Alex Thompson delves into the warped and twisted mind of Kanye West with today's long read, a review of 2013's Yeezus.
Riding high on the successes of his critically adored magnum opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and beloved Jay Z collaboration Watch The Throne, Kanye West wanted to take his sound in a different direction. He’d experimented with harsher, more abrasive sounds on previous albums but he wanted to take it further. He wanted to make an album with more ferocity than your usual rap project, more experimentation and create something truly unique. After a rough few years of breakups, deaths, the loss of several brand deals and becoming the target of media scrutiny, Kanye was frustrated with the status quo and sought to cement himself as one of the most creative and dynamic musicians of his generation. He wanted to prove that he was bigger than rap music.
This frustration, angst and ambition culminates in my favourite Kanye album, perhaps my favourite album of all time - Yeezus.
In the canon of Kanye West, Yeezus is somewhat of an underappreciated gem. It’s not got the youthful bounce and revolutionary sampling of The College Dropout, the grandeur and lavish songwriting of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or the pop appeal of Graduation. It’s darker, moodier and a whole lot more fascinating than people give it credit for. It combines elements of hip hop, electronic, experimental, industrial, noise rock and at its bare bones - punk rock. Sure, it might have more frills and tricks than your usual punk project but at its core, Yeezus is the story of one man raging against a system with a harsh and abrasive sound which reflects that. And if that’s not punk, I don’t know what the fuck is.
From the first ripping synth lines of ‘On Sight’. It’s clear that this is a very different beast to anything Kanye has done before. With production courtesy of electronic music powerhouse Daft Punk and super producer Mike Dean, ‘On Sight’ is the distilled essence of Yeezus, combining unique and experimental production aesthetics with rage and ferocity. The lyrics are unrelenting, grotesque and aggressive, hyper-sexuality and obsession being the driving force behind them. This is followed by the pulsating electronic drums, hypnotic heavy breaths and primal chanting of ‘Black Skinhead’, a driving synth riff that punctuates one of the most instantly recognisable beats on the album. Lyrically, West channels frustration about race, wealth and religion and combines elements of his own life and struggles with mythology, effectively self-mythologising and casting himself as the central character in the narrative of the album. The influence of french producer and composer Gesaffelstein is unmistakable, his fingerprints all over the dense and opulent production as well as the abrasive and cutting instrumental.
These ideas of self-mythologisation are taken to a new level on Yeezus’ controversial third track ‘I Am A God’. Casting himself as a God-like figure, Kanye’s ego is front and centre on this track as he challenges his perception as an ego-obsessed maniac by presenting himself as just that. Perhaps the biggest challenge levelled at Kanye on this album is his sense of ego but that’s perhaps Yeezus’ greatest strength, showing Kanye at his most aggressive, narcissistic and desperate. Unchained. ‘New Slaves’ takes these ideas of the limitations and boundaries of modern American life and portrays a cruel parody of slavery, where succesful black Americans are constrained by vicious stereotypes and ingrained prejudices. A minimal electronic riff and drum beat kicks and pounds in the background, waiting until its final act before launching into a lavish and opulent flipped sample from Hungarian rock group Omega.
With ‘Hold My Liqour’, the album begins to show another side to Kanye - a more vulnerable and emotive one. With some gorgeous backing vocals courtesy of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. It’s slower, more subdued and lyrically more revealing. Mike Dean’s guitar work is sprawling and lavish, the production is moody and warped, almost verging on the psychedelic trap influence of Travis Scott (who also appears on the record). The hyper-violent, hyper-sexualised lyrics of the first few tracks are still here, but ‘Hold My Liquor’ revels in the more lavish side of it all rather than the shock factor of earlier moments. Painting a picture of a wealthy but lonely tyrant, the more mellow aesthetics of the track seem to bring out the more confessional side to Kanye. He presents himself as flawed, miserable and desperate.
“Soul mates become soulless” he sings.
