Album Review: Kanye West - Ye

Artist:  Kanye West
Album: Ye
Release Date:  June 1st, 2018
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Rating:  7/10

The hot take is that I really enjoy this album.  I wasn't sure out the gate what I was going to get either.  Would I get an album full of tracks like Ye vs The People?  Would I get happy little tunes like Lift Yourself?  Turns out I got neither of these things.

From songs that deal with heavier topics like I Thought About Killing You and Yikes, to more introspective pieces like Wouldn't Leave the album just flows from track to track in a really smooth way.  It has some good old school Kanye vibes going on without actually feeling like pandering to the crowd that likes old Kanye.

I Thought About Killing You has the feeling of a skit off of some Tech N9ne album.  Up till the harder beat kicks in later I could almost see this as something Tech breaks up an album with, or maybe off of Kanye's MBDTF.  It's for sure the darkest track on the album though, which bums me out a little since dark Kanye tracks are some of my favorite to get down to.

Ghost Town is a bit of a highlight for me, cause we get some of the singing Kanye that you don't always get to see highlighted, though No Mistakes is pretty cool as well since it gives you a little glimpse into Ye's personal life.  Violent Crimes takes a similar vein to No Mistakes, though rather than being directed toward Kim it's for his daughters.

I feel like a lot of this album is showing a turn to Kanye's attitude, but I suppose we'll see as things go on.  The start is deffinetly devoted to him showcasing some of his problems, and as we wrap up with heartfelt messages.  I'm excited to see what direction Kanye goes on in the future.

Long story short.  Is this album perfect?  No.  Not even close.  I liked it a lot, but it's not without flaws.  It feels too short, and it has an absence of songs that feel like long term singles.  Ghost Town will probably stand tall (not just because it was my favorite), as might Yikes.  We'll see as times goes on though.

It's only 23 minutes long, so feel free to give the tracks a listen. It'll take up so little of your day, and you might find you found something you like.  Be sure to read the lyrics along with the music to get the best impact.  Violent Crimes is much more meaningful when listened to that way at least.

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, or even sponsor me on Patreon. No big, do whatever. But yeah, Twitter and Facebook are where I’m most active.

Twitter  Facebook  Reddit  Patreon

Kanye West - Lift Yourself [New Release]

Artist:  Kanye West
Song:  Lift Yourself
Album:  Lift Yourself (single, 2018)
Genre:  Hip Hop

Kanye West, raving lunatic or god tier troll?  Let's listen to this amazing new song and find out.

Poopy-di scoop

Scoop-diddy-whoop

Whoop-di-scoop-di-poop

Poop-di-scoopty

Scoopty-whoop

I tell ya, these are some great bars Ye, I love it.

But for real, what's Kanye trying to say here?  I'm pretty sure they dude knows what he's doing by now, so I can't think this is purposefully gibberish.  I really think he's tying to make a sort of statement about how people have been treating him recently.  Something like, "If everybody says all I say is stupid stuff, maybe I should record a song that's all just stupid?"

If you're got some poor opinions of what Kanye's had to say recently (especially that TMZ interview), I encourage you to look into more of what he has to say.  By that, I mean look for uncut interviews, because you know people like to edit things to reflect what they want them to say.  Don't take everything at face value, k?

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, or even sponsor me on Patreon. No big, do whatever. But yeah, Twitter and Facebook are where I’m most active.

Twitter  Facebook  Reddit  Patreon

Kanye West - Monster

Artist:  Kanye West feat. Bon Iver, Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj
Song:  Monster
Album:  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Strong

A friend of mine was talking about this song recently.  Something about Rick Ross' incredibly out of breath sounding verse, Jay-Z and Kanye not giving their all, and the DJ cutting the song off before Nicki's verse hits.

Now I, and my friend, are not the biggest fans of Nicki.  However her verse is hands down one of the best things about the song.  It's just goes so hard, it's fantastic.  It's probably the best verse she's ever laid down if we're being honest.

Follow my various social distribution spots, eh?

