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

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

I kind of...don't? Not since WTT.

i'm not convinced kanye really hates himself

yeah i really don't buy this at all, either

Almost every solo thing Kanye has done starting with 808s has been dripping with self-loathing

i feel like he can be read that way, there's always been an element of self-loathing, 'i'd rather buy 80 gold chains / and go ignant'

xp!

maybe he loathes the position he's in in our culture but i don't think he loathes himself

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 11:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is def otm imo--in my encounters with deej's world of young people there's total awe over MBTF & even WTT which i have just never given half a good goddamn about

it can be hard to tell the two apart xp

i've always heard it as more solipsism x buying into the tortured artist myth

i mean doubtless he has moments of self-dislike, as all humans do, but i don't think it seems pathological

i can't believe that, of all people, ilx posters are unable to comprehend the overlap between anger at the outside world and self-loathing

damn

my beautiful dark twisted message board

lol n/a

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

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, May 22, 2013 10:47 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you... do know what a pun... is, right?

he listens to kanye west of course he does

do you know what homophobia is?

out of interest were the boston bombers considered white?

lex there were like 50 threads that dealt with that q

depends on who you ask ime

i never got the sense that the kardashians were considered white but i'll cede to kanye on this

well the question would be, were the kardashians considered anything else? if not, then they're white

^^^

ime people with heritage from that part of the world (turkey, the caucasus) who have lighter skin than people who'd be referred to as "black" or "brown" but who also definitely don't have standard white european features are just referred to by the nationality of their heritage (when it's mentioned)

the last parentheses is key

lex there were like 50 threads that dealt with that q

there was one, and i didn't read it because it was so -fast-moving

defining ethnicity by how much it's mentioned is kinda weird. we know there are certain things ethnic minorities can do to be less defined by their background, whether that's class/financial privilege or not living within their immigrant community

It's not really that weird when you consider that race in the US is defined by how far you deviate from being generically white/how easily your ethnicity can assimilate into being generically white.

defining ethnicity by how much it's mentioned is kinda weird. we know there are certain things ethnic minorities can do to be less defined by their background, whether that's class/financial privilege or not living within their immigrant community

I'm a lil sympathetic but see Sergio garcias comments today