Kanye West spells Friday G.O.O.D.

Every week is a grind, and every Friday is a reward  — the relief of the weekend is enough. But in the last few weeks, Kanye West has been making Fridays all about him with his G.O.O.D. Fridays campaign, one he claims will bring the public free Friday tracks until Christmas.

While this isn’t unprecedented, it’s almost unbelievable. An artist as huge as Kanye, who has an album set to drop Nov. 22, doesn’t need a campaign like this to build buzz. Rapper Crooked I did this a couple years ago with his “Hip-Hop Weekly” releases, but it was only to build a following. Mr. West’s motivation is purely to provide his fans with music.

And these aren’t throwaway pieces of garbage either. Names like Jay-Z, Swizz Beatz, Mos Def, Nicki Minaj, Kid Cudi and Raekwon have all appeared on different tracks, making substantial contributions. In fact, on “Monster,” the second Friday release, Minaj salvages what could otherwise be called a rather schizo track.

What I’m saying is I don’t know if there is another artist in the world who could draw names like this and then give that music away. Lil Wayne once told Rolling Stone that he would charge his sister $75,000 for a verse — so I can’t imagine Jay-Z making that kind of sacrifice for many besides Kanye.

Just one year ago, he might have been the most hated musician on the planet following his VMA, ahem, mishap and subsequent talk show rounds. But then he cancelled his tour — one with Lady Gaga, no less — and essentially went into hiding, spending much of that time at his studio in Hawaii to reflect and to be in the studio with his music.

He first re-emerged with “Power” (which, frankly, still stands up as one of this year’s best) and now, between his Friday releases, VMA performance and recent SNL domination, has made this fall all about Yeezy, an utter turnaround from last year’s public opinion.

That’s a powerful statement for someone who is becoming an increasingly powerful artist. Yeezy is setting the bar extremely high for everyone else; these tracks are better than what the next person could actually put on an album, and maybe most importantly, they’re free.

Radiohead set the world on fire when the band released “In Rainbows” online, and Kanye’s campaign has the potential to challenge rap music the same way because it’s an industry that has been doing the free music thing for a long time thanks to mixtapes, remixes and different collaborations.

But we’ve never seen anything quite this good from an artist quite this famous on such a regular basis. Even setting commercial implications aside, two of the tracks include Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, the kind of indie collaborator that hip-hop needs to help it remain accessible and relevant during this transitional stage.

“So Appalled,” one of the most recent drops, actually upset Jay-Z a little because it was supposed to be part of the pair’s collaborative album set to drop in November as well. But fortunately, it’s not about Jay. It’s about bringing great music directly to the fans, and Kanye’s doing a G.O.O.D. job.