“Junya” by Kanye West (Playboi Carti)

Junya Watanbe is a fashion designer based in Tokyo whose products, as to be expected since he’s getting such a major shoutout from an A list rapper, tend to be pretty expensive. And it isn’t necessarily peculiar for Kanye to name a song after someone engaged in such a profession considering that Yeezy himself, we would venture say, is an even bigger name in the world of fashion than Watanbe.

However, what is interesting is that he seems to imply wearing Junya’s products ‘on his wrist’, which one would presume would be a watch. Yet a quick Google search would reveal that, apparently, Watanbe doesn’t actually make watches.

However, there are seemingly watch bands made under his name which, based on their lack of online availability, we would presume are quite rare. And if a product by a high-end designer is in fact rare, then the further assumption would be that yes, they’re damn expensive also.

But some music scholars have noted that what West is actually referring to is a watch by Watanbe that hasn’t been released publicly as of the release of “Junya”. So if such is in fact the case, that would mean said timepiece is likely ultra-expensive.

Verses of “Junya”

Then getting beyond the chorus, Kanye proceeds to drop a couple of terse verses. Now the said chorus would imply, as detailed above, that “Junya” reads more like a traditional, braggadocios rap than what we’ve been dealing with thus far for the most part on Donda.

Indeed Kanye covers a couple of hip-hop basics in these two verses, i.e. sex via a reference to “ex-strippers” and also a couple of mentions of the likes of gun-toters. However, he also uses the opportunity of the first verse in particular to give a shoutout to the overall Donda album. He actually implies in the process that he “made a promise” to her or someone else close to him, presumably to actually come out with said project.

Playboi Carti Steps In

The terseness continues, in a Kanye sort of way, into the third verse, despite featured artist Playboi Carti serving as the main vocalist of said passage. That is to say that most of this segment  basically consists of Playboi repeating the same phrases, most notably “for five summers” and “we took over”.

And taking all associated wording into account, he appears to be maintaining the street-based theme which Yeezus established earlier. Or explained differently, he is obviously alluding to the toughness of himself and whatever other associates, perhaps even Kanye, he is referring to.

Though if we were to interpret these expressions in such a manner, despite coming off as being a bit ‘hood Carti would rather, logically speaking, be referring to their standing in the music industry.

But by the time the segment concludes, he does further establish “Junya” as sort of a beef song, i.e. one in which the vocalists are touting their hardness in the face of doubters and potential opps.

The Final Verse

The fourth and final verse belongs to Kanye, though this time around the passage is more of a standard length. And whereas it does feature a couple of holy references, as well as Yeezus once again acknowledging “the spirit of Donda”, by and large it can be classified braggadocios.

For instance, West sets the verse off by hinting at his wealth, more directly than he does in the chorus. And about midway through Yeezy even colorfully namedrops NBA player Giannis Antetokounmpo (by first name only, of course), star of the Milwaukee “Bucks”, to also point to himself being well-paid.

Conclusion of “Junya”

So conclusively, by this point in the playlist it is becoming increasingly apparent that Donda is not an entirely religious-sounding album, as one may get the impression after listening to the first few tracks.

“The spirit of Donda” is present throughout nonetheless, which is one of the reasons we will presume Kanye has blotted out all the curse words (including “ni**a”). And being who he is at this point in his career, every track he drops tends to mention God or what have you.

But West obviously had the secular, i.e. mainstream audience in mind when creating this album also. Thus he can take a moment or two with tracks such as “Junya” to big up his wealth and present himself as more of a street dude than say a preacher.