Board 8 > Kanye West released a new album

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://pitchfork.com/news/listen-to-kanye-wests-new-album-ye/

Listend to a couple excerpts. Need to listen to the full album.
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Sounds like he took inspiration from James Blake and Jamie XX.
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Tagggg
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Spoiler It's really bad
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Its absurd how big the drop off from his production on Daytona to this is
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No way, the production is on point, it's just not trying to be exactly what Daytona was. I think most of the tracks succeed at what they're doing. The extremely uncomfortable intro track and Ghost Town show that to me.

It might be Kanye's worst album, but it's still good.
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I don't love it yet but there's definitely some great stuff.

Ghost Town has me hella excited for next week when the Cudi collab drops
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Nah it's bad sorry

Production and everything is half baked at best on it
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Tokoyami posted...

Nah it's bad sorry

Production and everything is half baked at best on it

imeanthatsjustlikeyouropinionman.jpg
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Listening to it right now

First track was pretty bad
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It is you right, but I genuinely cannot get people actually liking the album. And I've liked everything Kanye had done up to this point.
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I genuinely really liked Wouldn't Leave, but everything else so far has been bad IMO.

3 more to go
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I don't like a single song on it, some of them have slivers of parts that could potentially be a good song but then doesn't
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No Mistakes is really unfocused, hook has basically nothing to do with the verse

Ghost Town started off nice but as soon as Kid Cudi was done it devolved into hot garbage

Violent Crime was pretty good

I think 2/7 tracks were worth a listen. I just like when he stays melodic and actually speaks about something that means something.

Also, Wouldn't Leave and Violent Crime stay consistent throughout and don't feel like 3 unconnected songs in one. This has been one of my biggest issues with Kanye since Yeezus, and it still persists on this album but at least there's a couple tracks here that don't fall into that.

I think Only One and FourFiveSeconds are still my favorite songs he's released since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
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I don't think anything means anything on the album and that's a large part of the problem as well
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I'll challenge that

Wouldn't Leave is about Kanye's... insanity, for lack of a better word, causing issues between him and Kim. And she stuck with him, and this is basically a love letter to both sides of that.

Violent Crimes is Kanye being afraid for his daughter, knowing that she could face all the things that most women have to deal with, especially guys who are predators and perverts.

Unless you're saying that you just don't believe Kanye really cares about this stuff, I'm kinda questioning how you think this doesn't mean anything at all. That's maybe not the most emotional stuff he's ever written but it's honest and it's from his heart.
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liked the opening, yikes slaps, wouldnt leave is good, ghost town has me looking forward to next week, violent crimes is really good

probably his worst album but still pretty good
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the hook on all mine is super catchy
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I think part of the disconnect is that it feels like a personal project Kanye made all for himself. He locks himself in a cabin in Wyoming to produce 5 albums, so his is just about what he's thinking about. Half the album is about his mental health, two tracks are about his family. But I can't tell you what All Mine and No Mistakes are doing here.

Yikes and Ghost Town would make it worth it even if the rest was trash, though.

Edit: I guess All Mine could be intentional irony going from a song about cheating to a song about his wife, but it just came across to me as TLOP-style Kanye verses with crazy lyrics.
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I need to listen again, but this is the first time a Kanye album didn't feel "purposeful" to me. Even Watch the Throne had a purpose.

This is the only time I can't understand exactly what he's been going through and why he decided to make the album as a whole. Feels weird.

College Dropout - proving himself after years of rejection/not being taken seriously as a rapper and a human
Late Registration - utterly bombastic way of proving that he's a genius and is meant to stay
Graduation - calculated evolution from rapper into pop star, which was always what he truly wanted
808s and Heartbreak - a tribute to his mother as he decides to sing, while showcasing his pain through voice distortion
MBDTF - all he has left is his art, and he is going to paint his masterpiece
Watch the Throne - proving that he deserves to be discussed in the same breath as the greatest MCs of all time
Yeezus - disillusionment with celebrity, no-holds-barred takedown of society
Life of Pablo - constant reinvention, as demonstrated by an album that would perpetually be reworked even after release
Ye - ...???
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He's a sad dad now
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Scoop de poop
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Probably not the best time for him to drop a mediocre album.
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Solioxrz362 posted...

I'll challenge that

Wouldn't Leave is about Kanye's... insanity, for lack of a better word, causing issues between him and Kim. And she stuck with him, and this is basically a love letter to both sides of that.

Violent Crimes is Kanye being afraid for his daughter, knowing that she could face all the things that most women have to deal with, especially guys who are predators and perverts.

Unless you're saying that you just don't believe Kanye really cares about this stuff, I'm kinda questioning how you think this doesn't mean anything at all. That's maybe not the most emotional stuff he's ever written but it's honest and it's from his heart.

alright I'll bite now that I'm home

Wouldn't Leave has him yet again brushing off his slavery was a choice comment by talking about how everyone freaked out.....oh but don't worry Kim won't leave me for that and we love each other. Like what? In general he's brushing off his controversial views on the song, thinking that he's on higher plane so it doesn't matter.

Violent Crimes' message is just tirelessly overdone by men thinking they're being more manly by stating and that message itself is quite controlling, even under the guise of "oh I'll protect you".

