Kanye West: Hip-Hop's Kiss? Rapper Reveals Sneaker, Energy Drink, Fragrance

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Kanye West is quickly become the Kiss of hip-hop: the rapper has branded himself onto a fragrance, energy drink and Nike shoe all in one week. West, along with Jay-Z, Rihanna and another "well-established female artist" all inked deals with fragrance maker Parlux through Jigga's licensing company Iconic Fragrances, People's Style Watch reports. West and Rihanna's scent will hit nostrils by the summer of 2010, while Jay-Z and the mystery singer's fragrances are out the following summer. Hmm, Jay-Z's licensing company, a "well-established female artist," both scents out in summer 2011... who wants to smell like Beyoncé?

At 4 a.m., when the majority of the world is sleeping, paparazzi always seem to catch Kanye out at the clubs or hitting the studio. Ever wish you had the rapper's stamina? Well, now you can, thanks to his new energy drink from beverage company Guru, Pitchfork reports.  "I express myself through music, fashion, art, and design, and that's why I am excited to collaborate with Guru; because the brand values what I value, and I can put what inspires me into this new product," Kanye said in a statement. Finally, an alternative to 50 Cent's VitaminWater flavor Formula 50.

Finally in Kanye merchandising news, according to MTV, hundreds of fans and sneakerheads lined up outside stores in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles this past weekend with the hope of buying a pair of Kanye's new Nike Air Yeezy shoes. Kanye later took to his blog to thank fans for buying the kicks, promising another line of sneakers in the future. Next up? The Kanye coffin, of course.

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Song Stories

“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”

The Joy Formidable | 2011

The opener off the Welsh group’s The Big Roar album was an epic one, but the band was worried that track had polarized fans. “The first song is eight minutes long,” Rhydian Dafydd, the Joy Formidable bassist, said. “If you did that in the Seventies people would be, ‘Whatever.’ You do it now, people think, ‘Holy s---!’ Some people think it’s the f---ing greatest track on the entire album, and some people think it’s f---ing boring. It’s that element of needing to challenge people.” The band concluded through the song’s lyrics that love was the “everchanging spectrum of a lie.”

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