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West began his music career primarily producing beats for local, underground, Chicago-based talent throughout the mid-to-late 90s before signing with Roc-A-Fella music label in 2000 as an in-house producer.

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West's work producing beats for Roc-A-Fella peaked with his collaborations on 2001's "The Blueprint" by Jay-Z which is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant hip-hop albums of all time. West's time producing for Rock-A-Fella also resulted in collaborations with other artists on the label but more significantly he produced songs for artists outside the label such as Janet Jackson, Ludacris, and Alicia Keys. This collaboration with the stars of each era and the stars of different genres of music would become an important part of West's music and his own star image.

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I know multiple people who woke up one Tuesday morning, watched from windows or Brooklyn rooftops as the second plane hit and the World Trade Center fell, and then went out and bought . Jay-Z's opus wasn't supposed to come out on September 11, but Jay was worried about bootleggers - he was always worried about bootleggers - and so he moved up the album release a week. On that calamitous morning, when people didn't know if New York was under attack or the world was ending or what, people still found their ways to record stores or Best Buys, and they still bought The Blueprint. The world had changed, but some things remained unquestioned. If a new Jay-Z album was out, then you went and bought that shit immediately. You might've just witnessed a generational horror, but you could still throw Jay on your headphones and feel indestructible.

That accident of scheduling has always been a part of the myth of The Blueprint. After 20 years, the album's whole story is still inextricable from the 9/11 attacks. Jay himself has something to do with that; he started using catastrophe to burnish his own myth right away. Less than two weeks after he released his album, Jay started a show at Manhattan's Hammerstein Ballroom by announcing that he'd dropped on the same day as the Twin Towers. Eight months later, Jay rapped with magisterial pride on Cam'ron's "Welcome To New York City," a local-pride anthem built on post-9/11 defiance. Even without that coincidental resonance, though, The Blueprint would've gone straight into the pantheon. It had basically already happened before the album even arrived.

The world was ready for The Blueprint to be a classic. Jay had already been on an insane run, a one hot album every one year average. He'd rapped on pop hits and toured arenas, and he hadn't lost any of the malevolent confidence that was already in full evidence on his 1996 debut. Three months earlier, at Hot 97's annual Summer Jam, Jay had launched a hyped-up war against Mobb Deep, famously flashing a picture of young Prodigy in his Michael Jackson-style dance-class tights and accusing P of being "a ballerina." During that same show, Jay also brought the actual Michael Jackson out onstage - an unprecedented show of rap-world domination.

Upon arrival, The Blueprint got a five-mic rating in The Source - the magazine's first perfect-score review in the three years since OutKast's . (Honestly, The Blueprint may have been the last legit five-mic album before the magazine got really goofy.) The Source was not alone in its instant-classic assessment. A lot of people heard The Blueprint early, and everyone who heard it went crazy. I got a promo copy at my college radio station a couple of weeks early, and I wouldn't shut up about it. Mostly, I wouldn't shut up about "Takeover."

The great Jay-Z/Nas feud of 2001 has already been discussed to death. I once wrote a whole book chapter about the rivalry ( Rock And Roll Cage Match, Three Rivers Press, 2008). But it's still hard to adequately describe the impact that "Takeover" had when it first arrived. For those of us who weren't out at Summer Jam when Jay rapped the first "Takeover" verse, the idea of the song was insanely exciting. Here, we had the biggest star in New York rap going after two of his rivals, naming names and calmly explaining all the reasons why they weren't shit. We'd heard plenty of diss tracks before "Takeover," but we'd never heard anything on that level, delivered with that kind of imperious boredom. On "Takeover," Jay wasn't angry; he was simply weary of having to say stuff that, in his mind, should've been obvious.

Petty resentments and frustrations had been building for years before Jay finally decided to kill some motherfucking ants with a sledgehammer. Those issues had come out in sly and oblique little shots that most of us didn't notice. With "Takeover," though, Jay laid out his cards and held very little back. A couple of months later, Nas responded with more wild-eyed fury than anyone thought possible, and the whole sideshow became an enormously fun distraction for those of us who were already sick of stressing over the wars to come. Jay and Nas made that an exciting time.

