My Beautiful Light Dark Contorted Indigenous Peruvian Twisted Fantasy

Building off Chomps' excellent idea - I'm curious to see what the SRS dudes think about Kanye's coke-bender magnum-opus freak-out of an album. FEEL FREE TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS IF YOU THINK IT'S NECESSARY!!!!!11111one

(More BZNZ after the jump)

RAJ: It makes sense, I guess, that the response to this album has been as overblown and hyperbolic as the album itself. I've addressed my problems with this album's excess already, but I suppose others are just seeing towering ambition where I see aimless inflation that's less about purpose and more about some traditional rockist idea of "bigness". That said, I probably undersold this album earlier - on the strength of the unadorned cores of these songs alone, this is undoubtedly a great album, probably Kanye's best.

It's kind of a given at this point that Kanye beats will a) draw from batshit-crazy sources and speak to tremendous efforts to expand the sonic palette of hip-hop and b) sound really good on a car stereo. What's far more impressive is how much better Kanye's rapping skills have become. People liked Kanye in the College Dropout-Late Registration era because he was so earnestly conflicted and contradictory, which was enough to offset the fact that he was understandably rapping like someone picking up a mic for the first time. Then Graduation and his guest rapping found his flow improving considerably - but the content became by-the-numbers rap bravado with the occasional clever punchline.

Now, both the delivery and content have leaped forward in hugely impressive ways. There's the full-on surrealism of "Dark Fantasy" (a mall-seance under a sky full of herons where the devil shows up?), some Mos Def-spiritual-hip-hop-science on "Gorgeous" (the best rapping Kanye's done, period), the cathartic emotional purge of "Runaway" and "Blame Game". Kanye also has a new gift for verbal minimalism - the ultra-brief verses on "All of the Lights" and "Lost in the World" are some of the most affecting on the whole album. Even the one song that is fairly stupid ("Hell of a Life" finds Kanye marrying a porn star) is stupid in fascinating ways (watch for the logical gymnastics that link porn gangbangs to the Underground Railroad).

Overall, the genius on display here outweighs the deep flaws that are very evident, but I guess the inevitable presence of both is part and parcel of anything produced by Mr. West.

NASTY K: Sigh. Kanye West. I think I'm one of the few people in the world who was over Kanye before 808s and Heartbreak was released. Kanye could have released an album that was rated 45.0 out of 10 by Pitchfork and I still would maintain some indifference. In a time when clowns like Drake and Lady Gaga become famous essentially by tautology, (if you record enough songs about how famous you are, you become famous, etc.) I guess I just got put off Kanye because all he talks about is himself, and I've stopped caring. He wants to provoke you by telling you how provocative he is, and that circular logic just tired me out, unable to love to hate him or hate to love him any more. That said I recognize this guy is still a genius, if a little crazy. Where would we be without I.Z.Z.O. or any of those classic beats? But for the purposes of this exercise I put aside the sour taste Kanye tends to leave in my mouth and decided to approach the album with an open mind. As usual I have to conclude that Raj is wrong on several counts, but there is definitely some great material here.

If we were to go track by track, "Dark Fantasy" is enjoyable enough, with a beat that sounds structurally similar to the classic ODB track "Shimmy Shimmy Ya". Raj really thinks that "Gorgeous" is Kanye's best rapping ever? Kid Cudi is an overrated hack, and quite frankly this track is forgettable in the flow of the album. I like the King Crimson sample on "Power", for sure. "All of the Lights" is a triumph, and reintroduces the theme of what I consider to be Kanye's best rapping ever, which occurred on the Graduation track "Flashing Lights". The beat is innovative, Rihanna provides a good hook, and it's a definite winner. "Monster" is one hell of a track, mostly due to a blistering guest verse by Nicki Minaj. The beat is also one of the more compelling ones on the album without a doubt. "So Appalled" is quite simply a place for Jay-Z to prove that he is a better MC than Kanye will ever be. The Rick Ross track is a sleepy one, kinda boring, truth be told.

Fuck "Runaway". Just fuck that 9-minute turd of a song. I can imagine Kanye stumbling drunk one night into his recording studio and plunking away at those keys, recording that hook. I'd rather not toast douchebags, thanks. The beat is one of the least imaginative we've seen Kanye do, I know he's capable of better, and all it makes me want to do is run away from Kanye. Also, the beat is quite frankly beneath Pusha T's skills, a little too simple for a man who blew my mind with every verse on Hell Hath No Fury. By the end of the album the great beat on "Lost in the World" works to redeem some of the album's more absurd moments.

It might sound like I'm being overly critical, but I think this album is solid. West's a very talented beatmaker, a better-than-competent MC with occasional flashes of lyrical brilliance, and I think a guy whose popularity and megalomania has made him a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. I suppose I would be crazy too if I were in his shoes. I respected him when he called George W. Bush out, I respected him when he called Taylor Swift out on her bullshit, but I'm not drinking the Kanye Kool-Aid that this is the best album of the year. I'm not even sure it's the best rap album of the year, slotting in behind Das Racist's hilariously light mixtape Sit Down, Man, and Big Boi's truly visionary Sir Luscious Left Foot...Son of Chico Dusty. I hope Kanye comes back down to earth, but until he does I can only muster ambivalent approval of his work. There are simply more interesting, more honest efforts out there.

