For rap fans, G.O.O.D. Fridays take on a different meaning than its Christian origin. They are the Fridays leading up to the release of Kanye’s classic fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. For 14 weeks before the album’s release, ‘Ye dropped heavy feature tracks to build hype.
Kanye is repeating the formula in the weeks leading up to his seventh album, SWISH, the follow-up to 2013’s Yeezus. So far, three tracks have been released featuring the talents of Ty Dolla $ign and Kendrick Lamar as well as productions from West, Metro Boomin, Southside, and the legendary Madlib. (By the time this week’s issue of the Catalyst hits the stands, a track with Chance The Rapper should supposedly have dropped. There’s a tendency for lateness.)
The importance of G.O.O.D Fridays in the scheme of hip-hop and Kanye’s career are how they shaped rappers’ hype formulas. While Kanye’s 2016’s version of the series boasts impressive names, the sheer quantity of 2010’s is incredible. At most, Kanye had eight artists on one song. For 15 weeks, Kanye featured from his current and former G.O.O.D Music label-mates Pusha T, John Legend, Mos Def, Big Sean, Common and Kid Cudi, as well as huge names like Jay Z, Rick Ross, J. Cole, Nicki Minaj, Pharell, and Talib Kweli.
G.O.O.D Fridays showcase the importance of a co-sign by a name like Kanye. Pusha T was coming off what would be the Clipse’ last album. He had an established career as part of a duo, but G.O.O.D Fridays began his solo career on the label. He now has released two albums on the label and was promoted by West to become the G.O.O.D. Music president.
Nicki Minaj made a name for herself for a career-making verse on “Monster” where she out-rapped Kanye, Rick Ross and Jay-Z. That verse remains relevant with Adele rapping Minaj’s verse on The Late Late Show. J. Cole dropped a monster verse over Kanye, Big Sean and Pusha T on “Looking For Trouble.” Big Sean had his share of verses on the series. All three have had number one albums on the Billboard Top 200.
In a sense, the current G.O.O.D. Fridays is actually the third iteration if you consider G.O.O.D Music compilation Cruel Summer, the second as singles “Clique,” “Mercy,” and “New God Flow,” were released in a similar manner. It featured posse cuts with big names supporting smaller acts. Like Nicki Minaj on “Monster,” 2 Chainz verse on “Mercy,” sparked the Atlanta rapper’s career.
G.O.O.D Fridays established how major rap acts can bolster the careers of rookies in the internet age. Drake cosigns and jumps on songs for artists like iLoveMakonnen and PartyNextDoor for his OVO Sound Label. Rick Ross picked up Wale and Meek Mill for his Maybach Music Group.
Overall, G.O.O.D. Fridays established an Internet hype machine for rap music. Soundcloud was three years old during the time. Spotify was one year from U.S. release. Kanye used the Internet and hype surrounding MBDTF to press these one-off singles that were almost throwaways. They didn’t make the cut for one of the best rap albums, yet they were great. It was even a testing ground to see if songs were good enough to be on the album as we saw with “Monster” and “Devil in a New Dress.”
Now, rappers use streaming services to release the songs that don’t make their upcoming albums. Drake uses streaming to release one-offs like “Back to Back” and “0 to 100,” The release of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late is essentially a data dump of songs that didn’t make the cut for the still-upcoming Views from the 6.
G.O.O.D Fridays paved the way for rappers using the Internet to redefine hype and boost support for new artists. Now, he uses that formula once more for Swish.