rolling donda thread

its kind of understandable though, a decade of unparalleled greatness followed by a dramatic and very public downfall is just a naturally intriguing story. everyone loves a comeback story. its the same reason why sportswriters could not shut the fuck up about Tiger Woods even when he was badly missing the cut by like 10 strokes. I think Tiger's a scumbag but him winning the Masters two years ago was legitimately one of the coolest things to ever happen in sports. and while what he's been doing lately sucks it at least sucks in kind of an interesting way. that said nobody would give a fuck about this album if anyone else had done it which is why I'll probably never listen to it again.

looks like 'donda' is heading towards the biggest album debut of the year so far

.@kanyewest's #DONDA headed for #1 debut on the US albums chart with 300K+ first week, headed for biggest 2021 debut. More updates through the week (via @HITSDD).

— chart data (@chartdata) August 30, 2021

carti sounds so awesome on “off the grid”

a decade of unparalleled greatness

2004-2014, pretty good

most greatness went perpendicular

I don't necessarily agree with that myself, I've always felt Kanye was wildly overrated, just saying a lotta people really like everything he did up to Yeezus at least

I would take Kendrick 10-20 over kanye 04-14
i would take TI 03-13 over kanye 04-14
hell, i would take TMBG 88-98 over Kanye 04-14

Kanye means a lot to people the way the Beatles mean a lot to people. When he first emerged, he stood out for his frankness and vulnerability in a rap scene dominated by machismo. Also the first few albums were just addictively listenable and felt fresh and inventive. A lot has happened since then but it’s no surprise to me that people are still invested in his music.

i still think going from graduation to 808s is one of the most impressive swerves in any musician's discography

Honestly i think being in high school at that time is part of it. There are many millennials who grew up with Kanye. For these listeners I think the cockiness plays different. Like at least on the first four albums, the “narcissism” was a guy who was clearly insecure, and open about his insecurities, choosing to believe in himself anyway, which is powerful. M

This quality turned rancid after his mom died though. For whatever reason, it seemed like he needed to believe he was a mozart level genius or else he was worthless. He raps about being the best of all time and also about thinking of suicide, very often in the same song. He has an unstable sense of self. Sometimes he turns this into thrilling art but honestly it is not that unique. It is a very recognizable form of mental illness.

What I would like for kanye is not for him to make any more great records, but for him to feel at peace with himself so he no longer needs these narcissistic fantasies. It’s the same thing I would want for anyone similarly struggling.

Like the erratic contrarianism, the grandiosity, the sick attention-grabbing stunts like inviting marilyn manson onstage, it definitely is all coming from a pretty fucked up place. That’s why it’s hard for me to just write him off as an asshole. I feel like that’s why he still has fans. Although some people might just like the spectacle.

i like this record and that feels really pointless bc the conversation around kanye is so poisonous and it's totally something he invited on himself

"pure souls" is so awesome though

his production has gotten so boring

synth pad synth pad synth pad synth pad kick snare patter *lion king ass grandiose singing for like 3-4 minutes* *a rap finally*

like jfc you don't have to repeat every fucking singing line like 27 times before you move on to the next part

this shit is not live to me at all, it's the opposite of everything i value in hip hop

been listening in fits and starts. the pop smoke moment is completely embarrassing. he didn't even bother trying to mix it into the rest of the song. it was clearly a voice note from pop's phone, complete with background noise and a very tinny drill beat that completely clashes with the main instrumental. the verse itself probably never should've seen the light of day, but of course v*ctor and co. will never turn down a check.

hell, i would take TMBG 88-98 over Kanye 04-14

TMBG 04-14 even :)

Of course you'd say that.

xxp this is why I find it odd that it's just taken as a given that "Kanye is the best hip-hop producer of all time". what exactly does "producer" mean in that context? because from a technical perspective, even back on MBDTF, it seems clear sometimes that he's doing things in a really clumsy way, just time-stretching stuff and leaving everything brickwalled so it sounds the same on $5 headphones as it would on a big setup. if they're talking about the sounds he uses and how he combines certain things, that I get, but is that "production"?

the overblown, wall of sound of mbdtf was an artistic choice, like it or not.

producer in hip-hop generally means "person who creates the instrumental backing track"

Genuine question: is he considered the greatest producer in hip-hop?