"Izzo (HOVA)," the first proper single from The Blueprint, was, to that point, the biggest hit in Jay-Z's career. A young Kanye West chopped up the Jackson 5's immortal ebullience while Jay justified his conspicuous consumption in terms that were compelling if not convincing: "I do this for my culture, to let 'em know what a n***a look like when a n***a in a Roadster." Other than his guest appearances, "Izzo" was Jay's first top-10 pop-chart hit, but the song probably didn't stoke excitement for The Blueprint as much as the promise of this new Jay/Nas feud did. A couple of decades later, it's genuinely boring to hear Jay and Nas, now on good terms, rapping on a song together. (That shit on the DJ Khaled album this summer? Bluh.) Today, "Takeover" works as a fun time-capsule relic of a very different era, and The Blueprint would still sound glorious without it.

The Blueprint was a course-correction for Jay, a man who did not need to correct his course. Jay had built an empire by talking shit better than anyone else and by bending the sounds of the moment to flatter his own hauteur. Jay rapped over mid-'90s boom-bap, over shiny-suit-era gloss, over Ruff Ryders Casio thunder, and over prime Timbaland future-funk. Nothing this side of Mannie Fresh could knock Jay out of his element. His comfort zone was the whole of rap. Jay didn't have a sound because he didn't need one. But on The Blueprint, Jay figured out a sound anyway. Maybe he was just trying to keep himself interested.

Jay had been talking about retiring almost since the moment he first arrived. It was a constant threat. Jay had made enough money, and he didn't need the headaches. In theory, rap was a means to an end, a way for Jay to establish himself as a businessman and a business, man. But on The Blueprint, Jay started thinking in grander terms. He began considering his own artistry as a gift to the world: "Can't leave rap alone, the game needs me." That was a ridiculous thing to say, and it was also true. The game needed Jay-Z.

Jay famously recorded The Blueprint in a two-week stretch, mostly at Baseline Studios in Manhattan. On his previous album, 2000's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, Jay had begun working with a series of restlessly creative young producers - Bink!, Just Blaze, Kanye West - who chopped up soul samples and flipped old boom-bap sounds into dense, cinematic fanfares. In those Baseline sessions, Jay pitted those producers against each other, getting the best out of each of them by turning the creative process into a competition. Years later, Jay described the scene to XXL: "Just would peep his head in and hear what me and Kanye was doing and would just go back mad. Like, go back and just go [ pounds fist on table], and just come in and be like, 'Yo.' And it was like this every day. It was like a heavyweight slugfest. For three days, they was just knocking each other out."

That competition worked. Kanye West made "Takeover," "Izzo," "Heart Of The City (Ain't No Love)," and "Never Change." Bink! made "The Ruler's Back," "All I Need," and "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)." Just Blaze made "Girls, Girls, Girls," "U Don't Know," and "Song Cry." Between the three of them, those producers sampled Al Green, the Doors, David Ruffin, Natalie Cole, Bobby Byrd, Bobby "Blue" Bland. They came up with a lush, sumptuous bed for Jay to talk his talk. They let the trumpets blow. In the years that followed, every rapper in New York, and plenty outside the city, chased the richness of that sound. East Coast rap music went through a stylistic shift. Because of that shift, Kanye West found a way to transition from producer to rapper, and now he gets to subject all of us to his interminable album rollouts and nonsensical politics.

As textured and emotional as those beats were, a lot of them were hard, too. "Takeover" flipped its Doors sample into a world-obliterating martial stomp, which gave Jay's shit-talk even more muscle. (Josey Scott, frontman for the nü-metal band Saliva, did his penance for "Tick Tick Boom" by yelling " laaaaaame " really, really well on that one.) "U Don't Know," meanwhile, sounded like a space station exploding in the sky. I can still remember hearing that one for the first time and feeling like I had a defibrillator stuck to my chest, just screaming at my car stereo.

When Jay got reflective, The Blueprint didn't lose any of its power. By that point, Jay was in his thirties, long removed from the hand-to-hand transactions and the trunks full of weight. The more low-key tracks on The Blueprint put Jay in a ruminative and sometimes vulnerable place. He dug into his memory and considered the traumas and triumphs that had brought him to where he was. "Song Cry" isn't the sad-bastard masterpiece that it sometimes gets made out to be, but Drake definitely learned a couple of things from its toxic-relationship rationalizations ("You don't throw away what we had just like that/ I was just fuckin' them girls, I was gon' get right back").

