Sound Salvation Army

Say what you will about Kanye but he’s got some audacity.

Performing this track at the closing of the MTV Video Music Awards was an audacious move. I didn’t see it, but it was audacious. The site of what was the previously-celebrated hip hop star’s greatest downfall was, from a story-telling standpoint, the perfect venue for a “comeback.”

But he’s smart enough not to put all his eggs in one basket. West has been releasing track after track after track after track this summer through his twitter feed, his blog, and various other outlets. He’s also smart enough to hold only the best stuff back for his next album. That’s where “Runaway” really becomes relevant: this is the best Kanye West track since “Through The Wire.”

There are similarities; it feels like West is trying to be more up-front than he was on the couple of albums leading up to 808s and Heartbreaks. He’s admitting some of his shortfalls, something that was once typical for him, part of what made him stand out. Admitting his penchant for troublesome, trifling women and a fear of intimacy is pretty mature for a guy that is obsessed with the trappings of wealth, fame, and material possessions (especially one that so famously called out women that target rich men). He does sound like his singing is improving as well, although his recent Saturday Night Live performance, while visually mind-blowing, was a far cry from what it could have been. The use of the live sampler is an interesting way to remind people that he creates music in addition to being a part-time jerk-off (but don’t drown out your guest vocalist with samples, jerk). The music itself is lovely, continuing his recent trend of chilled electronic work that’s set off with the patient piano notes that open the track and carry it through.

He does seem to be contradicting himself a bit lyrically; telling his lady she should run away as fast as she can and then admitting, “I don’t know how I would manage if one day you just up and leave.” The underlying vulnerability says a lot about the man but unifying his message would probably be helpful. Of course, depending on who you ask his lyrics are often a garbled mess (the result of him not reading books and being proud of it perhaps?) but his early career was marked by interesting and honest work. I would love to see more of that.

The cynical side of me wants to believe this song and his entreaties to Taylor Swift are nothing more than calculated measures to try and soften his image. But a track like the ferocious “Monster” handles that much more capably. Perhaps he’s pulling out all the stops to try and come across not as the insensitive provocateur but as a genuine artist. The Saturday Night Live set would seem to suggest the same. That would be fine with me. Despite my earlier reservations I loved his last album and the singularity of it.

 

 Kanye West (ft. Pusha-T) - Runaway [5:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Pay money for the single on iTunes — or download it here until we get the cease and desist letter.

Pat entries Kanye West, Pusha-T, rap, singles, swearing

It took months of having to listen to it before I came around on Kanye West’s 808’s & Heartbreak. My original review was the result of a first impression that failed to take into account the depth and intricacies of every element, every aspect of the album. Its majestic defiance of decades of expectations for hip-hop artists and the genre itself, its need to stand alone as a thing unto itself, its unbelievable emotional singularity within the greater umbrella of the rap community. Its total lack of rap.

Only a few of those things translate into a remix of the album’s big single, “Love Lockdown,” that dropped into my e-mail inbox this morning.

Remixes are a thing that I don’t generally cotton to (as you can probably guess by my use of such an antiquated phrase). I’m not a huge fan of electro- music and I’m even less of a fan of club music, house music, and “dance” music in general. If I wanted to give myself a headache I’d sit in front of a strobe light and hit myself in the skull with a hammer.

That’s where Young Wiz’s remix gets its first strike in my mind. Eschewing the glacial pace of the original, it ramps the beats-per-minute above 120, wiping out what was a cathartic build-up into the clatter of the chorus and replacing it with a constant backbone of thumping bass synth. Kanye’s already-roboticized vocals are now muddled under even more distortion, with one phrase (”You lose”) repeated ad naseum for more than a third of the track’s running time. There are also seemingly-random glitches and drop-outs slapped into the last sixty seconds which keep the listener on their toes, but its hard to say what other purpose they might serve. The repetition lasts long enough that the track seems to go out in a whimper instead of a bang. The original may have as well, but at least the entire thing hit a crescendo of percussion before fading out on the fuzzy bass-line.

There are some attempts to inject new blood into the track. A smattering of fake hand claps and some synthesized strings curry some good favour and offer a bit of freshness to the proceedings. The beat is subtly shifted up two or three times to keep folks stepping, and I’m pretty sure there are some hand drums sampled in there as well. That’s a nice touch.

This is far from my area of expertise, but I guess in some instances as a reviewer you can’t necessarily justify why you feel one way or another about something. This isn’t something I would go out of my way to listen to on a regular basis, but it isn’t bad. If you’re into dancey numbers or re-interpretations of songs this might be up your alley. At the very least, this will sound dynamite coming out of some the car trunk of a dude with arrested development.

