Kanye West and The Game have quite a history together. Coming into this year, the pair had collaborated no fewer than eight times, and over the weekend, they dropped “Eazy,” a brand-new song with plenty of intel about the state of Kanye’s ongoing divorce from Kim Kardashian. Not surprisingly, the song leapt to #1 on the Genius Top Songs chart.
Featuring production by Hit-Boy, Mike Dean, Big Duke, DJ Premier, and Cash Jones, “Eazy” nods in sound and title to the late great West Coast rapper Eazy-E. The track flips a sample of singer Michel’le’s vocal intro from Eazy’s 1988 track “Eazy-Duz-It.” Lyrically, “Eazy” centers on various hardships Game and Ye have faced. The former focuses on his rough-and-tumble early days in Compton, while the latter fixates on the very public unraveling of his marriage.
Game goes first, using the opening verse to reflect on his storied gang activity and all the trouble it brought him.
Run into the Crips, it ain’t no discussion
Bullet wounds drenched in Hennessey and teaspoons of Robitussin
He later gets more specific and throws it back to October 2001, when he was left comatose after being shot five times. Game compares the shooting to the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School—an event that garnered far more national media attention than instances of urban gun violence generally do.
I got shot up like Columbine, the Crips descended on me
Sign my name on the dotted line, that was vengeance on beats
Before launching into his verse, Kanye seems to reference that one time he interrupted Taylor Swift at the VMAs and spawned a million memes with the shrug of his shoulder. Perhaps you’ve heard of this incident?
There it is, there it was
Don’t interrupt just because
It’s no love
Shoulder shrug (Shrug)
Much of Ye’s verse centers on his failed marriage. It’s a messy situation, but he tries to put a positive spin on things. He even throws in a silly pun about Kim’s sister, Kourtney.
Nigga, we havin’ the best divorce ever
If we go to court, we’ll go to court together
Matter of fact, pick up your sis, we’ll go to Kourt’s together
Later, Kanye says he’s “got love for the nannies,” but he admits they’re no substitute for actual parents. That’s why he purchased a house directly across the street from Kim and the couple’s four kids.
Noncustodial dad, I bought the house next door
What you think the point of really bein’ rich for?
Despite his flashy lifestyle, Kanye apparently isn’t trying to raise snooty children. When the young ones are under his roof, they’re going to earn their keep and eat for cheap.
When you give ’em everything, they only want more
Boujee and unruly, y’all need to do some chores
Rich-ass kids, this ain’t yo’ mama house
Climb on your brother’s shoulders, get that Top Ramen out
In the most headline-grabbing lyric from the song, Kanye refers back to the 2002 car crash that inspired his breakthrough single “Through the Wire.” Ye jokes that he survived the wreck for the sole purpose of fighting Pete Davidson, the Saturday Night Live comedian who’s been dating Kardashian.
God saved me from that crash
Just so I can beat Pete Davidson’s ass (Who?)
But the point of the song isn’t to dwell on the negative. “Life should be eazy for everybody, we make the choice to complicate it for ourselves and others,” The Game said in a statement accompanying “Eazy.” “Change your perspective and change the world.”
You can check out all the lyrics to “Eazy” on Genius now.