Throughout this whole album cycle Kanye has been saying that everything will be explained on the album, multiple people saying everything about Kanye's recent actions will be explained on the album.....but when you get down to it, nothing is really explained at all. He throws around questions and references but never actually works to answer them. Meanwhile throwing in lines like

"Russell Simmons wanna pray for me too
I'ma pray for him 'cause he got #MeToo'd
Thinkin' what if that happened to me too
Then I'm on E! News"

Those are just straight fucked lines, I'm sorry. And then we get shit like "Ayy, none of us would be here without cum" which is just a laughably terrible line, "I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed", uhhhhhhh really? That was the best you could come up with? "Don't get your tooth chipped like Frito-Lay" is pretty bad too, ain't nobody would be praising shit like that for other artists.

So outside of the actual lines, everything still feels half-baked and just not finished in every song. The beats are weak most of the time and even when they're getting somewhere he doesn't complement them well. This is a man that used to pride himself on the intricacy of producing music and the craft, and this shit feels slapped together most of the time. Even The Life of Pablo, which you could argue the same things for, still had....honestly I'm not sure, it just sounded better than whatever this album is. He had a better ear for things on TLOP than on here that's for sure.

Now this album HAS SOME potential. There are some hooks that could work. But they don't go all the way. Some of his flows could work if he didn't have god awful lines. Some of his LINES could work if they had the consistency to back them up. But he just doesn't on this. When this dropped last night I predicted it would still get like a 72 on Metacritic and mostly 7's across the board. There are people that are gonna like it, which honestly more power to them it would be nice if I did. But it hurts that someone who I've enjoyed every other album he's put out releases.....this. And it hurts more for how problematic he has become (more so than in the past), and it now has translated to his music.
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On a more positive note Daytona by Pusha T is fucking great and Kanye does wonders on there working with Pusha. If you haven't listened to Daytona go do that.
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Ugh... Kanye.

Seriously, I didn't mind him 2004-08.
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ExThaNemesis posted...

next week when the Cudi collab drops

This is what I'm really looking forward to
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On that note I really think Cudi sounds baaaaaaaaaad on Ghost Town, like that note he hits, or fails to, when he says "try" and then goes into "just takes you further from me"? Oof
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Yeah I have heard some theories that Ye is just part of a larger Wyoming opus, which consists of the 5 EPs he's producing this summer. Pusha's album, Ye, the Cudi collaboration, Nas's album, and one other one.
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That's....not a theory, that's a thing that's happening yes. He's producing all 5 albums, they're coming out week after week, Pusha's was the first, he told everyone to just do 7 songs to keep it tight and focused.
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I mean the "theory" is they are all supposed to form one mega album to listen to consecutively
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oh.....that's inventive I'll give them that but ain't no way I'm listening through 35 tracks in a row for an album, especially one that involves this album
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I remember the days when I did the old 5 track rule, if fewer than 5 tracks were any good, I'd say "Fuck the Album!".
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you know it's being bi-polar he's touting around not ADHD right
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You're giving him too much credit if you think he's even listened to it. Probably just saw an article somewhere.
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Not close enough at all. Two 100% totally different mental disorders with completely different symptoms. Also how you didn't know he was bipolar despite the cover art literally saying 'I hate being bipolar it's awesome' is absolutely baffling.
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Because he hasn't actually seen it.
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"I hate being bi-polar it's awesome" did he get this from an angsty highschooler's t-shirt or something?

Ah okay that makes sense. And yeah I do like that he openly raps and talks about his mental disorder. It's a surprisingly personal album.
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In the loosest set of terms yes I suppose that is a thing he's doing on this album
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I disagree but I know you have established yourself as the preeminent rap expert on this board so I default to you.
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whoa whoa whoa whoa I explained a big chunk of what I thought above, that was me being real and explaining my complaints with the album. Yes I'm facetious now and then like my post right above but come on. I even said it had potential and that I'm happy for those that like it even though I don't!
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Lol I knew that would rub you the wrong way. Nah, I actually do value your assessments of rap over anyone else's including my own. I'm not as well versed in the genre as you. Lyrically, it's way more dense than I'm used to so I'm more surface level in my assessments.
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oh, fair enough you know me too well then haha
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http://yenerator.com/

In case you wanna create your own cover
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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Those are just straight fucked lines, I'm sorry. And then we get shit like "Ayy, none of us would be here without cum" which is just a laughably terrible line, "I put my hand on a stove, to see if I still bleed", uhhhhhhh really? That was the best you could come up with? "Don't get your tooth chipped like Frito-Lay" is pretty bad too, ain't nobody would be praising shit like that for other artists.

those are all horrible lines and not in the two songs i like

you say you hate those lines but you like stuff on Yeezus like "Eating asian pussy all I need is sweet and sour sauce", it doesn't make sense to me and it seems contradictory

lots of the lines from the past two albums have been just as bad if not worse than anything on this record, and I think most of this record is straight trash
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Alright first off

Did you just ignore my paragraphs on the two specific songs you say you like and skip right to that, and then try to say "OH BUT HE SAYS THINGS ON THESE PAST ALBUMS" to justify this one? I've already covered that he's been problematic, I even say

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

And it hurts more for how problematic he has become (more so than in the past)

and on the topic of TLOP

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

Even The Life of Pablo, which you could argue the same things for, still had....honestly I'm not sure, it just sounded better than whatever this album is.

I've acknowledged the shit that TLOP has on it. Yea that line is also problematic in ways, I won't lie I still think it's sort of dope in a hype up sort of sense but I'm not going around parading that line saying that's the pinnacle of TLOP (although honestly that song it's on might be my favorite because I quite love the production and progression on it). It's like you completely ignored my post right to that to try to make a GOTCHA moment on me for nothing.
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