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

also, is nebraska just kind of in the air these days? a.o. scott spent the first two paragraphs of his review of alexander payne's "nebraska" talking about the springsteen album.

― i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Thursday, November 28, 2013 12:11 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thats probly cuz its called nebraska

um, yeah, sure. i don't recall anyone spending two paragraphs in their review of payne's "the descendants" talking about the band of the same name. but maybe i don't read enough reviews.

wouldnt be at all surprised if he 'scientifically' studies other careers. everyone knows how he studies MJ, who was also a student of his predecessors, so i wouldnt be surprised if kanyes doing the same. nebraska/springsteen seems a weird one w/r/t yeezus lol but i think he knows that kinda thing is catnip for music critics (and also helps show hes not just listening to what people expect he would listen to - makes me think of how in that BEE podcast he was saying 'hey i dont just watch movies with black people!'). i wanted him to do another yeezus personally but im interested to see what his idea of a born in the usa is.

um, yeah, sure. i don't recall anyone spending two paragraphs in their review of payne's "the descendants" talking about the band of the same name. but maybe i don't read enough reviews.

― i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Thursday, November 28, 2013 12:41 PM (46 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha, funny that you only had to reach for another alexander payne movie for that comparison

a.o. scott spent the first two paragraphs of his review of alexander payne's "nebraska" talking about the springsteen album.

Hahahahahhahaa.

Also: Woody Guthrie, superstar, equally lol.

Also also, "808s" was "Nebraska" and "Tunnel of Love" at the same time.

i tried to listen to the whole album for the first time since it came out and man it's so good until 2:52 into "new slaves" and then it just DROPS OFF A CLIFF and dies

"bound 2" is so harshly-produced and grating, like early kanye on bad coke

actually i like assassin's verse but there's just something so groanworthy about using jamaican artists as signifiers of ~gravitas

also there is literally nothing interesting or indeed attention-holding about the "bound 2" video

do you think the Charlie Wilson bit is misplaced? I can't stand it. I KNOW YOU'RE TIIIRED yes I know you know stfu

it does sound a bit spliced-in randomly but that's in keeping with the album generally - but yeah it doesn't work on "bound 2" at all

idk, the harshness and abrasiveness that makes the opening stretch so incredible is precisely what makes "bound 2" gross-sounding to me

I like Send It Up but yeah, the first 12 minutes of this album >>>>>> the rest of it.

Nebraska the album and Nebraska the movie also share a poster font and black-and-white photography and Nebraska the state.

Maybe Rick Rubin put the comparison in his head, telling him Nebraska and Born in the USA came from the same sessions.

"Before he even asked me to work on it, I said, 'Maybe you should make it more concise. Maybe this is two albums. Maybe this is just the first half."

He added: "That was one of the first breakthroughs. Kanye was like, 'That's what I came here today to hear! It could be 10 songs!"

In retrospect I'm incredibly grateful to Kanye for not filling Yeezus with songs devoted to disappointing meetings about pants and shoes. I can go with his I Am God brand of obnoxiousness because there's humour in it but his current obsession with listing brands that have snubbed him is so petty and diminishing. I'd hate him to waste a good beat on this crap.

It would be awesome if "Black Skinhead" was his first step toward doing a hard rock album.

I really love the structure of the album. I agree that it goes completely off a cliff during New Slaves, but the next part, Hold My Liquor->Blood On the Leaves is just so intense and abrasive that I'm spellbound. And then the last three tracks really seem like a relief, oddly, since they would be off-putting on any other album but this one.

In an interview to promote his Yeezus tour, Kanye told radio station Power 105 that his daughter “is in a position of a level of royalty like the Prince and Princess in London,” appearing to refer to Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, who was pregnant at the same time as Kardashian.

Then, discussing his video for “Bound 2,” which features a naked Kim straddling Kanye on a motorcycle, and sparked a spoof from James Franco and Seth Rogen, Kanye said, “I want to show you that this is ‘The Hunger Games’ . . . And the only difference is a black dude in the middle of it . . . I’m like Marina Abramovic.”

He continued, “This is, like, performance art.” Later in the day he was interviewed on radio station Shade 45 and raved, “I’m standing up, and I’m telling you, I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.”

Kanye and Gaga should go head to head over rights to Marina Abramovic and the ghost of Andy Warhol.

do what u want with his body

“I’m standing up, and I’m telling you, I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.” Well, he's sorta right about this, tbh.

Which bit? The middle sentence I can go with.

This guy is so delusional

xpost: I think the three parts go together

Who has he had an impact on? I dont see him spawning imitators or initiating huge structural or formal shifts. He's about as "impactful" as james franco.

