In the
midst of pressing boundaries and spreading social awareness artist
such as Beyonce, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar have used their talents
to take the attention off of themselves in order to spread a message.
Then there is Kanye West...a man whose journey has been reflected in
his discography representing success to insanity, in this project Mr.
West has managed to drop pieces from both self-absorption and
socially awareness in one project.
When I
first heard this album, I absolutely hated it. There was no true
sense of pressing boundaries in production (outside of some odd
samples), lyricism, or even conceptualization. I began with high
expectations after hearing the opening track "Ultralight Beam"
featuring Chance the Rapper and Kirk Franklin. From the sample prayer
at the beginning to the closing verse by Chance, this track was an
amazing introduction to an album that could have been a potential
classic. The tracks later fell into a creative roller coaster with
little cohesion combined with lyrics which teetered the boundaries of
being extremely raw and touching to cheesy, superficial, and
idolization of himself. The album seems to be a direct reflection of
where Kanye presently resides in his life displaying the struggles of
being a religious man who is aware of his faults, which later enters
into the realm of Kanye being the Kanye West that people have quickly
grown sick of.
After
three listens my hate became a slight dislike for the album as a
whole, but an appreciation for some of the genius still seen in the
project. I was still upset that the album seemed like it was thrown
together after a sleepover with other musical talents, but I also
imagined there may be a genius behind this project. Imperfection
personified could have easily been deemed the overall concept, and as
loosely as this concept is followed it continues to pull away at the
layers of the man in focus. Some tracks aren't even mixed and
mastered as well as others, which is another jab at the idea that the
man behind the music is just as much of "work in progress"
as his art. After taking a couple more listens to mull over my
evaluation I decided that there simply wasn't enough to take away to
make the "genius" idea stick. Lyrically, Kanye brings
nearly nothing to the table in comparison to his features. In
"Ultralight Beam" Kanye shows some social awareness and
desire for peace as he request to "pray for Paris" and
"Pray for the parents", but is quickly overshadowed by an
amazing verse by Chance the Rapper. He fails to shine on his own with
tracks like "Father Stretch my Hands Pt. 1 & 2". He
alone sensed his underwhelming lyricism on Pt. 2 and decided to
add in the actual Desiigner track "Panda" in the end. In
"Famous" he uses lyrics from memes that are used to poke
fun at Kanye for being one of the most self centered people in pop
culture, and it sounds even cheesier coming from Kanye himself. I
won't even bother with how terrible "Feedback" and
"Freestyle 4" were. There were only about three verse from
Kanye worth the listeners time, and two came from the track "30
Hours". He flows effortlessly about his past with a woman and
his commitment to seeing her. The last verse would be from
"No More Parties in LA" where he raps about the lifestyle
of rich and famous from a perspective where the flaws are in the
spotlight and glamour is out the door.
Production
was great for the most part, it seemed to take bits and pieces from
each album on Kanye's discography, which was mostly good, but not
perfect. Outside of tracks like "Feedback", "Freestyle
4", "FML" and "Fade" the production is solid
and even had a few standouts.. There isn't really too much to speak
on other than what we expect from the man who has changed how
production is done since he entered the game.
Concept:
There is absolutely no cohesion on this album, it seems like there
was a great idea at hand, then he ran off and decided to do something
else, then something else, and then changed his mind again. He
probably has changed directional paths with this album as many times
he changed the title. The fusion of gospel, electronic, and oldies
for samples didn't work well together for this project as a whole,
but from track to track you can see how the samples would work. In
reality, there isn't much of a concept to follow. The songs are
thrown together, and since the album is having tracks added to it in
the near future, it further proves my point.
Overall,
if someone likes this album I'm pretty sure they aren't into it for
the lyrics, and I also wouldn't be surprised if they liked and
disliked a fairly similar amount of songs.This project comes off to
me as Kanye's cry for help as he struggles to hold on to the small
amount of sanity he has left. I have hung my hat up on the hopes for
a "Good A** Job" album to close off his tetra-logy. Kanye
is the biggest fall of his own work, the features are great, but
under utilized (except for Young Thug, he's rather useless either
way), and he himself as an artist seems to have little to say rather
than "look at me, praise me, and love me regardless of how
little I put into the world". I wanted to love this album, but
an EP with fewer tracks would have sufficed.
Dream
track list:
1.
"Ultralight Beam"
2.
"Low Lights"
3. "I
Love Kanye"
4.
"Waves"
5.
"Real Friends"
6.
"Wolves" (just Frank Ocean)
7. "30
Hours"
8. "No
More Parties in LA"
Beats: 8/10
Lyrics:
4/10
Creativity:
9/10
Originality:
6/10
Overall: 6.75/10
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