Big Brother (Kanye West Song) - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

"Big Brother" received strong reviews from music critics and was widely regarded as the best song on Graduation lyrically. Hillary Crosley of Billboard gave the "Big Brother" a favorable review in which she claimed that it "has lyrics introspective enough to make fans cry." Brett Johnson from USA Today called the song captivating. Del Cowie from Exclaim! stated that the track was stellar while The Chicago Tribune writer Greg Kot declared that with it, "West is at his best." Making note of its "classic hip-hop storytelling framework" and the "raw style" of West's rapping, Dave Heaton from PopMatters cited "Big Brother" as one of the tracks on the album that gave off a "timeless hip-hop feeling." Similarly, Dan Aquilante of New York Post wrote that the song is "where West demonstrates his real talent as a raconteur." The Observer reviewer Ben Thompson listed "Big Brother" as one of the five best tracks on Graduation. The Guardian music critic Dorian Lynskey remarked that the song, "intertwines admiration and envy with fascinating honesty." A year later, a columnist for The Guardian included the track within a "Readers Recommend" column that discussed hero worship, writing, "Kanye West demonstrates more self-awareness in his thoughtful tribute to his brother-in-spirit, Jay-Z, exploring the complications of their fan-idol relationship, which grows trickier as the two become peers." Nathan Rabin, while writing a review of Watch the Throne for The A.V. Club, retrospectively asserted that West's performance within "Big Brother" possessed "a sincerity that bordered on embarrassing." Likewise, Gregg LaGambina, from the same publication, described the tribute as "awkward introspection." Citing it as the standout track of Graduation, Shannon Barbour from About.com listed "Big Brother" as one of the four best songs off the album and regarded it as "perhaps greatest exercise in humility." She also commended Kanye for showing Jay-Z the kind of love that she believes hip-hop too commonly reserves for posthumous tributes.