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Kanye West just released his worst album and it won’t save his trash career

June 01, 2018
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Music fans are fickle: if we really enjoy an artist’s music, we tend to be more forgiving when they say or do trash things (see: R. Kelly’s undying career). That’s why, fresh off of a string of detestable behavior—including vocal support for Donald Trump, MAGA-infused Twitter diatribes and one terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad interview that singlehandedly made many fans push the big, red cancel button on him, Kanye West really had to bring the fire for his new album.

But he didn’t. In fact, he made the worst album of his career—one that will likely make folks that are already pissed off at him even angrier.

ye is West’s eighth album, his first since the “living” 2016 project The Life of Pablo. He’s earned the cred in his career to fly by the seat of his post-liposuction pants with album releases, and this release was the nuttiest: 12 hours before it hit streaming media sites, we didn’t have an album title, track list or the artwork, which is of the Wyoming mountains—a photo that cost a hell of a lot less than the $85,000 he dropped on the controversial artwork for Pusha T’s DAYTONA.

West built his brand, in part, on an obstinate dedication to political incorrectness. But everything changed the moment he posted a picture of him wearing a MAGA hat. Fans are expecting mea culpas from West, but if you come to ye for that, the first two tracks alone are likely to take you out of the album.

On the opener, “I Thought About Killing You,” which addresses his thoughts of suicide, he refrains, “I love myself way more than I love you,” reminding everyone that he’s not as self-loathing as many people think he is. On the second track, “Yikes,” West raps, “Turn TMZ to Smack DVD, huh/ Russell Simmons wanna pray for me too/Imma pray for him ’cause he got #MeToo’d.” In just a few bars, he makes light of his infamous TMZ interview and seemingly attacks Simmons, who had the nerve to write an open letter to West while dealing with his own shit.  

Also on “Yikes,” West yells, “This is why all the b—-s f— with Ye…they’ll take me on meds, off meds.” And “Ain’t no disability, I’m a superhero.” Hubris is his part of brand, but this sounds forced and annoying.

On “Wouldn’t Leave,” a track that wouldn’t be out of place on Jay-Z’s conciliatory 4:44, West admits that his antics are at odds with his wife, Kim Kardashian. He raps, “I said ‘slavery a choice’ they said ‘how ‘Ye?’/Just imagine if they caught me on a wild day.” It’s like he’s reminding everyone that he can say even more batshit things, and Kardashian still won’t leave him. And, perhaps, we won’t either.

“All Mine” contains one of the biggest talker lines, dedicated to NBA star and recent J.R. Smith victim Tristan Thompson, who recently caught all the darts in the chest for cheating on West’s sister-in-law Khloe Kardashian while she was pregnant.

Musically, ye’s production seems quite lazy considering what we know he’s capable of. His 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a classic in large part because of the layered and dense production. In contrast, it sounds like West cobbled this shit together last Wednesday. It’s a mishmash of sounds he employed 808s and Heartbreak, Yeezus and TLOP—his three worst albums—but with very few of the best elements from those albums.

There are the occasional flashes of his musical genius—no one cuts a soul sample quite like West, which is why the Kid Cudi-assisted “Ghost Town” has the album’s best production by miles.  (West and Cudi have a joint album dropping next Friday, June 8.) But then we get 808s singing ‘Ye over the track. And no one anywhere needs singing ‘Ye.

Part of me respects West for doubling down on his own beliefs, but that only goes so far when those beliefs resemble what happens in every action film when a gunfight breaks out at a gas station. If he’d hewn closely to the 4:44-esque model of reconciling with his fans, he might have had something. But considering the double-whammy of trifling lyrics and bad production, ye is a hard pass.

Pusha’s DAYTONA is dope, so we’re one for two so far with the string of seven-track albums produced by West.

Here’s hoping he doesn’t f— up Nas’ joint.

The post Kanye West just released his worst album and it won’t save his trash career appeared first on theGrio.



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