Rap Game Pablo Picasso: Yeezus the Album in Retrospect

 Needless to say I've tried to write this review many times over. In one case, I didn't like what I came up with. In another, my computer lost everything I had written up that had been even halfway decent. And so I'll give this one more go, because this is the kind of attention that one Kanye West has come to warrant. In his music and elsewhere. And so I'll examine this piece of work in a bit of a different way. Which shouldn't be too hard because my music reviews still don't have much of set structure and I'm still not the best. I'm still gonna try though. That's what I do.

This might get complicated and you probably won't know how I feel about this cut until the end of this piece because, frankly, this album is complicated. It was produced primarily in Paris under the watchful robot eyes of French house duo Daft Punk and released with little fanfare or promotion. And with only ten tracks I considered doing a track by track breakdown. But I decided against it. For one, I'd like to not overstay my welcome. And secondly, it would make this review unpleasant to write. With each subsequent listen of the album I keep finding myself going back to the same 4 songs or so. So instead, I'll focus on the qualities I enjoyed, criticize the things I didn't care for and further break down the tracks that really “got me goin'!” [sic]

New Slaves is a really dynamic piece. Not my favorite cut but by my money it's the best. Reason being: we see Kanye at his best lyrically. We know what the expectations should be for the beats and I'll get into that later, but his lyricism has always been a hit or miss. In many cases, you say, “Well, Kanye, that was pretty slick.” But in others you very well may say,

"Well, Kanye, that uh...that was something."

This song was more the former, if that makes sense. The man talks of race and he talks of class. He talks of fame and the status it brings. We get a look into his inner-self when he says, “I throw these Maybach keys/I wear my heart on the sleeve. I know that we the new slaves/I see the blood on the leaves.” (A whole lot packed into that line there.) He also talks of how true bias never really quite goes away. “[That] broke nigga racism/that's that don't touch anything in the store. But see that rich nigga racism/that's that come in please buy more.” There are several other cool little one-liners like that sprinkled throughout. And then the refrain: “There's leaders and there's followers. But I'd rather be a dick than a swallower.” Aw, man, really? I mean, sure, fine but damn. Kinda killed the moment there, buddy.

Probably the most aggressive song is "Black Skinhead." One would hope with a title like that. The word flow is fast and furious to accompany the pounding steel and percussion of the track. It sets the tone, really. “Black Skinhead” is mostly used to describe himself it seems. In a celebratory way, no less. A clever call-back to wearing his “by any means” clothing as well as a line about hunting “King Kong” as it were. As if he's living to see himself become the villain in an ironic Kanye type of way. Ironic because Kanye in public isn't trying to be a “menace”. He sees himself as a menace through the eyes of his critics. Just as he sees himself as a god through the eyes of his peers.

[SEGUE]

I Am a God. That's right. Kanye West is calling himself a god amongst men. Kanye? Kratos? That little wanker Percy Jackson? All one degree of separation away. Go on. Get mad. Get angry. Be outraged. You know you want to. That's the point. Like the Lance Stephenson of the rap game, he works himself up by working you over. “Yes, He is the Most High/But I am a Close High” Damn it all, right? But cool yourself. This is all part of what I call The Kanye Conundrum. It's a part of his brilliance and his hindrance, ultimately. The fact that a person could have such an ego but have such low self-esteem simultaneously. It's not necessarily his fault. That's just how it is. This is the guy who once sang romantically about sending dick pics to a woman and in the same breath told said "bitch" to Runaway from him. The man entitled this album “Yeezus”. If you can't see the bitter cruel irony in that fact alone this cut might not be for you anyway.

Verily and thus, we've made it to my favorite stretch of tape, here. The three songs on Yeezus I like best and the ones I visit most often on my subsequent listens. These tracks are what make the LP great for me. But they're also what stops me from outright loving it. From what I’ve read, they also happen to be the three songs most fans like the least. Because of course they are.

On my first listen of I'm In It, there were many theories that came to mind. Was it a subversive diss track? A not-so cryptic diss track? Was it a message? Was it a club-banger? Is about Kim? Is it an answer to Ray-J's record I Hit it First? (I really hope that's what it is.) Kidding aside, I like this one. The song has elements (heavy bass, reggae hype man, ominous keys) of “Mercy”, another Kanye hit. Something about the dark undertones struck a cord in the same way. Not many times that a song sounds as threatening as this and gets you amped at the same time. But then classic Kanye: coming in at the last second to gank your cheese. “Swag-hili?” Really? Regardless of whether or not it was ironic, a grown-ass man wrote these words down and recited them into a microphone. [It won't be the last time, either.]

