Insecurities strangle us. They wrap a coil around our brain and squeeze tight until the firm grasp of our identity begins to loosen. Our sight narrows as tunnel vision locks us in on each and every one of our perceived shortcomings, every single one growing larger the more we stare. Our self-perception becomes marred by self-hate, low confidence, and fear. Maybe these moments last a few days or weeks. Maybe these moments have been the narrative of an entire lifetime. Regardless of the length of the period, the desire to break out of this psychological trench is beyond words. Kanye West empathizes with this pain as he paves a bright and colorful pathway out of our insecurities on “Champion”, off his third album Graduation, an anthemic and self-affirming standout.

“Champion” by Kanye West

Kanye West came into the recording sessions of 2007’s Graduation with the hope to inspire people to find greater happiness and self-love. In an interview with MTV News, Kanye explained his simple but powerful inspiration.

“I wanted to make songs that are people’s theme songs…What are you going through?”

This idea of creating theme songs is apparent throughout many tracks on Graduation, from the grand soundscapes and celebratory lyrical themes down to the colorful and triumphant album artwork, designed by Takashi Murakami. This album marked the final installment of the school-themed trilogy of albums that started with the chipmunk soul-influence of 2004’s The College Dropout and the orchestral-produced instrumentation of 2005’s The Late Registration. Graduation marked further experimentation for Kanye as he was widely influenced by electronic, house, and indie rock music, in the attempt to create a stadium-status sound.

These sounds often begin with a question.

“Did you realize that you were a champion in their eyes?”

The track immediately radiates happiness outward, set in motion by a sample of the 1976 jazz-rock classic “Kid Charlemagne” by Steely Dan. Kanye flips the last two words of this refrain into its own irresistible beat that feels soulful and magical, a technique that he has become a virtuoso at since his early 2000s production days. Each time this passionate refrain is repeated, that empowering question sinks deeper into your soul.

Kanye has an answer.

“Yes I did / So I packed it up and brought it back to the crib / Just a little something, show you how we live / Everybody want it but it ain’t that serious / Mhm, that’s that s*** / So if you gon’ do it, do it just like this”

With the chorus, Kanye promotes a confident call and answer to the sampled refrain. In turn, he hopes to inspire us to answer this question just like him.

But before he can inspire us, Kanye sheds light on who made him a champion.

“I don’t know, I just want it better for my kids / And I ain’t sayin’ we was from the projects / But every time I wanted layaway or a deposit / My dad’d say ‘when you see clothes, close your eyelids’ / We was sort of like Will Smith and his son / In the movie, I ain’t talkin’ ‘bout the rich ones / Cause every summer, he’d get some / Brand new harebrained scheme to get rich from / And I don’t know what he did for dough / But he’d send me back to school with a new wardrobe”

While Kanye’s immense adoration for his mother is well-documented in his music, namely on his career-best track “Hey Mama” off Late Registration, he rarely touches on his relationship with his father. Kanye uses the first verse here to shed some light on the way his dad believed in him and how he saw his son as a champion, before Kanye believed in himself. He references the inspirational 2006 film The Pursuit of Happyness to express admiration for his father for always finding a way to provide money and clothes. By doing so, he helped Kanye build the confidence that would eventually take him to unparalleled heights. These lyrics have only grown in poignancy over the years, as Kanye himself has ventured into a hugely successful career in fashion. The seeds of those passions were planted as a child, thanks to his father.

Throughout the track, Kanye’s flow is rhythmic and ever so slightly fast-paced, but his delivery is confident, purposeful, and genuinely happy. His voice skips and bounces yet he lands on each beat-break with perfect articulation, allowing the track to live and breathe with deep conviction. The production perfectly compliments the vocals — the drums are commanding, the synths are celebratory, and the backing vocals are rich and warm, giving the song an intoxicating and enthralling vibe that is impossible to stop.

By sharing what made him a champion, Kanye can now pass his wisdom to the world.

“When it feel like living’s harder than dyin’ / For me givin’ up’s way harder than tryin’ / Lauryn Hill said her heart was in Zion / I wish her heart still was in rhymin’ / ’Cause who the kids gon’ listen to, huh? / I guess me if it isn’t you / Last week I paid a visit to the institute / They got The Dropout keepin’ kids in the school / I guess I cleaned up my act like Prince’d do / If not for pleasure, then at least for the principle / They got the CD, they got to see me / Drop gems like I dropped out of PE / They used to feel invisible / Now they know they invincible”

When life gets low, the idea of death can become more comforting than life. Kanye acknowledges that these moments are part of existing, but implores us to not give up. Utilizing clever and heartfelt wordplay, he opens up about how not giving up on creating his own debut album ended up inspiring the next generation to discover their respective callings. He understands that since releasing The College Dropout, he’s been leading a new wave of hip-hop, one that promotes active self-love, introspection, and vulnerability.

The impact of this new wave is perfectly encapsulated in the last couple lines of this verse. Anytime we may feel invisible or feel like we don’t matter, this song lets us know that we still have worth, that we still have something to offer the people in our life and even the wider world around us.

The clarity of the lyrics here are striking, showing that the call to action can be said with few words. Kanye’s vocals fit the lyrics perfectly, as he spits every single bar with inspiring energy and fervor. With each line, we begin to realize that there is an untapped confidence and potential in us that has yet to be awakened.

“This is the story of a champion / Runners on their mark and they pop their guns / Stand up stand up here he comes / Tell me what it takes to be number one / Tell me what it takes to be number one”

Led by Connie Mitchell and Tony Williams, the backing choirs emerge to the forefront to create a magical and anthemic outro, bringing a soul and gospel angle to the jazz-rock-hip-hop fusion that makes the song feel truly larger than life. This ability to transition and fuse genres is magnificent, and is one of countless examples where the partitions that exist within the art form were broken down thanks to Kanye West.

No matter how gray my day is, this song can blast the color right back. Not dissimilar to Kanye’s dropout bear shooting out of the rainbow-tinted catapult into beautiful sunset skies, “Champion” launches me out of the hole I can often find myself buried inside.

In moments of anxiety and depression, I see myself, small, in the corner of a pitch-black room. I call out for somebody, anybody, but my screams echo back to me, only further ringing the emptiness and hollowness I can feel inside.

Like a saving grace, I hear this song play. The lights slowly come back on. Colors start seeping into the room, covering every shade and angle of the rainbows that remind me of the beauty of life. The pitch-black and darkness of the room are replaced with vibrant blues, purples, greens, yellows, reds, and oranges. The deafening silence of the room is softened with soulful choirs. The door that trapped me in the room creaks open. I look at this door awe-struck, not even conceptualizing that an exit from this room could exist. I slowly get up off the floor and walk towards the light that emits from the outside world, a world of possibilities ready to be explored. I open the door and see other champions on their journey walking, talking, exploring this world and working to figure this journey out bit and bit, all in the hopes of making the world better in the process.

I decide to join them.