2013 Hip-Hop

FuzzyDunlop said
I've been listening to it since last night.

MBDTF just grabbed me immediately, but I've been a little unsure on Yeezus so far.

I was really hyped for it, especially the last few weeks, because I caught his SNL performance where he performed New Slaves and Black Skinhead, which I thought he really killed. But I'm not really enjoying the rest of the album as much of those (yet).

The production seems great, I really like what I guess you would call the concept of the album, but the lyrics seem a little lacking and underwhelming. I've never really considered Kanye to be a lyricist but even this seems below his usual standard.

I think the final product shouldn't have come out so soon. There was an interview I read with Rick Rubin who came on late as the executive producer, and he basically said that when he came out the album was due out really soon, but that Kanye still hadn't recorded vocals for a bunch of stuff and that he thought that the album still had months of work left. Obviously they released it when they said they would, but I can't help thinking about that interview when listening to the album.

That doesn't surprise me about the album being rushed. The intial reaction I had listening to Yeezus was that the album sounded lazy. The lyrics definitely were. Yes, I get it, Kanye. You're overwhelmed by materialism and your ego. And most of the songs reflect that, but at the same time, you speak out against the exact same thing in other songs. He's a walking contradiction and wants us to know it. That's a decent concept for one album, but the man has been talking about the same thing for years. Besides the beats, Yeezus doesn't bring us anything new. But even the beats can't be considered revolutionary. They're basically industrial electronic with 808's and annoying synths mixed in. The production is only groundbreaking to mainstream music.

Hype is what's driving this album. If anyone else made it, no one would give a ****. It's cool to push the envelope with music, especially in hip-hop, which is known to go through periods of stagnation. But with this album, I feel like Kanye is pushing it just for the sake of doing so.

I will admit that Black Skinhead is a great song, and will undoubtedly be featured in 20 movies within the next year. But other than that, Yeezus is average at best.