Jay could afford to reveal a couple of weaknesses because all his strengths were so vivid and memorable. Jay was clapping those flamers before he became famous. He sold ice in the winter, fire in hell. He could dump dough on the DA's desk, and he could flee scot-free and pee-pee on the steps. His ability could make yours look like an exercise in futility. Jay famously kept The Blueprint all to himself, only sharing mic time with an on-fire Eminem - at the time, still enjoying his reign as the king of these rude, ludicrous, lucrative lyrics. Eminem's "Renegade" appearance went a long way toward solidifying his legend status. Em really did murder Jay on his own shit, but it didn't matter, since Jay murdered everyone else, everywhere else. In any case, Jay didn't need more guest-rappers. He could get golden-age legends Biz Markie, Q-Tip, and Slick Rick to come in and say a couple of words on a hook. He could even get Michael Jackson to sing backup vocals - uncredited backup vocals - on the bonus-track "Girls, Girls, Girls" remix.

The Blueprint is not a timeless album. It's not even a fully cohesive album. Jay stayed with his luxuriant mogul-style soul-rap sound for most of the album, but he hedged, adding in possible hits like the the sleek and clubby "That N***a Jigga" and the Timbaland-produced strut "Hola Hovito." I like those songs, and I like how they fuck with the album's flow. They're slick little reminders that Jay was still trying to grab as many potential album buyers as possible. But those songs are fully stuck in 2001. Really, that's what I like about them.

2001 is all over The Blueprint. It's there in the references: Miss Cleo, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, MTV Cribs. Jay mostly presented a more thoughtful version of his old persona on The Blueprint, but there's plenty of ignorant shit on there, too: the casual homophobia, "men shouldn't be jealous, that's a female trait." "Girls, Girls, Girls" is one long string of horny objectifications and ethnic stereotypes, and it only works as well as it does because of the ornate splendor of Just Blaze's Tom Brock sample. The album's depth only goes so far.

But the depth of The Blueprint was still an undeniable thing. It's the album where my friends stopped deriding Jay as a sellout pop-rapper, where rock critics started describing Jay as a genius, and where Jay truly transitioned into the near-universally beloved rap Kennedy that his is today. The Blueprint isn't Jay's biggest album; sold more than twice as much. I don't think The Blueprint is Jay's best album, either; I'll take the cold and aristocratic snarl of . But The Blueprint is the album that firmly established the legend of Jay-Z. On "Hola Hovito," Jay said, "If I ain't better than Big, I'm the closest one." Biggie Smalls, Jay's late friend and collaborator, had died just four years earlier. Nas took issue with that line, but Jay clearly believed it when he said it. Thanks to The Blueprint, so did everyone else.

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I know multiple people who woke up one Tuesday morning, watched from windows or Brooklyn rooftops as the second plane hit and the World Trade Center fell, and then went out and bought The Blueprint.

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West's influence on hip-hop

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Jay-Z album The Blueprint officially ‘culturally important’

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His sixth album The Blueprint is the first hip hop album of the 21st Century added to the archive.

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Kanye West's struggles in signing for a record label due to not conforming with stereotypes around what hip-hop and hip-hop artists should be

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Kanye West's struggles in signing for a record label due to not conforming with stereotypes around what hip-hop and hip-hop artists should be

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West was eventually signed to Roc-a-Fella as an artist in 2002 after 2 years of trying. Over these 2 years, West was rejected by multiple different labels due to the fact that they didn't know how to market him. West dressed differently from the hip-hop stars at the time, spoke differently, and didn't share the same upbringing that most of the other artists in the hip-hop genre had to endure. When 'gangster rap' was the most popular sub-genre of hip-hop, West offered a decidedly different and middle-class perspective that record labels didn't know what to do with.

