Just days
ago, two equally awful things slipped out early and were ushered into this world
where they will occupy our thoughts far, far longer than they should: the Kimye baby and Kanye’s new album, Yeezus.
It’s unfair to place blame on either of these products; they are victims of
irresponsibility, carelessness, and ego. Instead, blame the one responsible for
producing both of them: Kanye West.
Kanye West
is not “the Steve Jobs of internet, fashion and culture” as he claimed in a
recent interview. He is also not a God, as he suggests several times in Yeezus. He is an asshole. And that’s
okay, as long as he’s making great music. He can spend the rest of his life
ruining Taylor Swift’s big moment and getting mad at people for not liking his skirts but as long as he keeps putting out albums as
good as My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,
I honestly don’t care. But when he puts out steaming, heaping piles of garbage
like Yeezus, I feel like I have to say
something.
The easy
defense of this album is that he’s an artist and he’s experimenting and of
course it’s going to sound different. So if you think it’s brilliant to sample
a random bubblegum-pop song from the 1970’s while rapping “I wanna fuck you
hard on the sink/After that, give you something to drink/Step back, can’t get
spunk on the mink” as he does on the tenth track “Bound 2,” you will probably
love this album. But I don’t, and it’s because of shit like this. “Bound 2”
sounds like a mailed-in version of “Slow Jamz,” but what made “Slow Jamz” so
great was the originality – sampling Luther Vandross with a fresh beat of his
own was a great idea and it was produced very well. Jamie Foxx didn’t hurt,
either. “Bound 2,” on the other hand, is not original at all: he doesn’t sample
the song as much as rip it off, because there’s no other beat. So what we are left
with is generic rapping (fucking, mink coats) over the chorus of a song that
nobody has heard of or remembers. And because it’s Kanye, we are supposed to
like it.
With Yeezus, he is trending away from good
music towards seeing what he can get away with. I don’t know how else to explain
this album. In “New Slaves,” the fourth track on the album, Kanye seems to be
making the point that people like him used to not be allowed in certain stores,
and now these same stores are encouraging people like him to come in so they
can take advantage of him and his money. I don’t really disagree with the
point, but I disagree with how he chose “I’d rather be a dick than a swallower”
to be the bridge; if you are really trying to indict society and point out how
much we all suck, at least wait until the next song to be a jackass again. When
you couple that with the fact that the beat on “New Slaves” might have been
made by a six year-old playing with Kidz Beatz or some shit on his iPad, you
have a really awful song.
But as is
bound to happen when you are stewing around in a steaming, heaping pile of
garbage – which is how I’d describe the process of listening to Yeezus – you will try hard to find
something pleasant about it. This may explain why I kind of like the 7th
track “Blood on the Leaves.” It actually has a discernible beat and is not just
an amalgamation of random sounds, like much of the rest of the album. It is
also only slightly ruined by auto-tune, which I have to chalk up as a victory.
The ninth track “Send it Up” and the opening track “On Sight” are also relatively
good, and I suppose if someone twisted my arm enough I could get down with the
second track, “Black Skinhead.” But a reminder: I’m trying to find something
pleasant in a steaming, heaping pile of garbage.
In case
there is any confusion, I don’t like this album. And unlike other albums that I
don’t care for but can understand the appeal, I can’t understand the appeal
here. Six out of the ten songs on Yeezus are
remarkably bad, and the remaining four would be skipped over if they were on
any of his previous albums; overall, it is a collection of terrible beats and insufferable
lyrics and an example of when giving Kanye the green light to do whatever the
fuck he wants goes horribly wrong.
Grade: D
Laughably bad review. Doubt you guys like any hip-hop aside from Chae Hawk.
I don't know that I'm qualified to comment, being the guy who wrote a column about hating hip-hop. But, for what it's worth, this release is weird and hard to like - which is A-OK in my book.
I like things that are aesthetically challenging. And I like the fact that, while Kanye is going on with all his swaggery bullshit, there are some really off-putting beats and samples going on behind it, all of which adds an odd dissonance that gets me thinking - as opposed to just letting me operate as a passive listener. Thinking is always good.
Appreciate the stance to not like it, but you writing is horrendous, you should do more research before a review so that instead of saying " When you couple that with the fact that the beat on “New Slaves” might have been made by a six year-old playing with Kidz Beatz or some shit on his iPad, you have a really awful song," you could address the actual producers, and make comparisons, and draw your criticism from something more than "Wah, I don't like it."
Buffablog, disappointed in who you have writing for you.
