Say what you will about Kayne West, he’s undoubtedly one of the most influential artists in music right now. Whatever he does, people pay attention to it. Even the man accidentally walking into a sign goes viral as a news story. Kanye has gone from being a random beatmaker who was in a car accident to an artist who controls an entire summer. The summer of 2011 was his after he dropped “Watch the Throne.” The summer of 2012 was his with each weekly single release from “Cruel Summer.” This is a man who disrespects the Grammy Awards and Taylor Swift and as punishment is asked to come back the following year to perform. That’s Gangsta.
With the release of each album, Kanye monopolizes the music conversation. What’s his album artwork going to be? What will his sound be? Who will guest star on the album? Will he tour? And most importantly, how will his push the creative limits with his music videos. The audacious plan to premiere the video for New Slaves not on the internet but exclusively projected on buildings at simultaneous live events in dozens of cities…it worked brilliantly to build the buzz. That’s Gangsta. Who else besides Jay-Z could pull that off?
Kanye is proving to the world that he can’t be boxed in to any particular style or vision of an ideal rap artist. The album may not be full of predictable club bangers, but that’s precisely the very reason it’s fantastic…and may still end up delivering a few songs that get rotation in the clubs. There are literally no skippable tracks. Every song builds off of the last both sonically and lyrically. “Yeezus” aggressively flows from a track named “Black Skinhead” to another called “I Am A God” with controversial ease. They’re both in-your-face tracks packed with dense lyrics that not only make you think twice about the culture of celebrity, but also the psychology of the celebrity giving the damning message in the first place.
The next few tracks “New Slaves” featuring Frank Ocean, “Hold My Liquor” featuring Chief Keef and “Guilt Trip” featuring Kid Cudi show off Kanye’s brilliantly bold ability to use artists (who have solid solo careers of their own) merely as background props. Then there’s “Blood on the Leaves.” Whew. Lawd Jesus. How many mainstream artists can make a song about the disturbing rarely discussed reality of a man asking his side piece to have an abortion so he can continue focusing on his career and not have to confess his sins to his main chick all while the Nina Simone sample sings about lynchings in America…and still make that shit a banger? When the beat and blaring horns eventually drop, your face can’t help but to scrunch up in musical awe as you bob your head. Strange Fruit, Indeed.
The dark and abrasive album ends on a more optimistic note with the quasi-romantic “Bound 2” serving as his love letter to his wifey and new baby-mother Kim Kardashian. He slides comical lyrics like:
“she rock Forever 21 but just turn thir-tay”...
“One good girl is worth a thousand bitches”…
”Ay, You remember where we first met?
Okay, I don’t remember where we first met…
But hey, admitting is the first step.
Ay-Ay, you know ain’t nobody perfect.”
Love it or not, this album is one that will linger for a long time to come. At the end of it all, Kanye West will continue to surprise audiences, set trends and show that the creative wasteland that is hip hop music can still be exposed to rays of sunshine.
– Nick D
Nick Delmacy
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Yeezus is a great lyrical album, I love it, I do believe its probably not as great as the others but he man still delivered. The person I feel everyone is really underrating is J. Cole. Born Sinner came out on Tuesday and that album is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! If you haven’t bought or heard it, you need to go cop that ASAP. It is better than Yeezus in my opinion, two great LYRICAL albums one the same day, I’m flying high. Now all I need is “Magna Carta Holy Grail” to drop and this probably one of the best years real “HIP HOP” in a while.
This dude here is a brand and a walking billboard! He did pretty much none of the typical promo (radio, TV, endorsements, interviews, etc) to get the word out and he’s about to possibly go gold (500K sold) in the first week!
His album is getting rave reviews from pretty much every critic out there and he’s about to be one of the top first-week selling artists of 2013! I think this album will definitely get him Album of the Year at the Grammys in 2014. Let’s see what happens.
Good album. I appreciate an artist that is always down to push the envelope with each release. And a black artist at that. I went to see the Yeezus tour last year and was blown away. To see an arena of people recite the lyrics to “On Sight” word for word was definitely experience. That song is one of my gym motivation songs. Probably always will be.