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Why Kanye West Had Trouble Getting a Record Deal

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With his new album set to drop on Feb. 11, a look back at the rapper's rocky start

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"Through the Wire" and "The College Dropout"

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"Through the Wire" and "The College Dropout"

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In 2002 West suffered a horrific car accident that left his jaw shattered and having to be wired shut. Whilst recovering from this injury West wrote and recorded "Through the Wire" after 2 weeks of being in hospital and, after the singles release, West confirmed that he was working on his debut studio album "The College Dropout" initially planned for August 2003 before being pushed back to February 2004 after the album was leaked months before the initial release date. ]

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"The College Dropout" was released to critical and commercial acclaim with the album getting 10 Grammy nominations and winning in the Best Rap Album category. "The College Dropout" would solidify Kanye West's musical aesthetic, one primarily focused on the sampling and layering of sounds from classic songs most notably R&B, soul, and hip-hop for this album but would go on and branch out into different genres for influence such as electronic music, industrial, and gospel. This technique of cutting up songs and editing sound bites to fit the artists own uses would define the "chipmunk soul" genre of the 2000's, but West wasn't defined by this his whole career.

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Critics reflect on "The College Dropouts" success and status in music history

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It has been 10 years and one day since the debut of Kanye West's The College Dropout. We all know the story of Kanye getting into the rap game: how Dame Dash and Jay Z signed him without knowing how far he'd go, how other labels passed on the chance to sign Kanye as a rapper, and how their expectations outside of his talents as a producer were extremely low-good going, guys.

Once Kanye cleared that hurdle and seized the opportunity to release his debut album, the next challenge was winning over critics and fans. In 2004, we were still getting our record reviews from major print publications-and sporadically at that. Some magazines reviewed rap CDs late, some early, and some not at all. Internet journalism was just beginning to become the phenomenon that it is today (although free downloading was already eating into album sales). By and large, the masses still looked to critics-rather than bloggers or social media-to gauge whether or not they should bother listening to (or even buying) an album.

Ten years later it's easy to call The College Dropout a classic (mainly because it is), but because Kanye was still at the start of his rap career, music critics weren't quite sure what to make of him. As part of our College Dropout week, we asked the writers who critiqued Yeezy's debut to take a look back, reflect on the decade gone by, and review their own reviews.
RELATED: All "The College Dropout" Week Posts
RELATED: Pigeons & Planes - Kanye West on the College Dropout 10 Years Later

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Music Critics Review Their Reviews of Kanye West's "The College Dropout"

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Ten years later, critics from some of the biggest publications in 2004 look back on their assessment of Kanye West's debut.

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Review of "The College Dropout"

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Week 1: Allow Myself to Introduce Myself. Backstory. Discuss humble beginnings making beats in bedroom, car accident in October 2002 that nearly killed him. Consider rise to fame: Currently has three singles in the Top 20 ("Slow Jamz", "You Don't Know My Name", "Through the Wire") bearing his name. Compare/contrast rise of hip-hop artist/producers with singer/songwriter movement of 1970s; Is Kanye West Neil Young or Neil Diamond?

Week 2: Chitown, What's Going On? Discuss the failure of Chicago to produce a bona fide hip-hop star despite possessing more than enough fertile neighborhoods of racial segregation and socioeconomic difficulty. Uncover reasons why Common and West needed to move NYC-wards to attain widespread success.

Week 3: First Nigga with a Benz and a Backpack. Analyze the fast-disappearing line between mainstream and underground hip-hop, as personified by College Dropout's guest appearances, and West's personal rap style. Compare/contrast to analogous rock divisions, in regards to how rock collaborations of similar caliber (Nickelback ft. Xiu Xiu?) would be greeted with indignant horror by fans.

Week 4: School Spirit. Engage the anti-education themes of College Dropout's songs and skits, discussing why this particular message is greatly emphasized by West. Acknowledge the groaner irony of discussing an album's anti-intellectualism in syllabus form.

So many extracurricular angles, so little time; so let's just suffice it to say that College Dropout is the first great hip-hop album of the still pre-pubescent 2004. Runner-up in its first week on the Billboard album charts only to Ravi Shankar's jazz-waif kid, the record is poised to be a huge coming-out party for one of the top producers working today, possibly even winning him the Outkast Triple Crown of acceptance from pop radio, hip-hop purists, and reactionary rock critics. Frequently delayed, retooled, overdubbed, teased on the mixtape circuit, overloaded with skits and guest stars, and dispersed in multiple misleading forms over the Internet, the retail version finally takes the form of a flawed, overlong, hypocritical, egotistical, and altogether terrific album.

