Kanye West

[BigRedLedbetter]

I kinda gave up listening to Kanye a while back - is he still trying to convince us of how much of a genius he is in his lyrics?

if that's a concern for you, you might not want to listen to hip-hop or read any of my posts

Duly noted - it just makes me think how insecure someone must be to have to constantly tell you how amazing they are.

i affirm the amazing nature of so many things. i just happen to be one of them.

Probably the best quote ever.

[Lament]

Hi Lament!

Hi #BRL.

[Orpheus]

New Slaves is definitely a phenomenal song. I listened to it a lot this summer to get hyped for shows I was in. It's fucking nasty.

Have you heard Death Grips? You should give their album The Money Store a listen. I feel like they had a big influence on parts of Yeezus.

Yeah Death Grips are great. I got way into them after you showed me Takyon. They split up recently, yeah?

I'm still not much of a fan of Yeezus, but Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is undeniable. What a great album.

Yeah they broke up, went out pretty cool though as they released two more albums basically right before they did. And one of them had a song called "Black Quarterback" with a Bjork sample. So yeah, big Death Grips fan over here.

[Orpheus]

Also, Kanye has never been a great rapper. He is kind of the musical equivalent of a decent athlete that is a great coach/GM. There's a reason he rarely raps on stuff he doesn't produce. He's Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady.

[Alex]

Also, Kanye has never been a great rapper. He is kind of the musical equivalent of a decent athlete that is a great coach/GM. There's a reason he rarely raps on stuff he doesn't produce. He's Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady.

i think there is real potential in rapper and football player/coach comparisons:

Michael Vick=DMX
Aaron Rodgers=Jay-Z
Ben Roethlisberger=Mystikal
Ndamukong Suh=Bonecrusher
Carson Palmer=Big Sean
Terry Bradshaw and Lynn Swann=Eric B and Rakim
Oakland Raiders=Arrested Development

[Kevin Davis]

Also, Kanye has never been a great rapper. He is kind of the musical equivalent of a decent athlete that is a great coach/GM. There's a reason he rarely raps on stuff he doesn't produce. He's Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady.

Whether or not he's a great rapper in the technical sense, I do like him on the mic -- he has a gift for things (e.g. inflection, emphasis, phrasing) that are more important to me than an impeccable flow, same as Dylan and Tom Waits and similarly "bad singers" possess something distinctly charismatic in their deliveries that are more important to me than a classically beautiful singing voice. For me that transcends his tendency to trip over rhythms and occasionally fall back on stupid rhymes, offenses which I feel are not unjustly pointed out but still somewhat overstated.

[LoathedVermin72]

Also, Kanye has never been a great rapper. He is kind of the musical equivalent of a decent athlete that is a great coach/GM. There's a reason he rarely raps on stuff he doesn't produce. He's Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady.

Whether or not he's a great rapper in the technical sense, I do like him on the mic -- he has a gift for things (e.g. inflection, emphasis, phrasing) that are more important to me than an impeccable flow, same as Dylan and Tom Waits and similarly "bad singers" possess something distinctly charismatic in their deliveries that are more important to me than a classically beautiful singing voice. For me that transcends his tendency to trip over rhythms and occasionally fall back on stupid rhymes, offenses which I feel are not unjustly pointed out but still somewhat overstated.

I have nothing to add here, but I just want to say that this was a great post.

[Monkey_Driven]

Also, Kanye has never been a great rapper. He is kind of the musical equivalent of a decent athlete that is a great coach/GM. There's a reason he rarely raps on stuff he doesn't produce. He's Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady.

Whether or not he's a great rapper in the technical sense, I do like him on the mic -- he has a gift for things (e.g. inflection, emphasis, phrasing) that are more important to me than an impeccable flow, same as Dylan and Tom Waits and similarly "bad singers" possess something distinctly charismatic in their deliveries that are more important to me than a classically beautiful singing voice. For me that transcends his tendency to trip over rhythms and occasionally fall back on stupid rhymes, offenses which I feel are not unjustly pointed out but still somewhat overstated.

I have nothing to add here, but I just want to say that this was a great post.

Yup. Well said.

[Alex]

couldn't afford a car, so she named her daughter alexis

[Orpheus]

Also, Kanye has never been a great rapper. He is kind of the musical equivalent of a decent athlete that is a great coach/GM. There's a reason he rarely raps on stuff he doesn't produce. He's Bill Belichick, not Tom Brady.

Whether or not he's a great rapper in the technical sense, I do like him on the mic -- he has a gift for things (e.g. inflection, emphasis, phrasing) that are more important to me than an impeccable flow, same as Dylan and Tom Waits and similarly "bad singers" possess something distinctly charismatic in their deliveries that are more important to me than a classically beautiful singing voice. For me that transcends his tendency to trip over rhythms and occasionally fall back on stupid rhymes, offenses which I feel are not unjustly pointed out but still somewhat overstated.

That's fair. I consider him more of an overall songwriter than a pure rap artist (which is a credit to him) so I view it kind of differently. Like I'd group him with Stevie Wonder or Prince before someone like Danny Brown, not that he's nearly on the level of the former two. I don't know that Kanye could do a song with no hook, for example. It's just not his bag. Rapping is a skill that is so near and dear to my heart that I really dig it when people are spectacular at it and I wind up being a hard judge on those who aren't.

[Alex]

this guy is a total godhead

[Lament]

MBDTF
Late Registration
Graduation
Yeezus
College Dropout
808s and Heartbreak

I think for me (at the moment) it's...

MBDTF
Yeezus
808s
Graduation
Late Registration
College Dropout

this guy is a total godhead

He's probably no Ryan Adams, though.

[Kevin Davis]

http://m.pitchfork.com/news/57934-kanye ... -only-one/

While I favor the return of sentimental "Family Business" Kanye over the path he was taking on his last album, this is...not what I was hoping for.

[Jorge]

Yeah that's kinda not good

[mastaflatch]

why do people keep on using this absolutely horrid autotune gimmick - pukesing they call it? it was a bad idea when Cher did it almost 20 years ago, it hasn't improved since.

[E.H. Ruddock]

[darth_vedder]

Exactly. Why is this turd still alive and MCA gone. The gods messed up on that one.

[BurtReynolds]

Why does he think Grammy's are so important? Who fucking cares?

[Kaius]

That was my initial thought. Does anyone give a shit about Grammys anymore?

[E.H. Ruddock]

That was my initial thought. Does anyone give a shit about Grammys anymore?

The kids do, Kaius. Think of the kids.