Kanye West – Yeezus (Roc-A-Fella)
No artist has been as ubiquitous or as culturally pervasive in the last decade as Kanye West. Whether he’s riling the ire of teen pop stars or the president, Mr. West continually pushes the boundaries of pop culture with his unique ability to crystallize the zeitgeist of the moment in maximalist statement after maximalist statement, filtering the emerging movements of the underground into documents of mass consumption that steer the taste and sound of the mainstream for years to come.
Kanye West – Yeezus (Roc-A-Fella)
No artist has been as ubiquitous or as culturally pervasive in the last decade as Kanye West. Whether he’s riling the ire of teen pop stars or the president, Mr. West continually pushes the boundaries of pop culture with his unique ability to crystallize the zeitgeist of the moment in maximalist statement after maximalist statement, filtering the emerging movements of the underground into documents of mass consumption that steer the taste and sound of the mainstream for years to come. Now, just when it seemed that Kanye West might have reached the end of his amazing run after last year’s disappointing Cruel Summer release from his GOOD Music Group and his recent overexposure through his relationship with tabloid and reality TV icon Kim Kardashian, West returns with an album that is borderline revolutionary in its aggressive and experimental tirade against the ills of our times.
On his new album, Yeezus, the artist trades the massive and lush sound of his masterful My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and strips it down to a dark, gritty, minimalist record. Yeezus evokes the modern despair of a society awash in technology, and an invasive and narcissistic culture that is as dominating psychologically as it is physically. Like so many of his peers in the hip hop community, Kanye delves into lyrics about money, molly, and the base objectification of women at certain points on the album, but West is also writing songs with broader themes about corporate dominance and cultural appropriation, such as “New Slaves” and “Black Skinhead.” And musically, he trades in the contemporary buoyancy of radio hip hop for a grueling and heavy sound filled with minor keys, stuttering drums, and overdriven electronic basslines, which at times segue into blissful stand-alone soul samples that warble and deteriorate like well worn cassette tapes being pushed through blown speakers.
Yeezus breaks serious ground for hip hop and may be the first major release of any established artist in the genre to experiment with low fidelity and noise as a key element of the album’s central sonic concept. It thrives on abrupt samples and lurching drums that create a weight and downtempo darkness, sending the listener into the underbelly of our times. West’s ever-present egotism and braggadocio has never been more appropriate or palatable than it is on the track “I Am A God,” a low-frequency rant about anxiety and the insanity of celebrity. Punctuated by panicked screams, it has strong parallels with John Lennon’s diatribe about the downside of being the biggest artist in the world, Beatles classic “The Ballad of John and Yoko.” The comparison may seem odd, but other than West, almost no other pop star has been in a more similar position to that of Lennon at the time: at once loved and reviled, hounded by the press and the establishment, positioned as standard-bearer for high art in pop culture.
Whatever unique position West holds in our society, he is running with it. Taking the risks and enlisting the talent that fame and fortune afford artists of his caliber, he is delivering to the highest level of his potential. More than any record he’s previously released, this one feels like a true statement and a unified effort to assault and push the back at the world that seeks to control and define him. On Yeezus, Kanye breaks all the industry rules about the necessity of having easily sellable singles and making safe music. This is yet another masterpiece for Kanye West–experimental, groundbreaking, of the moment and of the future; a ferocious rant of defiance and challenge.
