I’m one of those people who respect what Kanye West is doing, but it personally doesn’t move me in any form. I like his story, his politics and his ambition, but when it comes to his music, I can take it or leave it.
Pitchfork gave the album a 9.5, which is pretty amazing. However, I really like this review from Tuning Fork. Here’s a highlight:
I wasn’t that desperate to talk about this but i have already had two people come up to me today and tell me this record is awesome, and I was like are you fucking kidding me? And they were all like listen to this and tell me that shit ain’t hot and I was all like of course it’s hot, but why can’t it be intelligent, why can’t it be inspiring, why can’t it be upsetting, why can’t it be confusing? Kanye’s record has the same coming of age ghetto stories as every other commercial hip hop record out there and it is annoying. This is your expression of self – and you plagiarized. Not verbatim, but you followed the formula . If you are going to craft a story, tell one that hasn’t been told, and if you are going to tell me about your life then don’t wonder what I will think of you – just say it, you don’t need justification from me. (full review)
So what about you? Kanye lover or otherwise unimpressed?
I think people are more impressed with the album musically, because it’s musical as hell. Lyrics have not always been Kanye’s strong points but he has improved some. Lyrics never were Jay Dee’s or Dr. Dre’s or any other producer/rapper that comes to mind strong points, but it didn’t matter, it’s good headphone music. I think people like Kanye like they like Outkast, think about Outkast; their songs are highly creative but were the lyrics always that meaningful?
I do like the song about his Mama…that’s sweet.
The rest of it is fine as far as commercial hip-hop is concerned but it certainly doesn’t warrant anything above a 6.0 on the Pitchfork scale.
Methinks the Forkers have fallen victim to the PR avalanche that is Kanye.
are you saying hip-hop albums should rank lower on the pitchfork scale? or being that it’s not an underground hip-hop albums automatically knocks them down a couple points?
they even gave Beanie Sigel’s album an 8.5?!
Very nice blog!
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