Twitter  Facebook  Reddit  Patreon

Kanye West - On Sight

Artist:  Kanye West
Song:  On Sight
Album:  Yeezus (2013)
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Strong

As a rule I try not to post an artist twice within 30 days.  It's not usually an issue, but every now and then it happens.  In this case, it's cause Kanye managed to snag spot #4 in my top artists of 2017.

This one makes a little more sense to me.  I listened to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at least 5 times through on Spotify alone, I hit up Life Of Pablo a lot, and as I revealed about this time last month, I got into Yeezus as well.  I feel like he probably should have hit above a couple people too to be honest, as you'll hear in the next couple posts.

All in all though I don't at all begrudge Yeezy his spot on my list.  Over the last year and a half I've turned from just hating him cause that's what was popular to realizing not only was I uninformed, but musically this guy is really solid.  I don't think he's released a dud album yet regardless of what some people would have you believe.

I urge you to please read the post I made about him round about a year ago now.  It sums up a lot of my feelings about the guy a lot better than I think I can manage at the moment.

Hope ya like it and this song.  Still love the crazy different beats on this album.

Follow me on Facebook        Support me on Patreon

Kanye West - Black Skinhead

Artist:  Kanye West
Song:  Black Skinhead (BlKKK SKKKn Head)
Album:  Yeezus (2013)
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Strong

I feel like I couldn't in good conscience post Kanye right after Taylor without using this photo.

It took me ages to pick the freaking Kanye song I was gonna post today.  I just shuffled his songs for a while and honestly picked 5 or 6 different songs that "I'm definitely gonna post".  It didn't even help once I decided to go with the angry Kanye album, Yeezus.  Like, my goodness, there's so many great tracks on it.  For an album that only has 10 tracks on it it has no right to be as good as it is.  I honestly feel like I enjoy all the tracks on the album, which I suppose is weird since it was all controversial and new when it came out.  Take a listen though, this song (and the rest of the album) don't really sound like Rap people are making right now.  There was so much potential here, it could have been amazing.

To be honest though, I don't know that I'd want to listen to a lot of albums that sound like this.  It's a very good album, but at the same time it might get a little old after a while.

Either way, Kanye manages to remind me why he's one of my top 5 rappers.

Keep it 300 like the Romans though?  Come on Ye, that was the Spartans, check your facts.

Follow me on Facebook        Support me on Patreon

Kanye West - POWER

Artist:  Kanye West
Song:  POWER
Album:  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Strong

Hey hey homies, finished out that first week of school, and I'm rather enjoying it.  I've always enjoyed just learning things and since this is a career path that can make me some reasonable cash I'm even more excited about it.

Actually did a haircut on friday, which was a freaking blast.  I had a hard time partitioning sections of hair, but once I started to do the cut it all fell in rather easily.

Here's the downside though, I'm freaking dead.  I don't know why, I'm just not doing well with this falling asleep on time thing.  Hence me coming back to my dude Kanye for some pump up music.  I'm feeling like I need it this morning, haha

Follow me on Facebook        Support me on Patreon

Kanye West - Hell Of A Life

Artist:  Kanye West
Song:  Hell Of A Life
Album:  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Strong

Oh Kanye, my dude.  I love how sad you are sometimes.  I mean, I don't want him to be sad, but his sad albums are always my favorites.

My favorite part about this one is that it's not even super sad right off the bat.  The album starts out strong, but as things go one througout the rest of it you get this really strong feeling of just beign a little low.

By the time we reach Hell Of A Life we've gone through a couple mood swings that bring us to this plod of a song.  Not like, plod in a bad way, but in the way that gives you the feeling of "this is happening and that's all you get."  You know that feeling when you're in a bit of a dark place and when things happen it's just like Yep, this is a thing."?  That's this song.

The song starts with what sounds like Kanye just being all "I'm gonna marry a porn star" and playing out why he'd have a great time with it.  As the song goes on however it shows the same feeling as most of the others.  He goes through his whole fantasy of what would happen, but then when it came down to the end it crashes back down toward reality.