There's nothing I can say about “Blood on the Leaves”. Absolutely nothing. And how appropriate at a time when history begins to look just a bit more fondly on 808's and Heartbreaks (if not for its quality then for its uniqueness) how bittersweet is it to see an example of what could've been? Using a brilliant sample from the Nina Simone cover of the Billie Holiday classic, “Strange Fruit” we see Mr. West weave a tragic tale of love and loss and fame and excess and overall douchebaggery. I saw a comment on YouTube that surprisingly! Summed things up nicely. In response to a question of the song's meaning:
The first verse is about a relationship that didn't work out because she didn't wait for him to make it. The second verse is after he made it but then the girl went public and it destroyed the relationship. The third is about a man who is married but has a girl on the side, but the girl gets pregnant and he gets a divorce because of it. It's obvious. He's rapping about rims, nigga!

Couldn't have said better, really. So I won't try. All props to Kanye here. Using his best skill: his producing. His ability to make music that sticks. The creativity and outright boldness to mix a sample and subject matter that, at times, clash so heavily. Using auto-tune as a tool and not a crutch. Good stuff.

I love Guilt Trip most of all, and just as well it hits close to home. Another crooning auto-tune ballad about a love that could not be. Surprising, I know but hear me out, because this is the part where KD gets personal.

In my solitary year of post-secondary education there was much left to be desired. A fitting quote comes to mind. If you want to learn, go to the library. If you want to get laid, go to college. This is not indicative of every situation but as I noted way back in this blog's first post moving away to go to school was nothing short of escape. But it's pretty hard to run from who you are and soon I needed an escape from my escape. I attempted said escape with this daily question: Did Kyle bust one off today? If the answer was 'YES' I could gladly call it a day and the world could gladly piss off. If the answer was 'NO' then I had to quickly figure out how to accomplish this task so as not to cut into any brooding time the next day. This was not fun.

Emotionally, I was tired. Mentally, I was depressed. Soon, I became physically ill. It was so bad one night that I left my room walked into the night and somehow found myself on the goddamn business loop miles away from campus. Fugg. That's not rock bottom but it's close enough. I say that to say this.

When this song hit, it hits pretty deep. And maybe that's why I like it more than most. Yet, hearing Kanye go on in this song and really try and sing through the issue seems like the tune that would net Yeezus a hit later down the road. Couple that with the melancholy chiptune in the background and this track is haunting in a way that human relationships sometimes are for me. I became a slave to my own physiology. It was easier not to think or feel. More convenient to run. Soon enough, though, you find yourself on the wrong side of a drainage ditch with no clear way across. We all have our ways of dealing with certain issues. That's why whenever these certain, pesky feelings rear their ugly head and I feel like lamenting for a bit, instead of feeling sorry for myself I'm more than happy to have Kanye West do it for me. And for that, sir, I thank you.

[I'm still high on Kid Cudi, for the record. Guy still cuts some of the smoothest hooks and refrains in my opinion.]

[B-SIDES]

I know, not as good as “SEQUE” but frankly this might very well be the most un-inspired part of the review, because I will now be talking about the most un-inspired tracks on the album.

“On Sight” was decent enough as an opener and I wouldn't even call it bad. Just unremarkable by my estimation. Others might contend. I won't budge on “Hold My Liquor” though. Chief Keef is terrible and so is this song. Yes, I respect Kanye's artistic vision and it's that very respect that makes me feel the way I do. I expect more. Both musically and lyrically. Yes, this was a concept album and was meant to be abstract and guttural. Sure, Kanye West's lyricism can range anywhere from graduate thesis to 5^th grade essay on any given track but, shit, man at least try? “I just talked to Jesus/He said, 'What up, Yeezus?' ” Gah! If Jesus is taking time off to talk to “Yeezus” there's more than one pertinent question I need the answer to. There's a difference between being inspired by the industrial sound and house music familiar to the region of France in which you stay and simply making noise. It's the very conclusion I came to after listening to “Send It Up.” I thought I would like this song. I probably should have liked this song. But even after several listens, I didn't hear anything bad or good, just more noise. Such is Yeezus.

Quick History Lesson:

Who remembers Universal Mind Control? Don't think too hard. Like Yeezus, it was produced as an experimental dive into the industrial end of rap's gene pool. If that's not enough, it was authored by another Chicago wordsmith, Common. But here's what really caught my attention as I was halfway done with writing this. Universal Mind Control at the time it was released was billed as the future of hip-hop.

Pharrell on the title track. Lest we forget.

