Kanye West with Pete Rock and Jay-Z and..., "The Joy"

Jay-Z’s mom used to listen to Curtis Mayfield back in the ’70s. Jay, “Shawn” back then, would hear it coming through the wall when he was in his pajamas. So when Pete Rock made Kanye West this beautiful beat out of Mayfield’s “The Makings of You,” Kanye called Jay, who wrote something real nice for it.

Kanye, who sounds like he was maybe watching a lot of porn at the time, wrote something real nasty for it. His verse sounds more inspired by the other sample in the song, the same snippet of Syl Johnson grunting on the intro to the 1967 single “Different Strokes” that KRS-One rhymed over on Boogie Down Productions’ “Criminal Minded” in 1987.

Nice or nasty, Jay and Kanye are both at the top of their games here. Jay’s verse would have fit well on his American Gangster album from a few ago — which is an excellent album, under-appreciated even, which seems like a funny thing to say about a Jay-Z album. But is true, I think.

And this is how good the music Kanye has been making lately: the latest bit of greatness to be released on his G.O.O.D. Fridays series is not included on the track list he just made public for his album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which comes out on the 22nd.

Here’s the track list:

1. Dark Fantasy
2. Gorgeous (feat. Kid Cudi & Raekwon)
3. Power
4. All of the Lights
5. Monster (feat. Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj & Bon Iver)
6. So Appalled (feat. Jay-Z, Pusha T, CyHi Da Prynce, Swizz Beatz & RZA)
7. Devil In a New Dress
8. Runaway (feat. Pusha T)
9. Hell of a Life
10. Blame Game (feat. John Legend & Pusha T)
11. Lost In the World
12. See Me Now (bonus)

The best album of the year? Kanye’s masterpiece? It’s early to get into that kind of stuff, and it always gives me a headache to get into it in any case, but I kind of think it may be both those things. The songs we’ve heard so far (and that’s a lot of them) are so strong. He just seems to be doing everything right right now, musically, at least. (I still can’t get enough of “Runaway,” and I’ve been listening to it for like six weeks.) Maybe he’ll add “The Joy” as another bonus track? Probably not. But I wish he would.