Kanye West, Yeezus, 6/18/13 (TBC because who knows anymore)

Well like I said, how well he grapples with it is up for debate and I agree with Lex re: earlier records handling it more intelligently, but just noting the contradiction like that HuffPo piece does as if that is by itself a novel observation about Kanye's music is such a surface read.

People think its weird to like Ye's first two albums the most?

depends on who you talk to, i think there's an emerging generation gap in his fanbase, happens to anyone who's this big for this long

I thought that was common knowledge. Kids huh

lex otm about the first album, although I prefer Graduation to Late Registration because the latter feels so damn long.

and the album ranking cycle begins again in earnest

he's def clearer and more controlled and has more perspective on dropout/registration but he also makes it p clear that if he ever becomes very famous and successful he will go insane more or less exactly like this. that's why you always see him with at least one of his watches. i wouldn't want the last few records to be any different because i really like that trajectory, from clever but besotted observer of the_beast to totally devoured inhabitant. i also like that, as omnipresent villain/lover/foil, consumer capitalism/amerikkka is almost totally indistinguishable from his own lusts. i think that's an important idea for an artist to enact and he couldn't have done it if he'd just kept writing college dropouts.

it really just bums me out, because for all his faults jay figured out a way to get to the same place while still comfortable in his skin. kanye is all pride, no dignity.

well, jay became a curator, no? that's why he never personally embarrasses himself. as a private citizen sure he's got way more dignity than kanye but as an artist in 2013 he's the guy who put together the great gatsby soundtrack.

also feel like there is something important in the "guy the president hangs out with" / "guy the president calls a jackass" dichotomy and if i were trying to make something useful out of my status as a hugely popular artist i would probably want to be the second one. even tho lol i'm sure kanye DESPERATELY wants to be the first.

not just the guy the president calls a jackass, but when the president does it, absolutely nobody says hey that's out of line or has his back at all, it's just yeah prez didn't hold his tongue

that's kind of a terrible place to be imo. it doesn't make him dangerous or counter culture, it just makes him a punchline.

late registration is the best, kanye's still a compelling artist post brain implosion, etc.

yeah, i'm not denying he's Often Ridiculous or saying that because obama calls someone a jackass (it was for swiftgate, right? he was indeed a jackass) that person must be fighting the power. if you're gonna make a kanye/jay comparison tho i think it's relevant: jay has chosen to be cool and quiet. i don't want to overstate the value of friction but i do think people overstate the value of smoothness.

xp

Lex I'm totally with you on kanye's first two albums

I dunno why I think he'll get back to that level, I keep hanging on

depends on who you talk to, i think there's an emerging generation gap in his fanbase, happens to anyone who's this big for this long

― my mans ray manzarek (some dude), Tuesday, May 21, 2013 7:47 PM (2 hours ago)

yep, same with jay

if kanye wasn't obnoxious and constantly contradicting himself he wouldn't be famous. that's his thing.. his albums are extensions of the drama of his public persona, in addition to being for the most part very good. it's his thing. he's supposed to embarrass himself.

People think its weird to like Ye's first two albums the most?

― Spottie_Ottie_Dope, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 7:42 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah it actually depresses me that people hold MBDTF in such high regard. 95% of the time i'm met with pure astonishment when i'm like "yeah it's definitely his worst album"

is it? i think graduation holds that title

fuck, let's rank these things

CD>LR>808s>MBDTF>Graduation

I don't really have an opinion of WTT, held off on listening to it until well after the hype died down and still haven't listened enough.

did i miss an album? i feel like i did

please do not do this

***RANKING KANYE***

ah ok

my bad

kind of feel kanye grappled with that much more smartly and also crucially more empathetically and emotionally on the college dropout and late reg - these days it's more like he's grappling with himself through the lens of it, though the grappling is definitely angrier

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Tuesday, May 21, 2013 7:00 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

this is a salient point but on the other hand i'm not sure what other route he had except to shun superstardom which very few artists are going to do... he's definitely very wrapped up in exactly the things he's trying to examine now. but he still has the touch... "what's a black beetle anyway? / a fucking roach" comes to mind

i actually wish he was more political... one of the problems i had with MBDTF is that i don't give a shit about him choking out his GF and fantasizing about fucking porn stars

er, black beatle

http://lovelyrides.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Volkswagen-Beetle-Black-HD-Wallpaper.jpg

i actually wish he was more political... one of the problems i had with MBDTF is that i don't give a shit about him choking out his GF and fantasizing about fucking porn stars

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, May 21, 2013 11:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm gonna just start declaring that "Hell Of A Life" was low key his first song about Kim

kind of feel kanye grappled with that much more smartly and also crucially more empathetically and emotionally on the college dropout and late reg - these days it's more like he's grappling with himself through the lens of it, though the grappling is definitely angrier

― flamenco drop (lex pretend), Tuesday, May 21, 2013 7:00 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just another OTM on this. when i heard "all falls down" i was sort of knocked out because it felt like he was thinking about things that weren't really out there in rap music, and also weren't even necessarily out there in as interesting or thoughtful ways in cultural discussions more generally -- like he was actually opening up a discussion for some people. It was mixed but there was so much potential. And maybe "school spirit" wasn't as unique as a whole, but it was certainly something new as far as rap went. And then he's developed musically since then (even though his earlier productions are just as good, if different...) but it feels like even by the second album he was less able to address anything outside his own head, and i lost track for a few years and all of a sudden he was a punchline.

I'm glad he wants to try and turn things up lyrically but A) it was easier for him when he had a more explicitly goofy sense of humor [oh man "we don't care" got away with so much because it couched it as a gag -- "joke's on you we're still alive" is just brutal] and B) new slaves is really really incoherent.

http://3lc3lc3lc.tumblr.com/post/51064842008/who-will-survive-in-america-who-will-survive-in

yeah that's good apart from 1) i'm not convinced kanye really hates himself 2) kim kardashian is white?

she isn't?

she's ethnically armenian

most people in America consider Armenians white

that counts as 'white' in america fwiw

i'm just confused how excited ppl are about "kanye being political" when a) there's some obvious homophobic something something in the sword-swallower bit and b) the song is incoherent. i mean i'm excited about the potential of him being more lyrically interesting but...

the kardashians are only sometimes counted as 'white' depending on who's talking and also darker skinned armenians are just considered obv nonwhite on the face of it.

i've never thought of the kardashians, or armenians, as white tbh

i'm just confused how excited ppl are about "kanye being political"

idk why it merits excitement either, when as that blog itself points out, kanye has always been political (cf the knife)

i remain unimpressed by your ability to remain unimpressed

Despite his egotism and incoherence, I'm excited that he's taking on this particular topic. Corporate prisons and the overall justice system in the US is a major catastrophe that barely gets the attention it deserves. I have to applaud anyone who can bring more focus to such a seriously fucked up situation even if it's done in a less than perfect manner.

the kardashians are white - just look at how popular their show is

The "swallower" line ruins "New Slaves" for me.

Not unlike the mall/stall lines of N's in Paris.

I'm so out of the Kanye loop that I had no idea about his thing with Kardashian.

alfred that's being out of, like, the LIFE loop. people who have never heard a kanye song know that. no wonder you hate biographical criticism

at the grocery store I check out People's 50 Most Beautiful lists and read Vanity Fair. Dat's dat.

it's easy to remove yourself from celebrity culture if you never gave a damn about it.

i'm not sure how it's possible to keep up with kanye in any sense and have no idea that he's dating kim kardashian

anyway

there's some obvious homophobic something something in the sword-swallower

i don't think this is homophobic at all, it's just a pun