Oh Kanye, Kanye, Kanye… It seems so hard to separate his personal life and drama from his music. But being a fan of his older music (College Dropout days) and being a music fan in general, I wanted to try to listen to this new album. I will try to keep my personal thoughts and affiliations aside while listening to this project and look at Ye from that perspective. *Takes a deep breath* Let’s see how this goes, shall we?
Jesus is King… How Am I Feeling?
To start things off, right off the bat, I feel like I did when I first heard Life of Pablo, the release after losing interest in Kanye and his music for a while. I definitely find myself bobbing my head and listening to it with different ears. Literally listening to this for the first time as I am writing this and as “Closed on Sunday” starts and this boy is literally talking about Chic-Fil-A, I can’t help but to shake my head *sighs*, like “Really?”; I’m just tired of hearing about Chic-Fil-A. The music has been dope so far, though.
For “Everything We Need”, that Ty Dolla Sign feature is my favorite (of course). And as I get into “God Is”, the music and melodies are beautiful until Kanye gets more into the lyrics, and at this point, I am having a hard time believing him; it sounds forced at this point. And that is messing up the rest of the tracks for me, because it’s getting easier to question his sincerity in this. It’s so easy to use religion as a “muse”, especially when you are trying to prove a point or make up for any idiotic moments or “sins” made in the public-eye, especially when it doesn’t benefit you or your career.
As a music fan, I can definitely appreciate the music maker, producer Kanye. He will always be a genius as far as that is concerned, in my opinion. But when you stop hearing the sincerity in an artist’s voice and actions, at times, then it gets hard to just look at it as just music. The collaborations were cool but I just can’t get behind this one completely.
Final Thoughts!
I have been reading other people’s opinions and it seems to be about the same. So many of us were fans of his earlier work. But Kanye has blamed so many things for why he is the way he is or why his music is the way that it is. I completely understand the effect losing his mother had on him, just maybe not the same capacity because he is “famous” and int he public eye, but I do understand how that kind of loss can change EVERYTHING.
I have heard a lot about his interview with Zane Lowe… Check it out below…
What are your thoughts on this album by Kanye? Leave your comments below. Feel free to disagree and let’s have a discussion.
