On Sight

Black Skinhead

I Am A God

I was there

New Slaves

Songs of the Day

Okay, so I decided to stop today's review after track 4, even though I feel like I could have done this whole album tonight.  Today's tracks are "On Sight," "Black Skinhead," "I Am A God," and "New Slaves."  If this set has taught me anything, it's that Yeezy has gone out of his goddamn mind.  "On Sight" is hype song, but I find the beat so distracting from Kanye, which isn't all that bad in this case since he doesn't really seem to be saying much.  He performed this at Governor's Ball, and I can't say I'm any more impressed than when I heard it then.  Also, that "and put my dick in her moooooooouth" with the laugh at the end makes me want to slap him.  I can get down with the beat on "Black Skinhead," but this is the song he played the men in the KKK hoodies on the jumbotron, so I don't have the best association with this one.  I listened really hard to hear a line that blew my mind, but it's not in here.  The song is definitely fun, I'm sure I'll get hype to it after a couple of drinks at a party or something.  His growling "God" continuously at the end is really fucking weird though.  Once I heard that a) Kanye's new album was called Yeezus, and that b) it included a song called "I Am A God," I knew he had gone fucking crazy.  So it's easy to say that I've had a bad taste in my mouth about this song before I even heard it.  I'm trying to find something in this track, but I can't when I can literally feel his arrogance through the track.  But that's probably want he wants, shock factor and all.  The beat could have been so much better.  If you're gonna call yourself a God, you better have the track to back it up (this isn't even it).  Then he's gotta end the song with this weird screaming and running loop.  No thanks.  Kanye (luckily) redeems himself lyrically on "New Slaves," the first song I can say actually seems to have some lyrical merit.  "You see there's leaders, and it's followers/but I'd rather be a dick than a swoller" - I want to hate on that, but I can't.  But as this song is about consumers being the new slaves of this time, Kanye actually seems to have some morals on this one.  I kind of hate the beat though.  The motif is fine, it's all the extra, really shitty-sounding synth sounds they add do it - it could have gone in a little more.  I also wish I didn't feel  like Kanye wasn't yelling at me the whole time.  The B section groove at the end is cool, unfortunately Yeezy's gotta fuck it up with his really dumb, auto-tune voice.  Nobody wants to hear that, shut the fuck up.  Especially since I really dig where the B section groove goes, but of course it doesn't last very long. 
Old Kanye: 1
New Kanye: 0

Album Factoids

Yeezus

Released: June 18, 2013 (oh hey, today)
Genre: Rap/Hip Hop
Label: Def Jam
Producers: Kanye West, Daft Punk, Mike Dean, The Heatmakerz, Hudson Mohawke, No ID, Rick Rubin, RZA, Travis Scott, Symbolic One, Young Chop

Week 87: Kanye West (pt2)

So, I had to do it.  Yeezus came out today (even though I've had it since Sunday, thank you internet), and I had to do it.  I reviewed Kanye's last album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - hence the "pt 2" - and he's gone even crazier since then, so I had no choice.  I saw him in concert last weekend at Governor's Ball, and let me tell you, the man has lost his damn mind.  The first song he played, there were men in black KKK hoods on the jumbotron, and it was uncomfortable.  But that's Kanye - he's about the shock factor, and the wow factor, and all of the other how-can-I-get-people-to-notice-me factors.  I wasn't too keen on the new stuff I heard, but I'm gonna get into it a little deeper and see if I can find any redemption in his calling himself a God. 

This Weeks Album...