 

 Kanye West - Love Lockdown (remix): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Young Wiz tells me he’s just getting his feet wet; this is actually his first big remix. I’d recommend you go over to his Sound Cloud page and check things out. I’m sure he’d appreciate feedback from as many people as possible, so drop a comment while you’re over there.

Pat entries dance music, electronic, Kanye West, rap, remix, Young Wiz

Editor’s note: I think this might be our first post concerning a big-time major label artist/album. Get psyched for the lawsuit!

There’s a lot of symbolism surrounding the new Kanye West album and I don’t like it one bit.

I remember a time when every rapper was laying claim to the title of “best rapper ever.” That was all anyone in hip-hop really aspired to. Dre, Eminem, Snoop, Wu Tang. Hell, even Master P thought he was the top of the heat. Every notable rapper of the last fifteen years has had the market cornered on braggadacio.

Kanye may have made similar claims on his previous albums, even though its pretty much a concensus that while his work has shown numerous glimpses of genius in both production and lyrics, his flow is far from top-tier.

But guess what? It doesn’t matter anymore. Not even at all. Actual rapping in mainstream rap has taken a back seat to one of the all time lamest fucking gimmicks ever to hit music: blatant, constant use of auto-tune. Auto-tune is a piece of equipment that uses a phase vocoder to correct the fuck-ups of marginally talented people in vocal and instrumental performance. That means that if someone sings flat note, the software digitally corrects it so it sounds like the right note. Recently rappers have re-appropriated it as a way to make themselves sound like robots. TI, T-Pain,

So in a nutshell, instead of aspiring to be the greatest rappers ever, hip hop artists today are fighting to show off how absolutely terrible they are at singing. While I’m all for moving the genre away from flossing and violence and bad grammar and worse spelling and racial epithets and gangsterism, I’d also like to see those that have talent aspire to do better.

There’s no disputing that Kanye has plenty of talent, but after listening through this album a few times all I see is one enormous mistake. The material here is for the most part astonishingly good; aside from a couple of lame ducks, the songs are sparsely constructed and unified in theme and tenor. It’s a stark, dour reflection of everything that’s gone wrong in Kanye’s life and there’s no shortage of pain and emotion in his delivery. It overcomes his extreme arrogance, at least lyrically. You’d just never know it because every second of this album has fucking robot voice on it. Also, the Philosopher Kings already did the whole “heart monitor as beat” thing and it worked much better for them.

The rapping is minimized and West sings nearly all of every song. I have no problem with that, but I feel like I would’ve loved this album if he had taken an extra six months to get some vocal lessons, polish up those pipes, and do a proper job of singing these songs. Make it genuine. The robot voice just steals any sense of realness from the songs.

I don’t care if you make the most heartfelt and genuine songs of your life; I would rather hear them sung badly and passionately (like his first song on a recent Saturday Night Live performance) than stripped of any human quality at all. Hell, get someone else to sing them for you.

I sincerely doubt I’ll ever be listening to this album again.

 

 Kanye West - Love Lockdown [4:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Kanye West - Heartless: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

‘Ye would like you to buy it on iTunes if you have your robot ears on.

Pat entries auto-tune, depression, Kanye West, rap, robot voices, singer/songwriter

One of my favourite rap artists (and one of the few rappers you can call artists) working today is a gent by the name of Common. When he’s not acting in big budget movies with Jeremy Piven or cutting ads for Coca-Cola, he puts out albums that are consistently terrific. He’s done a lot of what some people call, “conscious hop-hop,” and his lyrics show a lot of intelligence and concern for America’s black community.

A big part of the appeal for me is a lack of bravado, ego, and arrogance in his music (even though most of his material – including his entire last album – is produced by Kanye). One of the standouts on his latest, Finding Forever, features guest vocals from one of this summer’s it-girls (Lily Allen), but what really steals the show is Common’s terrific use of pop-culture references to keep the song light while simultaneously calling out talented rappers who try too hard to be famous.

My favourites? Allusions to Lisa Nowak, the NASA astronaut who drove across the country wearing diapers to confront the woman who was dating a fellow astronaut she was obsessed with, and OKGO’s infamous treadmill video. Enjoy.

 

 Common - Drivin' Me Wild (w/ Lily Allen) [3:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Common’s music (including his superior earlier albums) can be found:
iTunes: all over this thing
web store: one of few artists with their own mp3 web store

Pat entries Common, conscious, hip hop, Kanye West, Lily Allen, rap