Yeezus

It is impossible to have a conversation about Kanye West with a group of people without at least one of them getting inflammatory. This is perhaps because affirming one’s like or dislike for West is asserting not just an aesthetic position, but a moral one as well. He belongs in the class of Richard Wagner or Philip Larkin: respected for their art, yet disliked for their personal views. If you express appreciation for Kanye West, by proxy, you are apparently also arguing that you do not condemn the questionable moral material of his lyrics.

From NWA to Eminem, hip-hop has always relied on the power to shock and offend, and if you have ever listened to Eazy-E’s comments on gang-rape, you’ll have noticed that West is positively tame by comparison. In other words, although you may not agree with Yeezus and its sentiments, you should be able to appreciate the music, which is groundbreaking. Furthermore, released this month alongside the intelligent pop-house of Disclosure’s Settle, Yeezus shows EDM to be an awesomely exciting genre, reestablishing it as progressive and challenging.

After what is possibly West’s career apex (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – an album so colossally great that it should be mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Rumours, Dark Side of the Moon, The White Album, and In the Aeroplane Over the Sea), West has made the smart move of not trying to repeat his past success with another grandiose epic. Instead, he has turned full sonic circle, working with such producers as the famed minimalist Rick Rubin, and electro-pop pioneers Daft Punk. The resultant album is occasionally jarring, but a surprisingly compelling listen, which has once again reinvented the game.

Although Jameela Jamil won’t be announcing it as a Number One soon, its influence on hip-hop and the surrounding media will surely outstrip its initial impact.

Opening track ‘On Sight’ – with its lurching techno rhythms, dirty synths, and snarling lyrics about (ahem) copulating with married white women – shows that, this time, West sincerely doesn’t give a fuck. This is a radical departure from the relatively pretty opening of ‘Dark Fantasy’ on his previous album. ‘Black Skinhead’ (with its sample from Gary Glitter’s ‘Rock and Roll’) is irresistibly catchy, and is already the trailer song for Martin Scorsese’s new movie The Wolf of Wall Street. This shows the instant credibility generated by an album such as this, and although I’m sure Jameela Jamil won’t be announcing it as a Number One soon, like 808 and Heartbreak, its influence on hip-hop and the surrounding media will surely outstrip its initial impact.

‘I Am a God’, which features the most hashtaggable line in music this year (“hurry up with my damn croissants”) is another attempt to deliberately piss off Kanye-haters: a trend which continues throughout the rest of the album. There are lines such as “Eatin’ Asian pussy / All I need is sweet and sour sauce”: the kinds of moments where West will always split audiences. This particular cut admittedly made this reviewer laugh, possibly showing my own moral position. I understand that this is offensive, yet the pun and the delivery makes it humorous. There’s no real way of justifying it, because it normalizes the objectification of Asian women, and reduces them to a commodity. And yet, being offended by everything nullifies the point of appreciating good art in the first place.

Personally, I do not think art should always cater for children; it should appeal to the id as well as the super-ego. My favourite song on the album is ‘Bound 2’, which features the catchiest hook, and almost sounds like the nice soulful West again. Even with its experiments with several different genres, every song on Yeezus works together, forming a tonally successful whole, and its 40-minute length makes it a highly replayable record.

In many ways, Yeezus is akin to The Rite of Spring, or the Kid A of hip-hop. People will be angered, and they’ll hate, but many shall slowly come to appreciate. This sounds nothing like The College Dropout, which is only a good thing, because there’s nothing more depressing than an artist who doesn’t change as he/she grows. Kanye West is forever the innovator, the perfectionist, and a bunch of absurd contradictions which shouldn’t exist within the same person. He is the closest person in music to Nietzsche’s conception of the superman. For this, he should be admired. Perhaps he’s most akin to Luiz Saurez. As a person, he’s contemptible; as a footballer, he’s a genius. And for that, he deserves our respect.

Similar To: Jay-Z, J. Cole

MP3: ‘Black Skinhead’, ‘Bound 2’