Hey, maybe Kanye IS like Shakespeare. Keats: "At once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously - I mean Negative Capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason."

He has been responsible for formal shifts Shakey, eg Stronger sparked hip hop's embrace of EDM and 808s gave us Drake-style rich-guy-is-sad rap.

I was impressed he made the claim that "Yeezus" was his "Nebraska" and that his next album will be his "Born in the USA." That's a relatively left-field reference for a rapper to make.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, November 27, 2013 8:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Maybe Rick Rubin put the comparison in his head, telling him Nebraska and Born in the USA came from the same sessions.

― Bailey (Collins) Lover (Eazy), Thursday, November 28, 2013 3:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

guys, seriously?

black artists don't listen to rock, SILLY

Especially not a guy who's sampled dozens of classic rock records

all of these interviews pretty much confirm to me that kanye is kind of a dull person

i watched that power 105 interview on youtube and came away feeling sorry for everyone involved

xpost I dunno, it seemed an unexpected reference to me. Kanye, like a lot of people, knows Bruce Springsteen is a superstar. Kanye, like a lot of people, knows "Born in the USA" was a huge record. But not many people outside of critics talk about "BitUSA" in the context of the smaller, quieter, less-commercial album that came before it. I mean, I'm sure "Nebraska" poked over platinum, but it sold a fraction of what monocultural moment "Born" sold, and falls slightly out of the realm of mere classic rock record, imo, so I really respect Kanye for bringing up one of the Ur non-commercial tandem companions to a huge blockbuster, doing more than awkwardly name dropping. I would have been just as pleasantly surprised had he called "Yeezus" his "Almost Blue."

Anyway, I'm on board with the Louis Vuitton boycott. Where do I sign up?

I don't think this Nebraska is worth a damn bunch; it's a bunch of white dudes impressed by Kanye's ka-nowledge.

all of these interviews pretty much confirm to me that kanye is kind of a dull person

otm

i don't find kanye objectionable per se but neither do i find him interesting, either in saying much of note or in being all that ~crazy

feel a bit caught between the racist mainstream media intent on portraying him as the angry ranty black man and his mad stans who look for real political import in everything he does

and it's certainly a tough competition these days but i'm pretty sure kanye fans are the MOST insistent out of any fanbase these days, revering every nonsense thing he does. so easy to thrill. i was a teenage tori amos fan, game recognise game

Your second strawman depends on your first strawman.

Sorry, wrong word. I should say your second extreme depends on your first. Once you take the Salon writer's line that basically all criticism or mockery of Kanye is racist then your only response is to go hard in the opposite direction and make out that everything he does is brilliant.

well, not all criticism of kanye is racist, but a significant proportion is, esp in the mainstream/non-music press, eg any time he opens his mouth it's called a "rant". and yeah, that's what the fanboys are reacting to. (rihanna gets this in a vaguely similar way) (it's probably a function of how huge they are really)

"I am brave heart of dreamers"

He's such a unique personality that it's hard to untangle the impulses behind the criticism except when, say, the Daily Mail shows its hand by writing "black rapper Kanye West". I can't think of a white artist who could say the things he's been saying this year, or make a video like Bound 2, and not be similarly mocked. I mean, when Tom Cruise jumped up and down on the sofa he was a laughing stock. And yet at the same time there's racially coded language in some publications.

I will always support Kanye but I kinda don't need to hear him talk about stuff more than once or twice a year. It's...jarring.

I both love and hate writing about Kanye because within a week I end up disagreeing with at least some aspect what I last wrote. I always feel as if I'm either too critical or not critical enough or critical in the wrong ways, because he keeps pinballing between genius and embarrassment, between sharp insight and addled bullshit.

“I’m standing up, and I’m telling you, I am Warhol. I am the No. 1 most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh.”

Just watched his video with Kim K in it this morning, hilarious btw, wild horses running free as they have sex on a bike, and it makes this even more amusing. He is also such a terrible rapper. He's just better at being P Diddy than P Diddy was.

Always interesting to parse what people actually mean when they say Kanye is a terrible rapper.

i was a teenage tori amos fan, game recognise game

<3

Always interesting to parse what people actually mean when they say Kanye is a terrible rapper.

― tsrobodo, Friday, November 29, 2013 11:22 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^he matches having nothing to say with an inability to say it...

bit late to this but who exactly is surprised that record nerd kanye knows about bruce springsteen albums??

Who's Bruce Springsteen

Some guy that used to hang out with lou reed

aka the steendriver