Kanye West

[Norah]

Looking forward to the review. I saw Kanye in 2005 supporting "Late Registration" and he personally was great, very intense, but the fact that his backing was basically just his CD being played really loud through the sound system really flattened the impact of the performance.

i'lll post my review this weekend

Another broken promise.

[Lament]

I started going back and listening to a lot of records that came out in the 10s now that we're approaching the halfway mark, and MBDTF and Yeezus just stand up so amazingly well against everything else. There's seriously a chance they're my #1 and #2 favorites for the decade so far (MBDTF is undoubtedly #1). I've been digging back into the first four as well for the first time in a few years as a result of that, and I'm ready to put this guy's work alongside the primes of Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, and Prince as the heights of American popular music. I can't think of a single artist in my time as a music fan who regularly places albums in the Top 200 (let alone top two) while absolutely deconstructing and pushing the boundaries of his sound as much as Kanye has. He's become one of those artists (for me) who makes everyone else's work look mild, meek, conservative, and boring by example.

[Orpheus]

I did not get the praise for Yeezus. Some good songs but it hardly seemed that advanced to me. Dark Fantasy was a much more interesting album in my book. Although that may have more to do with being a big Death Grips fan before I heard it.

[Lament]

I really enjoyed Yeezus when it came out, but at the time thought it was probably only his 4th best album. I haven't been able to stop listening to it for the past month though. New Slaves, Hold My Liquor, and I'm In It are three of my absolute favorite things he's ever done. I dunno, I'm in a much darker place emotionally now than I was when it first came out (TMI I'm sure, but we all know these things play a part in how we receive things), so maybe that's why it's striking such a chord with me at the moment. There's little else I find myself ever reaching to put on these days.

[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.

[Lament]

I have not heard them. I will definitely check them out though. Thanks for the suggestion.

[William Bloke]

:postsabouthowmuchhedislikeskanyehere:

[Lament]

Just finished The Money Store. It made a very good first impression on me. I'm gonna have to play it a few more times this week. Thanks again for the suggestion.

[Orpheus]

Just finished The Money Store. It made a very good first impression on me. I'm gonna have to play it a few more times this week. Thanks again for the suggestion.

That makes me very happy. I easily listened to it for 6 months straight after getting into it. They have a few other great albums as well.

[Lament]

Yeah, I was gonna say when The Money Store ended, No Love Deep Web starting playing (I'm listening on YouTube) and I think I may even be more into this one on first lesson than I was the first one.

[Alex]

MBDTF
Late Registration
Graduation
Yeezus
College Dropout
808s and Heartbreak

[Kevin Davis]

Kanye's first five albums comprise one of my favorite runs of music in recent memory. "College Dropout" was such a great believe-the-hype, rookie-of-the-year moment -- wide-eyed, a little naive (sometimes strangely goofy), but with all the elements of his genius set firmly in place, from his orchestral, "Sgt. Pepper"-like approach to sampling to his penchant for lucid, sentimental narrative; "Late Registration" sealed the deal, a sharper, more refined version of the original product enhanced by a heightened sense of delivery, an almost Dylanesque knack for pitching his voice to a line, an individual word, even a vocalized pause (nobody has a better "huh?" in the business); "Graduation" with its lush ear candy, its streamlined album length and jettisoning of intros, skits, etc. lending a sense of profundity to the superficiality; "808's," in many ways the anti-"Graduation," self-indulgent emotion in lieu of self-indulgent excess, its ickier tendencies rendered secondary by the record's sense of academic exercise, in which a high-stakes artist at the fore of innovation within his own genre challenges himself to profile the damaged human heart using outdated technology and a vocal modification device widely regarded as the zenith of anti-emotion; and "Dark Twisted Fantasy," the magnum opus arriving yet again on the heels of unreasonable hype that it somehow managed to exceed, so great at times it seems difficult to believe it was made by human beings occupying this planet. The "GOOD Friday" tracks that came out around this time were fitting companion pieces, too -- welcome reminders that sometimes even famous musicians on serious payroll still hunker down and make music for fun. In their weird, egomaniacal way, they're Kanye's "Basement Tapes," with "Christmas in Harlem" serving as a welcome throwback to the "Family Business"/"Hey Mama" sentimentality of his first couple records.

"Yeezus" was the right move artistically but it exceeded my thresholds. My feelings about it, which haven't changed, are well-documented here: http://forums.theskyiscrape.com/viewtop ... nye+yeezus

[Jorge]

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.

[Rangi Guy]

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?

[Alex]

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

[Rangi Guy]

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.

[Lament]

Ye still gives his love, he just gives it away.

[malice]

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.

or to marry kim kardashian, i think.

[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.

To be far I think most rock stars/musicians are insecure and take themselves way too seriously.

Ye still gives his love, he just gives it away.

Hi Lament!

[Alex]

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.