Recently, on Bob’s Burgers, the Belcher clan spent an entire episode obsessing over couches, first discarding their old, smelly one in favor of a new-ish, less smelly floor model before dramatically changing their minds. Though he’s in a much, much higher tax bracket than the animated burger flippers, Kanye West can relate. In “Facts (Charlie Heat Version),” a late 2015 single included on the much-hyped album The Life Of Pablo, West ponders this pressing question: “Couches, couches, couches, couches, which one should I pick?” That was all the inspiration Ian T. McFarland, a Los Angeles-dwelling internet funster, needed to create his own, extremely minimalist remix called “Couches Couches Couches Couches.” McFarland’s version skips the beginning of the song entirely and gets right to the good part—the lyrics about couch shopping. In this rendition of the song, West spends a headache-inducing 10 minutes just repeating the word “couches.” In the accompanying video, the same four couches flash on the screen again and again, so it’s not like West has a wide selection from which to choose.
Why create such thing? Pressed for comment, McFarland was philosophical:
For whatever reason, this was the line from the song that got stuck in my head, and it just played on repeat in there. Eventually I started thinking about how funny it was that a rapper was just shouting “couches” over and over again, and while I’m sure Kanye recognizes how funny this is, I find it interesting that Kanye is the only rapper who is capable of rapping about his passion for interior design on a sincere level as well. Also, “couches” is a funny word.
“Couches” is indeed a funny word. Those who sit through this entire video will find that it loses all semblance of meaning after the first minute or so and then just becomes a weird, almost percussive sound. Indeed, this iteration of West’s song could be used as an instrumental backing track for adventurous freestyle rappers. In its own stubborn way, it bears a musical resemblance to Lil’ Wayne’s “A Milli.” They’re both about saying the same exact thing over and over again for minutes at a stretch.