All the songs manage to follow a great flow of introducing an idea, taking away, then crashing back to earth.  Take a listen, it's a really good album.

Follow me on Facebook        Support me on Patreon

Kanye West - Famous

Artist:  Kanye West
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Strong

So Kanye has fallen under some more fire recently because he canceled a show early after ranting about politics and stuff after only singing 3 or 4 songs.  I'm gonna weigh in on this one cause it's started to really annoy me.

So first.  No, it's not ok that he stopped the performance so early and wasted his fan's money.  Tickets to his shows are crazy expensive and people expect a certain quality from him that was not delivered on.  I understand that he has a mountain of stuff going on and it's really stressing him out, but if that's the case it's clearly him biting off more than he can chew.  What with writing music and designing for both his own clothing line as well as some work with Adidas he just needs to slow down.

Second.  Popular icons always come under fire for things like this much more than their Rock and Metal counterparts.  I recently saw somebody share this picture.

One of the things I really hate about this is there's two totally different stories going on here.  There's Lemmy who has a huge history with major drug problems that just happened to not die.  No really, he's mentioned that he was amazed he didn't die from drug use.  His drugs of choice were primarily uppers so if you want a reason that he was able to keep going then you could argue that that's probably one of the reasons he was able to keep going as long as he did.  It's simply not fair to compare a Rock Star who lived a pretty care free life dedicated pretty much exclusively to music to an artists that has committed himself to music, fashion, and raising a family.

Speaking of the family thing that'd be our third point.  Other than saying that he was exhausted Kanye mention he wanted to spend more time with his family.  One thing you can't say about the dude is that he doesn't care about his family.  Sure he named his first kid North, but it's been pretty consistently shown that he legitimately cares about them.

You know what people focus on though?  The fact that he said he would have voted for Trump (not that he did, but that if he had voted he would have), and that he trashed Beyonce.  You know what though?  That rolls right into point the fourth.

It's been shown on many occasions that Mr. West is a little unstable, but here's why I think that is.  He's said in interviews that he's a pretty shy guy, and listening to most of his earlier music does show that he's a pretty shy and borderline depressed individual.
I honestly think that he's created the whole "Kanye Persona" that everybody knows as a way to avoid feeling awkward.  He acts just like a guy that decided he would act a certain way for the press to hide what he's really feeling.  At some point though he clearly went a little too far with whatever attitude he's trying to convey; since that's the persona he's decided to adopt however, he got stuck trying to hold on to an opinion that he may or may not fully support.  He has to though with whatever he happensto say because the hole is too deep for him to just straight up stop at any point.

Not that this is an excuse to act the way he does, but it would shed some light on why he may act like he does.

I dunno, I'm just sick of seeing uninformed hate on people.  If you're going to be all negative toward somebody at least make sure that you know what you're talking about.

<
Follow Me On Facebook

Kanye West - Get Em High

Artist:  Kanye West feat. Talib Kweli & Common
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Strong

The more I listen to old Kanye the more I like him.  I feel like all I was familiar with were his singles and honestly the more I explore his stuff the more I realize that the other songs are so much better.

Yo, there's freaking nothing here because my internet crapped out on me.  I really do apologize, tomorrow's post will be a real length thing.

Facebook

Heck, I couldn't even fix these cause I'm updating this from my phone.
  Spotify

Let's Talk: 12-7-15 (Kanye West - The Good Life)

Hey guys, how ya doing?

I would have had this live at midnight, but I had something happen which I will explain further down the post.

This last week has been a pretty intense thing for me.  A couple weeks ago I officially picked up my second job as Producer for First Alliance Church.  Basically what I do is I make the Sunday services as nice sounding and looking as I can.  I'll tell the band what needs detail work, I'll tell the tech team what sounds off, and I do what I can do dodge actually talking to people who have complaints.

It's actually loads of fun and I even get paid, but with the thing I do at EYA in addition to picking up new responsibilities at work and this second job I'm just a little overwhelmed.

