Update: Listen to Ben Sollee's Kanye West diss track

Update: Listen to the track here.

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“You’re letting me down,” sings Ben Sollee on “Dear Kanye,” a song released on his MySpace  page yesterday. Bringing the fire, Sollee reprimands the Great Ye for forgetting that “No one needs a light show/ Just good flows,” and further for wasting his potential to inspire youth by instead blogging “commercials / For stuff [they]’ll never need.”

It’s a biting criticism delivered with soulful vocals and accompanied by Sollee’s alternately warm and crunching cello—a hardly predictable scenario, but neither was West using the insult “squid brains.” “People want music on a real stage/ Not the one you bring along,” Sollee declares, and it’s easy to imagine a few thousand people who might agree with him.

Call it a diss, a slam, the world’s first rap/folk beef, but don’t confuse Sollee with those “people who just sit around trying 2 plot [Ye’s] downfall.” More than some silly school yard beef (coughcoughicetandsouljaboy), it’s a lament for the talent that could be and a critique of the overwrought sensation that is, at least if the short introduction is to be believed: “Because this is what good folk music is about. enjoy.”

Stream or Download “Dear Kanye” on Sollee’s MySpace page.

Lyrics:

Dear Kanye
You’re letting me down
You got the biggest bat in the game
But you can’t hit the ball
It’s the heavy weight match
And you’re off in the corner punchin’ at the wall

Dear Kanye
Don’t let us fall
You’re at the diplomatic dinner
With fine china and all
A silver fork in your hand
But still you spit and gnaw
 
Greatness is a glass elevator, and so you are, if I recall
So use it make some real change not just advertisements at the mall

No one needs a light show
Just good flows
You don’t need a light show
Just good flows

Dear Kanye
Keep icin those knees
And when your paycheck comes
Will you remember your busted screen
Your crown of thorns is sensational
But it’s not what makes you bleed

Cause there’s a young man
His rhymes set him free
He loves what you do but he can’t seem
To shake the septic sanction of the streets
He’s reading your blog and all he finds are commercials
For stuff he’ll never need

You have a good idea now put some shoes on its feet
And try to make your Loop Dreams a real priority

You don’t need a light show
Just good flow
No one needs a light show
Just good flow
You don’t need a light show
Just good flow

Dear Kanye
It’s time to let go
You’ve gathered the moss of
More than a dozen sullen stones
People want music on a real stage
Not the one you bring along

Related links:
Media: Live at Paste: Ben Sollee - "How to See the Sunrise"
BenSollee.com
KanyeUnivercity.com

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