I'd love to hear what people like about the album rather than what people dislike about the review! -joe
On "New Slaves", Kanye's doing more than just talking about stores 'encouraging' Black people to buy from stores. He's breaking down the prison-industrial complex and the reinforcement of negative male stereotypes in hip-hop, hence the use of a stripped-down, atrocious house beat.
With Yeezus as a whole, Ye is taking the media's stereotype of him as the angry black man and pushing it to its furthest extent. Guess what. Kanye is not just an angry black man. He's a normal person just like you or me. But that doesn't matter. Mainstream news sources will choose the details that create the (valuable) narrative of asshole (not that Kanye is without blame).
Yeezus is a big fuck-you to this false, inescapable stereotype and this message is much better accomplished with house, acid, and techno than with his signature chipmunk soul beats.
Or we can keep talking about garbage.
There's a great write up on http://reddit.com/r/hiphopheads right now.
Kanye is not a normal person like you or me.
Yes, its a stripped down, atrocious house beat. Why should that make me like the song? -joe
See. Look at how well the media does its job. You didn't think twice about reinforcing the stereotype of a person you've never met before (I'm assuming). An angry/crazy black man gets better ratings than a normal one. (See: Charles Ramsey and this article: http://www.wbez.org/blogs/nico-lang/2013-05/ghettotainment-charles-ramsey-and-rise-racial-tourism-107282)
Haha. I wasn't trying to change your taste in music preferences. I answered your question of why somebody would find it appealing. Also, I was trying to change the conversation from talking about liking specific beats or not to a conversation about why this album matters in the larger context of pop music.
This is an awful review, someone who is brainwashed by the media shouldn't be fit to write a review. This is a joke.
I like the review. I dont think its a bad review, regardless of what the opinion is. I haven't actually listened to this album yet but your review could have described my opinion of My Dark Twisted Fantasy. Which is funny cauuse you liked that one. Which brings up how everyones opinion is an opinion, and people need to cherl the ferk out.
Very poorly written, biased, and uninformed album review. The use of the phrase "people like him" as used to describe Kanye's blackness is both hilarious and unprofessional. Mr. Speranza's crude analysis of "Bound 2" is almost as obnoxious as his "Kidz Beatz...some shit on his iPad" comment, and comes no where close to representing any of the song's intentions. "Bound 2" is pop culture's most insecure egoist's rare, authentic proclamation of love/commitment. Lyrically, Kanye questions his lover about her irresponsible parting, if they will last til Christmas, and whether or not monogamy is a rule to break or keep. The lyrics are far from "generic", they are playful and honest (like any good romance) and contain hints of the Profound, "Close your eyes and let the word paint a thousand pictures/One good girl is worth a thousand bitches". As for labeling the production a "rip-off", it is lazy, insulting and entirely false. The song's prominent sample is no bublegum pop song, it is a jazzy soul track (from a band likened to the Jackson Five) that is so quintessentially reminiscent of early Kanye that it needed very little alteration to work. The modification that takes place comes from an entirely different sample, intermittently spliced in, which acts as the song's signature. Not to mention Kanye's synths on the bridge and original, non-sampled singing from Charlie Wilson. Uh-Huh Honey!
I feel that a respectable blog such as this should handle album reviews for major releases with a little more prudence. An album review should give an elaborated account of the listened experience, and should not read out like a public defense/affirmation of one's own personal prejudice. Maybe if a little less time were spent on deliberating over just the right adjectives for garbage, something thoughtful may have actually emerged
When I wrote "people like him," I thought it was clear that I was referring to his celebrity and his having cash. He points out his blackness just fine, he doesn't need
me to do it for him.
And I don't think I'm biased - I'm pretty sure I implied that I liked his music up until this. Kanye is pretty great, but this is not. -joe
We could have read your Twitter feed to find out whether or not you liked it.
This the shit I don't like.
This the shit I don't like.
This article is an abomination. Embarrasingly reveals the author's poor command of the English language as well as total ignorance as far as music is concerned. By far the most awful thing to "slip out" recently. What a steaming, heaping pile of garbage (might as well use this cliche a 4th time!) Regardless of whether Kim's fame/wealth are undeserved (a debate for another time)your irresponsible scapegoating of her innocent child in a desperate and ill-fated attempt at a "clever" first sentence is shameful and reflects poorly on the blog as a whole.
This review takes away all credibility of you as a writer. If this blog lasts another week I'll be shocked. No one's discrediting you for not liking the album; that's your opinion. But to just trash an album without having anything remotely substantial to back it up is embarrassing from a journalistic standpoint. I don't know if you were in a bad mood the day you listened to the album and reviewed it, but all I know is that you are a terrible writer and you need to start organizing your thoughts before you slap them on your website.