Album Review: Yeezus by Kanye West

It’s been a minute since Kanye has graced us with a solo project, seeming more inclined to do compilation projects, running into poles, and impregnating Kardashians. But he’s managed to find some time in his uber busy life to record a new album titled Yeezus. The album comes out on June 18th but thanks to the gods of foolishness and the internet, the album was made available online and after taking a listen, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the album.

Overall Impressions
Kanye West, Ye, sir…what in the entire fuck was this 10 song album you put out? This album is trash, traaaaash. Like I don’t even know if I can give this album a proper review because I disliked it that much. I had to go listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to restore my spirit. While this album is sonically coherent (praise the Lord), there just isn’t much here by which to give praise.

Production Value
Kanye never disappoints on the production side even when delivering subpar material. As I mentioned above, one of the bright spots for this album is that the sound is consistent and yet diverse enough to not have every track sounding the same. The problem is this isn’t a sound that facilitates more than one listen,  reminding me a lot of his 808s and Heartbreaks album and how I could only make it through that once. Also, who the fuck told Kanye to sample Strange Fruit? That is one of the most powerful songs ever recorded and Ye treats it like some raggedy hook. No sir.

Lyrical Content
‘Ye has always been a gifted lyricist and he shows glimpses of that talent on songs like New Slaves and Black Skinhead, but when did he become so damn materialistic? There’s no depth to these songs and if you are forcing us to listen to heavily produced, sensory assaulting beats the least you could have done was given me some decent lyrical content. It’s also disconcerting that I went through the entire album and cannot for the life of me remember any of the lines. Also the subject matter is nowhere near as interesting as Kanye might think we think it is.

Kanye Unchained w/Rick Rubin as Christopher Waltz RT @DragonflyJonez #Yeezus really is a white guilt rap album. Phenomenal.

— Black Canseco (@BlackCanseco) June 15, 2013

Listen, Kanye is obsessed with the high arts, white women, and Europe. Nothing about that is pushing “culture” forward.

— Charles Wade (@akacharleswade) June 14, 2013

I’m for creative license, but we’re hearing dimwitted Black men trivialize awful things that happened to Black men. For sport. Fuck that.

— Michael Arceneaux (@youngsinick) June 15, 2013

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WELP.

Final Thoughts: At this point, I expect more from Kanye and this album did not deliver.
Best Track: New Slaves
Grade: D-/F