“Keep It Burnin” by Future (ft. Kanye West)

“Keep It Burnin” is a song featuring Kanye West. So even though, especially considering the other vocalist involved, this will undoubtedly be braggadocious, things are not expected to get as wild as your usual rap song of this nature.

Kanye West

For instance, early on, via the chorus, we are actually met with a reference to Jesus. And Kanye seems to use his first verse most notably to speak to his political aspirations. And such is not to be taken lightly, as let’s not forget that Yeezus, even if only briefly, did officially throw his hat in the ring of US Presidential Election in 2020. So some have put forth that a particular line in his verse not only alludes to Ye’s intention to run again in 2024 but also simultaneously taking a jab at his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, for not supporting him in 2020.

Future

And even Future, though admittedly “sinning again”, seems to be taking a more shrouded approach to his usual boasting. For instance, those in the know would recognize the first couple of bars of his first verse as referencing “cooking” and selling drugs. But again, he relays that activity in a way in which listeners have to read more in between the lines than usual to pick up on it. That said, the rest of the verse is a bit more direct in terms of the rapper engaging in self-exaltation and also presenting himself as a “dark” figure. But still, it doesn’t necessarily read like something he would drop alongside others, shall we say more-conventional collaborators.

Kanye Steps in Again

With the above in mind, Kanye’s second verse that follows begins with that aforementioned Jesus reference. In addition to once again mentioning his plan to “run for ‘24” and this time around also obliquely bragging about his wealth and mocking opps, West also uses the opportunity to more or less allude to his Christian faith.

Future takes Over

Meanwhile, in the last verse Future mentions that he was, most simply put, “raised by” criminals. So the implication is that he possesses a similar character by nature. That’s why for instance he’s deep into the paper chase and comes off as someone who would expeditiously resort to violence in the name of progressing his aforenoted enterprise.

In Conclusion

All of that said, even though the title itself is used pretty creatively in Future’s second verse and the subsequent outro, it doesn’t come off as something that is not meant to be read too deeply into.  Instead, the idea it most generally points to seems to be the vocalists presenting themselves as being hot, i.e. on top of their game.

Facts about “Keep It Burnin”

This song was released on 29 April 2022 as part of an album Future put out that same day titled “I Never Liked You”. And this is a project that the rapper’s own label, Freebandz, has issued in conjunction with Epic Records.

Future and Kanye West have teamed up on various tracks in the past, with the earlier of such efforts, at least as far as singles go, being a 2014 track the former headlined called “I Won”. And “Keep It Burnin” was actually intended to be featured on “Donda 2”, an album Yeezy dropped in February of 2022. However, at the last minute, this track was removed from its playlist.

The song’s music video was directed by Ricky Nyce, an artist who is down with Freebandz.  By the looks of things, fans first become aware of this collaboration via images of the video shoot making its way online.

Kanye produced this song alongside DB and ATL Jacob. The three of them are also its co-writers, as is Future.