/ Comin’ from inside the screen, you a wild bitch/ Tell me what I gotta do to be that guy/ Said her price go down, she ever f–k a black guy/ Or do anal, or do a gangbang/ It’s kinda crazy that’s all considered the same thing/ Well I guess a lotta ni–as do gang bang/ And if we run trains, we all in the same gang/ Runaway slaves all on a chain gang/ Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang”
If you’ve persevered past the ignorance and depravity on this list so far, congratulations. Because this entry is quintessential Kanye: technically sound, wildly creative, with searing socio-political commentary. It’s also the embodiment of the album’s title, his Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. These days, that fantasy is his reality.