Kanye West - Dark Twisted Fantasy

Having trouble believing this could be worse than the Deerhunter record.

will win the nobel prizes for peace and mathematics

deerhunter album will only win a caldecott medal

oh god I forgot about "Slow Jamz", which I also hated

ok you're beyond help

"Gold Digger" basically came completely out of left field for me because I had always assumed that lyrically Kanye was going to always piss me off by being incredibly, mind-alteringly stupid in how he used the English language, so it was a real shock to hear a song where I didn't want to send him back to a remedial English class.

He's backslid somewhat on this album; I found a lot of the time I was more enjoying the sound of his voice than what he was actually saying, and some of the things he said that I thought actually displayed some semblance of wit/thought are things people are holding up as the worst possible things anyone has ever said on a hip-hop record ("swallowship" being the flagship exapmle).

Perhaps partially, but it was really hard to read that intention in "Blame Game". But even if that is his intention, I'm still uncomfortable with it. Imho, there is no okay way to talk about choking a woman.

― "I am a fairly respected poster." (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 2:59 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

shouldn't have smoked a bowl halfway thru that post

I've only listened to this once and I really haven't spent as much time parsing it, so I'm not going to say your wrong - it just made me uncomfortable, that was my whole point. I'm not knocking the album for it, that particular song has many many other problems (lol Chris Rock) keeping it from being one of my favorites. But I do respect that the ambiguity he presents, and that you allude to, is part of what is making this whole album so interesting.

(Annoying myself with my your/you're misuse, really shouldn't be trying to do too many things at once right now)

Basically I'm trying to say that you are probably correct wrt your reading snowy, I was just saying that in any context the woman slapping and choking makes me uncomfotable.

yeah I gotcha, it's coo
(kanye west for "most self-consciously offensive" thread 2k11?)

((and as I type that: "this week's a bad massage / I need a happy ending", lol))

The question is: how many of you are playing this during Thanksgiving dinner?

i think this album looks ambitious because all the songs are long and there are lots of extended instrumental bits, but you could also use the word unedited

― questeon the answers (call all destroyer), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 8:18 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

um its only 'unedited' in the sense that 'you would edit it differently' -- he is quite clearly a perfectionist & the sound of this record is v clearly labored over & based on the unfinished versions that leaked early on, 'unedited' isnt the word id use. he wants things to have this largesse. (i disagree w/ this being a good tactic for listenability personally, but saying its 'unedited' is misleading)

what is w/ ppl hating on the chris rock part -- thats an album highlight

xxpost i'm actually serving it. mp3s stuffed in the turkey.

The question is: how many of you are playing this during Thanksgiving dinner?

After watching The Last Waltz.

I think cad means unedited in the sense that you could chop off at least a minute off of all of the songs on this album and literally nobody would notice or care

haha deej, I didn't want to publicly defend the chris rock skit but I'm glad you broached the topic

anyway my new business idea is the VAJAZZLE REUPHOLSTERING SERVICE performed live in your living room

yes xp that is what i mean

"underedited"

i also think its pretty clear what 'ambitious' means Al. i dont know how this is a 'brick wall' to suggest that a rapper making a rock opera w/ long extended instrumentals etc. is pretty obviously ambitious! its not something rappers do! kanye =/= pete townshend! context / audience expectation matters! im with you that its not nearly as musically qualitatively GOOD as most records i heard this year -- im def not ranking it -- but the idea that bcuz you dont like it its not ambitious, or unique, or even interesting, seems way misleading

well more like dude needs an editor besides himself and he needs to listen to that editor

I think cad means unedited in the sense that you could chop off at least a minute off of all of the songs on this album and literally nobody would notice or care

― ＿|￣|○|￣|○|￣|○ (dayo), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 9:56 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah but i think KANYE would care. its not an issue of 'editing' when he wants to to have these extended song lengths & everything

ok, so what dan said then

i dont think this album would really benefit all that much from being less grandiose. im not even sure the songs are there

kanye kind of stopped operating in the sphere of 'what rappers do' back w/ graduation or even 808s didn't he

the Chris Rock part is a highlight because he has a sense of humor and flair for word choices that Kanye is generally short on. although it does go on too long and the speak-n-spell "yeezy taught me" voice makes it creepy.

otm – Kanye shoulda just let him have the entire song.

http://www.theluxuryspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/18.JPG

"kanye reupholstered my pussy"

and trimmed it by four minutes.