Genuine question: is he considered the greatest producer in hip-hop?

By idiots, sure.

Sorely missing an interpolation of this track at the end of the album as a quasi-callback to "Fade"/Pablo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUlRx5IU1dM

^that on repeat for 1h 48 mins >>>>>>>>>>> this album

kanye sucks but not nearly to the degree that i'm not still going to listen to anything new he puts out out of morbid curiosity, or delete his back catalogue from my library, etc

the only thing this album has over pablo is it doesn't have the real wtf misogynist lyrical moments that pablo did, which were some of his worst (or maybe it does and i didn't pay enough attention, that's possible, but either way they're not the same jarring presence). nothing on this comes close to the best stuff on pablo - "ultralight beam", "30 hours", "fade", "highlights", "no more parties in la", etc. and i don't really rate pablo much at all

Genuine question: is he considered the greatest producer in hip-hop?

By idiots, sure.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, August 30, 2021 3:31 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i don't deal in this kind of hyperbole but i think the guy that produced "drive slow" was/is very good at what he does

it’s not worth engaging the trolls who come out and say he was “never good” or whatever

Two points before I leave this thread:

1. Kanye was definitely great once upon a time, he got lost in the way and he’s a fucking burned out asshole nowadays, but he was a great producer and an artist with a vision a decade ago.

2. I only listened once to this album albeit skipping pretty much half of the tracks after a minute. I don’t want to support him but got morbid. Immediatly regret it as I don’t want to be involved in most of the conversations in here or other forums regarding this album. People have been in heavy denial because they think the old kanye is still somewhere in there. I think this is the final nail in the coffin for me.

godspeed

been listening in fits and starts. the pop smoke moment is completely embarrassing. he didn't even bother trying to mix it into the rest of the song. it was clearly a voice note from pop's phone, complete with background noise and a very tinny drill beat that completely clashes with the main instrumental. the verse itself probably never should've seen the light of day, but of course v*ctor and co. will never turn down a check.

there's a more complete though still pointless & embarrassing version on the posthumous pop smoke album this year which only makes the one on this album seem even more confusing

even though it's basically panning it the p4k review comes across as way too generous to this lol

it got interesting for a bit when you focused on style, fashion, stadium events etc., but once manson & co hit the stage - turned out there's hardly any substance

You’ll notice: P4K FINALLY rated him below a 7.0.

this is why I find it odd that it's just taken as a given that "Kanye is the best hip-hop producer of all time".

i don't even think he's top 10

lol I forgot they gave Jesus is King a 7.2, what a joke

no fan but Donda is better than JiK

I actually like jesus is king more than this, i think. People were understandably turned off by the MAGA stuff when that dropped, which led people to say, insanely, that it was worse than ye.

synth pad synth pad synth pad synth pad kick snare patter *lion king ass grandiose singing for like 3-4 minutes* *a rap finally*

You can dismissively describe anything that way though.

People were understandably turned off by the MAGA stuff when that dropped

MAGA, Jesus, bad couture, Musk-like behaviour...take your pick

His production work for Pusha and Nas in recent years has been great and has also made it hard to resist not listening to any of his albums since Pablo but somehow I'm managing

He found a way out of the materialism+misogyny that was so constant (the “meet me in the bathroom stall” verse of even one of his best songs). That’s the stuff I could never get past with him. The lack of status symbols and negging on the last two albums have kept them from having those lowest low points (sweet and sour, bleached asshole, etc.).

You can dismissively describe anything that way though.

― treeship., Tuesday, August 31, 2021 9:30 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

No you can't

U Pussy. U really wore that trump hat too. You did a-lot of corny shit in ur career and got a pass. Bitch ass nigga apologize to Taylor swift @kanyewest

— Soulja Boy (Draco) (@souljaboy) August 31, 2021

ye is just kinda boring but it's still more listenable than the two since

just toning down the misogyny from his very worst moments and adding in a bunch of inane even by his standards religious stuff isn't really much of an improvement

& the music itself has really declined too of course

haven’t listened to this yet but life of pablo is awesome, i didnt realize there we’re ppl who dont like it

iirc pablo did not appreciate having his life aired out like that

i pretty much loved life of pablo, dumb lyrics and all

I love pablo.

That’s just the waaaaave.

i always forget that ilm doesn’t like any kanye after graduation/808s. weird