Review Summary: “This album is all about giving. This whole process is all about giving no fucks at all.” –Kanye West
Kanye West has become an evolving phenomenon ever since his debut in 2004 and every solo album that he has released is of creative merit. For Yeezus, Kanye aspires to create a minimalistic album with hard hitting beats and simplistic lyrics, while taking in influences from previous works he has done. Despite being only 10 tracks and 40 minutes long, Kanye is able to convey many emotions and messages without having to be exhausting on the listener.
The content of Yeezus is about the cult of the man himself, and proclaims himself as a self-loathing, ultra douchey, and somewhat humorous god on planet Earth. On the first 4 tracks of Yeezus, Mr. West gives no sh*t about political correctness, as he bashes White America and tells his own community to stop “cooning” around. He justifies his god like status within society and the rap industry by comparing his impact to Jesus and MJ and being a pioneer of current mainstream hip hop, while hilariously demanding massages and croissants. Kanye employs a dark, noisy, and chaotic atmosphere into the production, which succeeds in making the listener pay more attention to what he is saying.
On the second half of Yeezus, Kanye becomes more emotional, as he focuses on his love life. On Hold My Liquor, he creates an image of how alcohol had ruined his life by getting into meaningless one night stands and being disowned by his own aunt, and at the end breaks out of his alcoholic coma for one last time to symbolize Kanye’s return to a more stable lifestyle. He anguishes at the loss of his love interests in songs of Guilt Trip and Blood on the Leaves, revealing how fame, drugs, and unfortunate timing may have played a role in those relationships. From all the seriousness and darkness he presents in the second half, he inserts tracks like Send It Up and I’m In It as club bangers and Lil Wayne-esqe one liners, such as fisting a black girl like a civil rights sign and eating Asian pussy with sweet and sour sauce. Kanye takes cues from Graduation, 808s & Heartbreak, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to create these tracks, while adding some electro and dubstep influence. Yeezus concludes on Bound 2, which works as an ode to Kim Kardashian, and this song’s production contrasts from the previous 9 tracks, with the soulful sample and pre-Graduation influence.
Despite the below average clipping and mastering (looks like Kanye hasn’t learned anything from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) and sometimes overly sexualized verses, Yeezus is a creative landscape, which delves into trap, industrial punk, electro, R&B, and rap to create an exciting 40 minutes, and one that may be talked about for months to come.