Case in point, I slept from 3pm Sunday until 3am today.  I feel fantastic.

Band:  Kanye West feat. T-Pain
Genre:  Hip Hop, Rap

I picked this because I suppose the reason I'm doing so much stuff right now is because I just want to have the freedom of funds to be able to do whatever I feel like.  Granted, working in fast food and part time at a church will not grant me the funds that I personally would like to have at my disposal, but it does give me enough to let me do fun things, and that's what counts.

Yes, I get that's not really the point of the song, but I decided to go from that angle.  Sue me.

Kanye West - Niggas In Paris

Artist:  Kanye West and Jay-Z
Genre:  Rap, Hip Hop
Language:  Kinda obvious

I still really love Kanye, and this song is really one of my favorites of his.  I'm not really familiar with anything that Jay-Z, but I know that he's good.

This album was both Kanye and Jay-Z working though, and all in all it's a really solid thing.  If you follow TheNeedleDrop you might have seen his review of this album talking about how since both Kanye and Jay-Z are at the top of the game the album seemed like a bit of a self serving piece at times.  Tracks where they just bragged themselves up when they really didn't need to.

This one though.

This song is freaking fantastic.

As usual if you don't like my taste in music or the language content I do apologize, but this is me.  If it offends you, please pass this post by and enjoy (I hope) the next one.

Late, but it's my birthday so shut up.

You know what, I am really sorry that this post is late, and I'll give you a reason tomorrow.  I am gonna repost a song for the first time ever though.

I apologize for the repost, but I think most of you have never seen the original post anyway, so it's all good.  Kinda.

Seeing as it's my birthday, I have plans to do absolutely nothing but work then home.  Since I'm at work now I can't really do a huge post, so apologies.

p.s.  I do not want a "big booty ho" for my birthday, it's just a really fun song that happens to be about birthdays.

A to Z Challenge: L is for Late Registration

You know what you need to follow a Kanye parody with?  Kanye Freaking West, that's who!

I mean, this guy is a genius, there's no way around it.  Who would have thought to take a loop of Jaime Foxx singing poorly and looping it, then proceeding to rap over it?  Well plenty of people might now, but Kanye invented this style!

Every album he has released has revolutionized music as we know it, there was nothing good before Kanye.

Listen to all of it, cause it's all better than anything you've ever heard in your life, obviously.

Kanye West - Gold Digger

The first time I heard anything from this song it was in a Weird Al song.  It was one of his Polkas if that means anything to ya, and it was amazing.



I originally started liking Kanye because he's got the biggest ego and most hilariously self centered attitude I've ever seen.  Then I started listening to some of his old stuff and I realized he's actually got a bit of a reason to have an attitude.  I may not have heard his name before he did that stupid thing with Taylor Swift at the Grammys that one year, but I had heard a decent number of his hits before.

This song is really catchy and has entered my slowly expanding list of "Music By Kanye That I Really Like"

Kanye West - New Slaves

Now obviously Kanye is the best thing since anything.  Like, when God created the universe he tapped Kanye on the shoulder saying, "Hey Kanye, this look good to you?" and Kanye was all like, "Now God, Imma let you finish, but Yeezus made the best universe of all time."

This is totally what happened.  Just look in Second Genesis 3:17, it's all written out.

On a more serious note, I'm not actually going to give you real information on this egomaniac, because if you actually really care about that then you can look it up.  It's really a lot more fun to make stuff up about him anyway.

Something I like about this song is the synth.  It kinda has an Egyptian feel I think, and it's really really catchy.  Also Kanye sounds more racist than most KKK representatives in this song, but it's ok cause he's black.

2Chainz - Birthday Song

So really there's no reason that I should like this song.  It's a style I didn't used to like, but now I do seem to.

The first time I heard of 2Chainz I thought it was a joke because if you listen to some of the lyrics in this song, it's pretty dumb.  He however, is not a joke and well worth checking out as something to amuse yourself for a brief time.

Also this song has Kanye West in it.  Kanye West is Kanye Best.