JESSE: I’m just going to give some of my scattered thoughts on what I think overall is a pretty good album. Yeezy’s come a long way from his College Dropout days. The first thing that is pretty compelling about this album is the song length: over half of the songs are over 5 minutes long. Surprisingly, a lot of these tracks work, because, when the foundation of hip-hop is the repetition of a beat, it’s pretty easy to get sick of songs. He might be pushing it a little on Runaway, but it’s surprisingly satisfying listening to the synthesizer jam at the end. He does a pretty good job of keeping you from getting sick of the songs, but so long as the verses keep most of your attention, it works. One note: I really hate All of the lights. Seriously, that song sucks.

Next, the beats. Overall I’m happy with them. I heard a few months back that ‘Ye was looking for Madlib to produce a track or two on this, but I guess that never panned out. Disappointing. But I was pretty happy with the majority of them. I liked the gain, distortion and overall fuzz on tracks like Hell Of A Life, Gorgeous, and Monster (which is probably one of my top songs of the year), Power’s beat was pretty killer, Devil In A New Dress beat sounds like a nice Dilla tribute, Runaway’s beat’s been stuck in my head all day, and Who Will Survive In America makes for a surprisingly good background to Gil Scott-Heron (though I still prefer his keyboard and a saxophone, especially post DC Poetry Festival appearance). Some of the beats suck though. Again, there is absolutely nothing about All of the Lights that I like. At all. And then there’s a big problem that I see in a lot of the songs that has to do with the fact that the songs are so long. I think it’s admirable to have songs push the 5, 6, 7 minute mark, but the beats often don’t hold up. Take Gorgeous, for example. The beat, to me at least, builds a lot of tension every time it goes through a repeat. And just when I want something to change and “release,” if you will, it just goes back to the same old thing, and you get a nice verse. So it's hard to say that it's bad, but sometimes I just found myself sitting there hoping some sort of surprise would come. Too often though, I was just sort of bored. So Appalled is a good example. It just stays the same the whole time. And this isn’t a problem on most hip-hop songs, but this is almost 7 minutes. Maybe I’m just looking for some Tago Mago-esque mind-bending changes in song structure when I see songs this long, but Kanye is not Krautrock. Oh well. I guess that’s my biggest beef, but certainly the powerful verses make up for this at times (e.g. Nicki Minaj on Monster. Girl killllllls it.) SO, solid beats, but sometimes a little too much to handle.

Last, the rapping. Guest spots: I disagree with Nasty K on the point the Jay-Z is a better rapper when he appears. It was mentioned before, but what the hell is Pusha T doing on Runaway? His voice? Energy? If this is what G.O.O.D. is doing to the man, he’s got to get back to VA and back to repping Re-Up. His spot is garbage. Garbage. In the middle of the song I had to stop and listen to We Got It 4 Cheap vol. 2 to remind me how good Pusha actually is. BUT some of the spots are gold. Nicki Minaj on Monster? Oh my goodness, I want to make love with the woman (but not really (but sort of)). Raekwon’s verse on Gorgeous is solid, but does anyone else think his flow sounds a bit like some of what DOOMs been doing recently? That might be nonsense. Overall, I think the guest spots are maybe like, 5/8ths good, and otherwise a bit bland. And then Kanye, he’s got some mean spots on here, too, and I’m digging some of the tricks he’s pulling. Blame Game, the schizophrenia from the effects on the vocals is pretty rad. Power is great. I can understand where hatred towards Runaway comes from, but aside from Pusha T's embarrassment of a spot, I enjoy it. I don’t really want to write anymore, but I’m happy with Kanye here.

Overall, I’m happy with this. I don’t think I’m going to spend that much time with it in the future, but a couple tracks are definitely worth multiple replays. Kanye does a good job of making it an album representative of a lot of different emotional parts of the dude, which is a refreshing change from your typical bravado in hip-hop. It’s certainly not the same as the Kanye who I first heard at my grandma’s house on MTV Jamz. But I’ll take it.

Last note. As much as I love the man, why the hell does the RZA show up on So Appalled?? I will usually take any appearance from the man with love, but I was just confused here. Eh?

TK: "Power" is a track that completely embodies Kanye West as an artist and as a man. It must be a sweet release for Kanye to put out a song like this. It's as though he's saying, thanks for putting up with all the bullshit I put you through. I hope this makes you feel better about it, I hope you believe that it was all worth it now. When I say "you", I don't think its the fans or the critics, I'm not exactly sure who that "you" is. I see Kanye as a man who is desperately seeking approval which I know sounds absurd when thinking about all the success he's had but that is the very nature of a song like "Power". He's made it very clear that his mother was a driving force in the production of his music but she's no longer here to approve of his music. Is it the women or the fame that motivates him or maybe he feels like he owes something to the industry itself. I don't know and I think Kanye West doesn't really know either.

"Blame Game" is almost an echo of the content that dominates 808's and Heartbreak. The minimalist production and grappling with his own voice and when I say voice, I mean quite literally his own voice. In 808's he heavily uses auto-tune and on the track "Blame Game" he's pitch shifting and distorting (really amazing to hear). Kanye is really getting at the alienation fame can bring and how damaging it can be on relationships. I think all his acting up in public is directly attributed to his loneliness. I know what you're all thinking, boo-hoo. While we might find ourselves staring at wall during a time of some personal reflection, he's staring at all the diamonds on his wrist.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a strong effort by Mr. West. It's an album that definitely benefits from having a strong start and finish. But it also suffers from tracks that just go on for way too long and too many guest spots that really offer nothing to the music. In terms of how we place this album in the context of the best hip hop albums, I do believe it's important. Perhaps not solely on artistic merit but more that it will probably serve as a template for how hip hop music will be constructed in the coming years. That being said, in no way do I feel comfortable putting this album anywhere near something like Illmatic or even more modern masterpieces like Madvillainy. I'm curious to see what new antics West will get into, he's an extremely fascinating man.