Kanye West - Dark Twisted Fantasy

"Family Business" is narrative but it's also very autobiographical

one of the reasons i used to dig kanye's writing is that even though he's not all that brilliant and really might be solipsistic to the point of pathology, it was necessary because he wasn't very rich for that solipsism to interface with a world that wasn't built around it, and kanye wrote songs about that. like, something like "we don't care" is still about kanye, and about kanye's impetuous emotions and messiah complex, but it's also about the sociopolitics of being black and lower-middle in chicago, or anywhere, and the intersection of this big social problem and this big specific ego had all the friction and weirdness and revelations of decent fiction. the reason i don't really like any of the writing on dark twisted fantasy is that as interaction with a world not constructed on his terms has become less and less necessary for this guy, his songs have become more neatly and completely about What It's Like To Be Kanye, which isn't that interesting to me. i did notice that "all of the lights" was fiction, and was interested in it because of that, but unless i'm missing some key lines it's basically a "i have been an asshole and am paying for it and kind of wish i weren't but i suppose i ought to" narrative, which, regardless of the details, is The Kanye Narrative, so it's really not all that special.

otm

"Family Business" is narrative but it's also very autobiographical

Maybe, but I tend to assume artists embroider if not lie.

also come on, lol

http://i17.tinypic.com/6ptj2ua.gif

whether Kanye is lying or manufacturing any details is beside the point, which is that "Family Business" is 'about' him telling stories from his own life in a way that "All Of The Lights" is not

Oh sure -- I never argued that. I adduced "Family Business" as an example of his narrative gifts, which have almost entirely eroded.

i should expand "i have been an asshole and am paying for it and kind of wish i weren't but i suppose i ought to" to include "...and i'm not paying for it all that much anyway cuz i'm rich, lol", which is probably (for me) the thing that keeps all the supposedly fascinating self-aware assholism from being dramatic or interesting.

holey moley, batman!

^^^who is this? xp

i'm not paying for it all that much anyway cuz i'm rich, lol", which is probably (for me) the thing that keeps all the supposedly fascinating self-aware assholism from being dramatic or interesting.

i feel that this should be true, and am not sure why i find his "i'm not just a total asshole (sad), but a fabulously wealthy total asshole, so eat me" shtick so funny. it's not dramatic or interesting, but it amuses me. he's a like a three stooges of all moes.

Depends on how funny you find his lyrical and vocal pratfalls.

^^^who is this?

was wondering the same thing

a rock critic/generalist

xp -- yeah that "(for me)" wasn't boilerplate; i know that shtick is exactly what amuses/interests lots of people who love this album. the rapper i really liked this year was curren$y, who sits on his couch taking bong rips and eating ritz crackers while acting like he has fuck-you money. maybe i just liked him cuz that was my summer.

deej: i dunno, a guy?

also a rock critic/generalist

sigh the polite thing is to ask "who are you?" when the person is in the thread rather than talk about them as if they weren't there

point taken. hi DLH.

hi!

(my name's theon and this is me.)

Oh, what up Theon! We met once. (I'm R0dney Gr3ene btw)

were you at EMP in '08, Rev? I think so. If yes, then you've met twice.

i remember the Rev at EMP 07 (hey!), but i don't remember much of anything from 08. i was distraught.

I don't remember bumping into him at the 08 EMP.

at the 07 EMP, you cheerfully asked me "so where are you from?" and i said "stylus magazine?" in an if-you've-heard-of-that voice, and you pointed at your nametag and said "um me too i meant where are you from" and i felt like a jackass

that whole trip was kind of a long series of social errors though. still awesome.

Hahaha. I completely forgot about that.

"stylus magazine?"

awesome answer, no snark

why is everyone being all 'manners please!' around here lately? i didnt mean anything by it \oO/

anyway i think curren$y does have money! seems pretty likely

Hi, DLH! While we're all 'hello'ing, figured I'd throw in that you've been throwing truthbombs left right and centre for the past week or two.

Especially, this

intersection of this big social problem and this big specific ego had all the friction and weirdness and revelations of decent fiction. the reason i don't really like any of the writing on dark twisted fantasy is that as interaction with a world not constructed on his terms has become less and less necessary for this guy, his songs have become more neatly and completely about What It's Like To Be Kanye

which I've been struggling to articulate for a month or two now.

stylus r.i.p., that was my favorite shit ever

thanks alex! i struggled to articulate it for a couple months too; that was basically a transcription of a prepared speech.

curren$y definitely has more money than me but this thread's about kanye west -- and anyway all i meant was that the stuff curren$y brags about doing is often stuff any 22-year-old slacker could do with a day off and some weed money. (except for when he claims to be flying on planes where everyone is high, which i don't think he has enough money for.) he just acts like it's really awesome and rarefied. which it is!

weird that this thread was close by,

thinking about the ramones made me dislike this album even more, because it reminds me how much they accomplished with so little and how little this album accomplishes with so much

it's like the opposite of what hip hop meant to me, the way that an amazing beat and amazing rapper could really just knock you out.

h3lg brings *law*

kanyewest: I just threw some kazoo on this bitch

I know what he means but at first I imagined him flinging kazoos at some poor old lady

whoa @ rihanna's outfit in the "all of the lights" video

http://www.vevo.com/watch/kanye-west/all-of-the-lights/USUV71002949

re: video. no fergie, no cred.

video sucks, aside from rihanna's rack

Don't really like how they changed up the choruses and ending.

The parts with the words/credits are pretty much a rip of the credits from "Enter The Void".

he's a like a three stooges of all moes.

― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Monday, January 24, 2011 11:03 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

chortled p.hard at this

weirdly I was suddenly hit by the desire to listen to this album earlier today and had just started doing so when I opened the thread

did we eventually reach a consensus on whether Kanye's verses on "Gorgeous" are actually good or just seem that way in comparison to the rest of the album? I incline towards "actually good", although still roll my eyes at some of the punchlines ("This week's a bad massage, I need a happy ending")

O_____O rihanna

'All Of The Lights' sucks so much ass I imagine Kayne hacked at Rihanna's frock with a boxcutter to distract from exactly how much his song blows. Always my least favourite on the record.

lol it's basically the best song on the album

Guess Kanye and Hype have been watching Enter The Void. Or they've seen the credits at least

Oh i see Moodles already mentioned that

too much time on ilx files: on the first frame of the video w/ all the names my eyes immediately zeroed in on "jordan" with "keller" directly beneath it"

did the "Monster" video ever officially drop? i remember hearing about teasers and an unfinished leak and thinking "i'll wait until the real thing's out to check for it" and never heard anything else about it.

He wears his influences a bit too boldly, but I guess subtlety is not this man's trademark.

man you guys hyped up rihanna's thing too much, it's just like an outfit that shows her side-boob? gtfo

video's great overall tho!

My jaw hit the floor when I saw Rihanna. I'm not sure it's moved back into place yet.