Yeezus Freak

I just read an article about how Kanye West is now facing felony charges after putting a paparazzi in a headlock. He also got flack for declaring that the 2nd verse of "New Slaves", a song from his new album, was the greatest verse in all of hip-hop history. Many would likely shake their heads and scoff. "Typical Kanye," they'd think, "What an arrogant asshole." It's hard to blame that mentality sometimes. This is the same guy who awkwardly stammered that George W. Bush didn't care about black people during a Hurricane Katrina fundraiser event. The same guy who declared that, if the bible were written today, he would be the Jesus character. The same guy that drunkenly snatched the microphone from Taylor Swift and asserted the award she'd just won should have gone to Beyonce (Okay, I don't care what you think, that was actually hilarious). Still, despite all of that, I love Kanye West.

West was apparently offended the pap' didn't thank him for the assault

The goal of this post isn't to convince people to switch their positions and join me on the West side of the force. If you hate him, you hate him. Some of my friends are so venomous and hateful in their dislike that they literally anger me, but there's not much I can do to change their minds. In regard to that, I will only say that Kanye usually always apologizes for his behavior and seems like a nice guy to his fans. Again, my problem isn't with people that dislike Kanye for being rude or arrogant; it's the ones that claim that he has no talent. As he's my favorite rapper of all time, I'm inclined to disrespectfully agree with that assertion. Could I just cite his numerous awards, record-breaking profits, or critical appraisal and leave it be? Yes. Could I, instead, take us on a musical journey through 'Ye's last 3 albums for a climactic defense of his latest masterpiece, 'Yeezus'? Of course. And we all know where it's going to go from here.

808's and Heartbreaks: This album began West's descent into darkness, and for good reason. Kanye suffered both the ending of his 18 month engagement, and the death of his mother. Many expressed a certain annoyance with this album, as it was heavy on singing (with less rapping) and was thoroughly soaked in autotune. I don't think this one was bad at all (you know you loved "Heartless"), but it was a definite change from his golden sunshine freeway driving tunes of his college albums. We have to understand where West as an artist was coming from here; he felt cold, alone, and distant. He'd lost two of his great loves in life, and the pain is so sudden he's in shock. The autotune distances the listeners to a degree, and this represents West's own distance from his emotions, reality, and himself. To expect him to pump out another "The Good Life" after that time is just silly.


My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: I don't care what anyone thinks about this one, it's a damn masterpiece. West continues his journey into darkness, but he's had some time to heal from his experience and come back to reality. Here he takes his darkness and turns it into something grand and epic, something of an opera. It's overblown, fantastical, and a roller coaster of a listen.  Kanye shows the world that, while he's had his time to mourn, he's back with a vengeance. 'Power' is bold, boisterous, and turns the arrogance up twenty notches. Despite that, he's not the same 'Ye we've all come to know and love/hate. The world is harsher than it once seemed, and he can't escape that darkness. West begins a deeper exploration of the themes of race, a topic he's made commentary on since the very beginning. Admittedly trying to numb his pain through sex, alcohol, and money, West is perhaps his most honest in his last song, "Lost in the World." This final, climactic track personifies both West's place in life and the vibe of the entire album: bizarrely beautiful, hauntingly glamorous, and just a little bit existential.


Yeezus: This is the most polarizing album I've heard in a while; you either love it or hate it. Many simply dismiss it as lazy, harsh, and an overall terrible listen. I'll admit, it took me a few listens to really start enjoying it, but I feel like this was by design. Yeezus is a bad acid trip. Kanye's had his mourning, he's put on this grand spectacle, but now the curtain's have closed. It's just Kanye, and he's decided to express himself in the most basic sense; essentially, it's his id. He never plays it safe, that trademark arrogance up to the stratosphere (he declares that he is a god), reaching nearly comedic levels. While some are appalled at this, I think he's simply demonstrating the amount of fucks he actually gives: none. With that, Yeezus is, at times, abrasive and erratic, almost daring the listener to keep going. This plays into the anti-commercial theme of the album, one made clear by it's own artwork (simply a piece of orange tape). Is this a gimmick, a sort of irony, or has West truly had a revelation that money and fame mean very little in the grand scheme of life? Difficult to say and open to interpretation. I feel as though he's grasping his own humanity, his bubble has been burst. Why? He lays on the racial themes quite heavily, comparing blacks to "New Slaves" to the corporate world. It's clear that this aspect of society really bothers him, and I find his perspective to be interesting. Yeezus is insane, but it's Kanye West at his rawest.

For Ye' so loved the world....okay, I won't go there. 

Maybe I've read too much into this, but I'm only trying to explain Kanye as I see him: a musical artist. It's easy to dismiss him as a mediocre, hyper-arrogant, attention-seeking douchebag, but I feel like that's fairly short-sighted. While I do enjoy the darkness he's been exploring, I feel like it's about time for a revival of the brighter side of life. Maybe 'Ye had a pretty rough quarter-life crisis, and I think that's understandable, but his life is looking up. With a marriage to a woman he seems to love and the arrival of his first child, I think we can look forward to a new, happier Kanye West in the years to come. Until then, regardless of his style and despite how far he falls out of public favor, I remain a "Yeezus freak".