xpost

i also think its pretty clear what 'ambitious' means Al. i dont know how this is a 'brick wall' to suggest that a rapper making a rock opera w/ long extended instrumentals etc. is pretty obviously ambitious! its not something rappers do! kanye =/= pete townshend! context / audience expectation matters! im with you that its not nearly as musically qualitatively GOOD as most records i heard this year -- im def not ranking it -- but the idea that bcuz you dont like it its not ambitious, or unique, or even interesting, seems way misleading

― challop and a muff (deej), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 10:58 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Kanye's whole career has been "it's not something rappers do!". so that's supposed to be as exciting after 6 years as it was the first time? are we supposed to be shocked and amazed everytime he does something other rappers don't do for the next 30 years or something?

lol well some people certainly will be

there were a lot of things on the final College Dropout that made me go "wow, he's going all out with this, I didn't really expect all this from the mixtapes", and a lot of things on Late Reg that made me go "wow, he's widening even the scope of Dropout." this just makes me go "this is like Late Registration but with influences and subject matter i'm a lot less interested in."

i dont think this album would really benefit all that much from being less grandiose. im not even sure the songs are there

"Runaway" and "Blame Game" would definitely benefit

like, the Chris Rock skit would make more sense were it its own track rather than cemented to the end of "Blame Game" (and it's not like he's averse to breaking things out into their own tracks, like the "All of the Lights" interlude and the main song, which I actually think would have worked decently as one amalgamated track)

oh boy he is kind of terrible on "All of the Lights" though

(sorry, listening to it again now)

"kanye reupholstered my pussy"

― ＿|￣|○|￣|○|￣|○ (dayo), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 4:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

and trimmed it by four minutes.

xpost

― look at it, pwn3d, made u look at my peen/vadge (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 4:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol

i'm calling it now: this album will top pfork's list, as well as p&j, and will place in ILM's top three -- tempted to say it'll win ILM as well b/c i can't honestly think of something that ppl will vote for on a broader scale

― in a merzbow world, how is kanye ambitious?? (ilxor), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 3:26 PM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark

ILMs list: The-Dream and Joanna Newsom released records this year, plus I can see ilx's own Owen P coming top 5. ALSO bet that Big Boi beats it. And markers can vote for that broken social scene record 17 times.

"All of the Lights" defines what I hate about his "ambition" on this thing: it's long and crams too many instruments.

lol

― aerosmith: the acid house years (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, November 23, 2010 4:05 PM (47 seconds ago) Bookmark

i feel like people are just calling this "prog-rap" because of the song lengths and the King Crimson sample, there's not a lot of formal or sonic innovation here as far as I can tell (and since when did everyone turn into loujag where that's what gets them excited anyway?). i would be fine with a 9-minute "Runaway" if it did something as remotely interesting as, like, Prince's 12" extended mixes of his '80s singles.

the Chris Rock part is a highlight because he has a sense of humor and flair for word choices that Kanye is generally short on. although it does go on too long and the speak-n-spell "yeezy taught me" voice makes it creepy.

― some dude, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 10:00 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i keep hearing it as 'eazy taught me'

tbf a lot of prog doesn't have any formal or sonic innovation either, it's basically just long songs + synths + fancy guitar parts + vocals about hobbits

i just quoted a whole post for the words 'lol'

smdh@self

i feel like people are just calling this "prog-rap" because of the song lengths and the King Crimson sample, there's not a lot of formal or sonic innovation here as far as I can tell (and since when did everyone turn into loujag where that's what gets them excited anyway?). i would be fine with a 9-minute "Runaway" if it did something as remotely interesting as, like, Prince's 12" extended mixes of his '80s singles.

― some dude, Tuesday, November 23, 2010 10:07 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

but isnt that true of like actual prog too? a lot of marketing of 'progressiveness' when really its more or less similar ideas trotted out again&again haha xp to n/a

he wants things to have this largesse.

also deej I am making a conscious and concentrated effort to not be giving you shit all the time because I think you are a good dude with whom I just disagree a lot but "largesse" generally refers to the giving of gifts or money (def. 2 is "generosity of spirit or attitude" but that doesn't seem to be what you're saying) whereas it seems you mean "huge breadth" here so consider this my dark pedantic twisted deej-correction

basically "prog-rap" is dumb but not really any dumber than any other genre name

but isnt that true of like actual prog too? a lot of marketing of 'progressiveness' when really its more or less similar ideas trotted out again&again haha xp to n/a

― challop and a muff (deej), Wednesday, November 24, 2010 12:09 AM (57 seconds ago) Bookmark

yes which is why no band wants to be lumped into the prog ghetto unless they're rush

but is kanye being 'marketed as' progressive or 'dismissed as' prog, i.e. are the associations accumulating to him thru this good/bad/neutral?