Review:
Kanye West is a leader of artistic creativity in hip hop, often
drastically altering the direction of the genre with each release. His sixth
album, Yeezus, is no different. Following the trend of his last two lustrous
records, 808s
& Heartbreak and My
Dark Twisted Fantasy, West again transforms his sound and tests the limits
of the genre (and popular music).
Rejecting the commercial
corporate process by which music is put out, West promoted the album with guerrilla
video projections of his song New Slaves across the world. He did not release
any singles or music videos. The album artwork is almost non-existent (see
above). But, all this plays into West’s attitude on Yeezus. He is fed up with
the whole structure behind corporate run popular music. He does not want to
make bland generic music like everyone else. It wants to challenge everything
and reach for new aesthetic heights.
Yeezus does not sound like
anything else in hip hop. It is a minimalist amalgamation of punk, new wave,
dance hall, electronic, and hip hop all smashed together. It feels raw, and yet
still features immaculate production. West has always been a great
collaborator, and here he brings in veterans like Daft Punk and (frequent
producing partner) Mike Dean as well as fresh artists like Arca and TNGHT. Rick
Rubin served as the co-executive producer with West to get the overall sound
just right. Sonically, the album is intense, vibrant, aggressive, and utterly
compelling. West maintains his position ahead of the genre while everyone else
lags behind perpetually trying to catch up. Musically alone, this is a
magnificent album.
Lyrically, West again plays on
similar themes to his last two albums. He is self-aggrandized and seems to have
a guarded mistress of women, but his boasts come from a thinly veiled frail
insecure place of sadness and doubt. He turns to fleeting moments of pleasure
to escape the darkness that clouds his thoughts, stemming from failed
relationships and racial inequality that West sees around him. West has no
desire to make a commercially accessible album, and he blatantly attacks the
establishment. He wants to air out his distrust and misgivings to instigate
emotion in the listener and he also lets the listener into his soul to engage
them emotionally as well. That is the appeal of West. He is not afraid to put
it all out there, to connect with his fans on a deeper level.
West is at a place in which he
could bring in any artist for a feature, but unlike My Dark Twisted Fantasy,
Yeezus is very much from a singular voice (being West’s). Frank Ocean, Justin
Vernon, Kid Cudi, Tony Williams, and Charlie Wilson show up to add supporting
vocals, while Chief Keef and Travi$ Scott also bring some punch to the album.
But only relatively unknown Chicago MC King L has a verse outside of West. In
this way, West pays tribute to his city and troubled, gang-violent South Side
neighborhood by including leading local voices Chief Keef and King L (because
he can). It works well because West has essentially challenged what is possible
sonically in hip hop. To have a bunch of recognizable voices clouding up the
album would have diminished the overall power and freshness of the album.
Like each Kanye West album,
Yeezus changes the game. It is vital, raw, incredibly ambitions, and just
simply a work of an aesthetically brilliant artist (who knows the perfect
collaborators to bring together to find the right sound). It is safe to say
that this is one of the best and important albums of 2013, a must. 5/5
Essential Tracks:
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