All these years later – knowing what I now know about music and life, hearing an album that is at least in sound almost identical – I must take a half-step back in awe. I won't necessarily say Common did it better, but he definitely did it first. Maybe he knew something we didn't. Maybe he saw the Blood on the Leaves, too.

I stop myself there, because that's where the comparison ends. Both of these works of art were created for entirely different reasons. Common was inspired by the club scenes and house parties that he attended during his travels through summertime France. Kanye stayed in France to make this music and exercise his demons. He admitted this much on the “I'm In It” track. Certainly something I can understand; old habits don't go quietly. It's part of the reason this write-up is a year in the making. Mostly, though, it's because this album – not unlike the man who wrote it – is pretty complex.

Look at how this album was made: 2-3 months in some dude's basement, songs written in some cases in the space of 15 minutes, almost no time spent in post. When Rick Rubin was called in to do the mastering and declared that the disc was still a few months from being ready Kanye wanted to strip it down even more! Who knows if it would even be listenable? Compare that to the all out media blitz of Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail. A disc also produced by Rubin that must have cost at least 10 times as much. Do you think Kanye wanted this? How did you first listen to Yeezus? Was it the leak? You think that was legit? You really think Kanye wanted to sell this shit? Look at the GD album cover!

There were guys in Chicago selling this out of their cars not knowing it was exactly what Target was selling the next Tuesday. This was less of a business venture and more of a therapy session in my eyes. Like some Tumblr user had “like, the Worst Day Ever!” and just did a Slam on everything that bothered him.

You think he cared about getting a hit or radio play? Obviously, he was going to get one or the other no matter what. He's earned that clout from years of doing what he does. But it's so curious to see how a hip-hop artist that goes out of his way to innovate with every new piece of work get lambasted so often by the urban community. Why doesn't hip-hop culture like Kanye like they used to? Is it as simple as resisting change? Maybe. Do they resent the fact that he has become the white college kids' favorite rapper; that hipsters regard Yeezus above even Twisted Fantasy as Kanye West's magnum opus? It would explain a lot of the shade Drake gets thrown at him, but the vast majority of hip-hop's paying demographic is suburban white kids and it's been that way for more the 20 years now so why get mad now? Could it be that they just don't like his newer stuff? Ehhhhh...could be?

This may be tough to hear for some, but while critics across the board are still fapping to this album as we speak one year later there were some fans, some listeners, some common folk who *gasp* didn't love this album. That's okay. It's all in taste and it's a really tough album to swallow for some. Even my friend who loves this cut can't listen to too much of it in one sitting. That doesn't make it bad. It doesn't make it great, either. I struggled to think of a movie that was praised universally by critics that fans were split on. I'm sure it will come to me after I publish this.

For the record, I like Yeezus. I don't love it; I don't feel like I'm required to. Not anymore. It has four great songs, four decent songs, and two songs that are shit mostly. That doesn't make Kanye a bad artist, nor does that make Yeezus a bad album. At its core, it was dark and brooding and brutal for much of the run time. And yet it also had its moments of levity and laughter and hope. Flashes of the “old Kanye” many of you grew up with that you still clamor for today. If not great, Yeezus is at least memorable because of that.

I don't feel like Kanye loved this record. Look at his life in the last year. Mega-tours with Jay-Z. Punching out paparazzi. Anger management courses. Having a daughter. Marrying a Kardashian. Shit just got real for him in ways it hasn't been, really, since his mother passed away. Think about how most men would deal with entering this phase. Welcoming a new life, parting ways with another and beginning a new one with another human being. Well, however you would deal with it, Kanye isn’t most men. He's dealing with all of that, and as one Travis Touchdown would say, people have different ways of dealing with their grief. “Some people fuck at funerals.” Kanye West makes music. I, if no one else, can understand that.

Perhaps my friend the Lunchbox Kid said it best when he compared Yeezus to Pink Floyd's Meddle in relation to their respective discographies. “It's not Dark Side of the Moon, but it's in the discography and it's there. And that's all you can really say about it.” So maybe Kanye's perfectionism works against him sometimes. Maybe My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was so good – and maybe Watch the Throne was so (so) good – that maybe Ye built up some unwanted expectations for this barely-announced LP with zero (0) press. I feel like history will look back on this as divisively as it did at the start, if not more so. Some will love it, others won't, and that's okay. It pays to be the best; it also pays to say you are the best.

And maybe you could accuse Kanye of making albums out of spite or anger and sure, you could accuse him of being unprepared. But unlike Jay and numerous other big names in this industry, you can never accuse Kanye West of making music out of fear.

What's that? You say I'm forgetting something? Hmm... Ah, yes.

[BOUND 2]

Copyright 2014 by KD Gardner