The basket throws up a controversial album this week. Kanye West's fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which is not yet a year old. Is it too early to call this album a classic? No bloody way.
After a hiatus that was too long, this album was highly anticipated. But it surpassed all expectations and then some. It even fulfilled Kanye's own hyperbole (which is no small thing). In the weeks following its release, we started most conversations with "have you heard Kanye's new album yet?" When someone answered in the affirmative, it was like finding a fellow believer, because no one who had heard it thought it was anything less than brilliant and groundbreaking. For those who hadn't, they immediately received orders to buy it on threat of excommunication.
MBDTF is an album of killer one-liners, killer beats and killer songs. And to give credit where it's due, in the same way we couldn't have had Obama without Bush, we couldn't have MBDTF without 808s and Heartbreaks. While it was widely viewed as an ill-conceived travesty, the production he experimented with on that album enabled him to create the most sophisticated hip-hop compositions of his career (and perhaps of the genre) on MBDTF. No one has made a hip hop album like this before. These songs weren't written, they were crafted. Painstakingly. And its not just that the songs are intricate, they are provocative, original and have a development arc which is rare in pop music. This could be hip hop's Kid A (and thank god, because the genre needs someone to push it forward).
Beyond the production, Kanye's themes are more interesting than any other rapper. He is knowing, arrogant, cunning and much smarter than you give him credit for (and when he stepped off the reservation at the MTV video awards, we all seemed to lose sight of the key point - he was right). Hip hop is often provocative, but it's less often compelling. Kanye turns a spotlight on misogynism in rap music. He's not so obvious as to rap about misogynism in rap music, but he turns it up to 11 in what becomes almost a brutal, disturbing satire (watch the clip for Monster for an example).
This is a complete event album, musically and thematically. Everything on the album is over the top. All of the Lights begins with a beautiful one minute violin introduction, overwhelmed by a choral entrance that leads into a pumping beat and a sing-a-long, reverb-filled chorus. He has constructed a song with the sole purpose of blowing you away. (And don't watch the film clip if your eyes are feeling sensitive).
Which brings us to Monster, possibly the highlight of the album, with an unusual but brilliant chorus (which will translate incredibly to a live performance). Hip hop is more competitive than any other genre, with rappers trying to outdo one another with better rhymes and better flow. Nicky Minaj comes in after Kanye and Jay-Z and shits all over them. The film clip is incredible and a great feminist outrage. But view it as the statement that it is and he gets away with it. Just.
Track 8 Devil in a New Dress is practically an interlude. Although it's an outstanding track, you find yourself having a break after the sonic assaults of Monster, Power and All of the Lights. Then the album starts all over again with a single, repeated piano note. Even the Neptunes are listening to the start of Runaway and saying "wow, that's austere". Runaway is brutally honest and sad, expressing all of Kanye's self-loathing with the warning "run away from me, baby". (Although coming in at 9:07 minutes, the journey sure does drag on).
Two songs later is Blame Game, a heart wrenching take on two people in a relationship turning on each other. Hip hop does a lot of emotions, but heart wrenching is rare. The Chris Rock coda is strange, offensive and fascinating. And it leads into the glorious, joyous dance anthem of Lost in the World. A hundred listens later and the lyrics remain unclear but that doesn't stop us singing along (and playing drums on the steering wheel if we're driving).
What makes Kanye stand out from most rappers is that he's self-aware and self-critical. Not in an angry Eminem way, but in a way that acknowledges his disappointment in himself. But he is also hysterically funny - "I sent this girl a picture of my dick. I don't know what it is with females. But I'm not too good at that shit".
Kanye doesn't write raps and find a beat to pair them with - he constructs songs. Glorious, challenging songs that we will be listening in twenty years. And he pairs them with bold, stylish and relevant videos. Sure, he may not have the best flow or technique out there but he is a complete artist in a way that other, better, rappers are not. This album is a throw-down to everyone else in the game, and if there's anyone out there who can match it with Kanye, they are yet to show themselves.
Speechless
ReplyDelete