‘I’m In It’ sees a return to the harsher, abrasive palette that defines Yeezus, a sampled moan accompanied by crashing 808 kicks and some of the most grotesque and sexual imagery of the entire album. It’s like American Psycho in it’s over the top content, an almost ridiculous level of taboo that’s designed to shock and appal. Like much of the album, it’s not an easy listen but it's not meant to be. It’s a full on assault on the senses, from the booming production and jarring instrumental to the disgusting lyrics and snarling vocal delivery.
Rick Rubin’s production brings with it a harder edge, the producer having a history of producer grittier and more heavy hitting instrumentals for the likes of Beastie Boys, Run DMC and Jay Z. It’s another example of Kanye cherry picking a dream team of producers and collaborators to create his vision of a heavy, punk-like rap album.
‘Blood On The Leaves’ is more unsettling, a haunting flip of Nina Simone’s ‘Strange Fruit’ forming a spacious and ghostly backdrop for Kanye’s warbling, auto-tuned vocals. This gives way to a fuzzy brass sample and clattering hi-hat as the track progresses, still underpinned by that beautiful Nina Simone sample. The lyrics paint an image of a man who wants to be someone else, who is frustrated with his perception and wanting to be something more before moving onto another lurid depiction of wealth, of influencers, fast cars and expensive watches that are unable to bring happiness. It’s another moment on the album where Kanye seems frustrated that even with his success and fame, he is not happy. He wants more.
Greed is a defining motif on the album. This is the main theme of ‘Guilt Trip’, a track where Kanye questions the value of his wealth and the impact greed has had on his relationships. “If you love me then why’d you let me go '' the refrain, his loneliness contrasted by the extravagance of the lifestyle he depicts. He might have “champagne”, “fur” and “ski clothes” but he feels desperately alone. It’s your typical money can’t buy happiness narrative but translated into the lifestyle of a rapper who has everything, but wants more.
The piercing synth stabs of ‘Send It Up’ is another moment of brash and brilliantly obnoxious instrumentals on the album, sounding like a warped and twisted air raid siren which stabs and cuts through the pulsating, heartbeat like drumming and biting verses. The industrial themes which drive this album might be nothing new or boundary pushing when compared to the likes of groups like Death Grips, who were playing with similar aesthetics a few years earlier, but the fusion of this with Kanye’s braggadocious and lavish hip hop, as well as the electronic stylings of Daft Punk, Gesaffelstein and Arca creates something utterly intoxicating.
Yeezus comes to a close with ‘Bound 2’, the poppiest song on the album which flips a cutesy “bound to fall in love” sample and intersperses it with some of Kanye’s most sexual lyrics on the album. Lust and love drive this track, Kanye fusing ideas of true love (“I know you’re tired of loving, with nobody to love”) with pure animal lust (“I want to fuck you hard on the sink”). It’s ridiculous but a seemingly natural conclusion to the album, showing Kanye find someone to cure his loneliness and his greed - a traditional love song but with more obscene sexual descriptions.
Yeezus is an outlier in the rap scene, even in Kanye’s back catalogue. It’s fuelled by angst and rage, driven by creative collaboration choices and defined by its vulgar and often grotesque lyrics. Instrumentally, it pushes boundaries further than anything Kanye’s back catalogue, further than most hip hop would ever consider. Production is booming and opulent, yet grating and distorted. Samples are chopped and skewed to create a disorientating, nightmarish atmosphere, mirroring the warped and twisted picture of wealth and fame that Kanye’s lyrics depict. It’s a masterfly crafted album that revels in its own discomfort and extremities, veering from the obscene to the ludicrous and always returning to that same gut punch of anger. This is the album that defines the rapper's angst, showing Kanye at his most aggressive, most desperate and honestly - most horny.
There’s an old cliche that rap music is defined by sex and money. Yeezus takes that idea and twists it to grotesque proportions, creating a sprawling narrative of wealth, fame and ego so outlandish and ridiculous that I can’t help but love it. This was the first Kanye album I listened to in full and it changed the way I looked at music, spurned my love for subversive and experimental records and in one way or another led me to writing reviews in the first place.
Kanye set out to change the game with Yeezus. I haven't been the same since.
9.5/10
Alex Thompson
Comments