In a way, it's strange that West would be the first of the current producer bumper crop to find such success with his own name on the spine, with The Neptunes and Timbaland having colonized the charttops for a much longer period of time, and with much more adventurous and characteristic sounds. West's style is far less future-vision, as he typically reworks old records with the playfulness of a kid enthralled by playing 33s at 45. You can write it off as a safer or less original approach, but the sugar-high soul technique tends to be an addictive substance in West's hands, as anyone who's had the hook from "H to the Izzo" stuck in their head for a week or eight can attest.

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College Dropout Mini-Course Syllabus Week 1: Allow Myself to Introduce Myself. Backstory. Discuss humble beginnings making beats in bedroom, car ...

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Review of "The College Dropout" (2002)

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Kanye West has made his name by letting his production - not his voice - do the talking for him. As the man behind Jay-Z 's "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and Scarface's "Guess Who's Back," he has perfected a warm, almost sentimental brand of hip-hop, using bright, soulful beats and melodic choruses to humanize otherwise chilly gangsters.

His debut as a rapper on College Dropout might do the same thing for Jigga's Roc-A-Fella label. "Wasn't talking 'bout coke and birds," he fesses on his plaintive debut single, "Through the Wire." "It's more like spoken word." West revels in odd juxtapositions - "Get Em High" could be the only song ever to reference both Beck and Pastor Troy. West has got something to prove on Dropout: The half-serious twelve-minute monologue "Last Call" details the hard knocks he suffered to make the album a reality, and there are several skits - part comedy, part pure bitterness - about the uselessness of higher learning.

West isn't quite MC enough to hold down the entire disc; carefully sprinkled A-list guests such as Jay-Z and Mos Def help. His ace in the hole is his signature cozy sound - dusty soul samples, gospel hymns, drums that pop as if hit for the very first time. He has also succeeded in showing some vulnerability behind a glossy mainstream hip-hop sheen. On "All Falls Down," he says, "We all self-conscious/I'm just the first to admit it." Let's hope he's not the last.

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Check out our album review of Artist's College Dropout on Rolling Stone.com.

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At the turn of the century, East Coast hip-hop was fun writ large. Bad Boy's shiny suit empire started to fade, and New York rap diversified into multiple directions. While semi-independent operations like Rawkus, Def Jux and Fondle 'Em ran the underground, the charts were dominated by icy hardcore raps from the Ruff Ryders camp and Roc-A-Fella's slick street soul.

Sonically, there was a direct connection between backpack and TriBeCa: high-pitched, cartoonish soul samples. The "chipmunk soul" style was enormously popular in the early to mid-2000s. Questlove allegedly coined the term, but it was arguably used more frequently outside the US than in the States. The name mostly gets used in reference to the Diplomats and Roc-A-Fella era in the first half of the '00s. During those years, producers Just Blaze, the Heatmakerz and a young Kanye West created high-energy beats that served as the perfect backdrop for both larger-than-life braggadocio and rap sentimentalism.

Despite having the genre in the title, the chipmunk soul aesthetic swiftly branched out from exclusively sampling soul records to reggae ("Dipset Anthem," "Shottaz"), radio rock staples (Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Starship's "We Built This City") and Middle Eastern records, which became a short-lived trend in its own right. As different as these tracks might be, one thing they all had in common was the interplay between the reassembled voices of the original samples and the raps on top. This intricate back and forth could inform the song conceptually - take Jay Z's " Song Cry " - or as a foundational call-and-response between the beat and the MC.

There are countless producers who contributed to the legacy of chipmunk soul - Alchemist, Swizz Beats, Evidence, 9th Wonder and AraabMuzik, to name only a few. But for this primer to the genre, we asked three of the production style's most influential architects - Ayatollah, Rsonist of the Heatmakerz and Just Blaze - as well as Diplomats superfan, chef and author Eddie Huang, to reflect on how chipmunk soul changed the use of the voice as an instrument. Through their own words, we trace back the origins of the sound to Wu-Tang and house music, discuss the role of the MPC and the heydays of Roc-A-Fella and Dipset, as well as the impact the genre had on trap and dance music.

JUST BLAZE

"Chipmunk Soul" was a common name for it. I think a lot of European magazines, especially British writers and American journalists who were kind of music nerds, took it on.

EDDIE HUANG

I honestly hate it when journalists give a name to something you been known for a while and then you're the idiot if you don't call it that. I loved watching Alvin & the Chipmunks as a kid and even got the 7" record. I listened to that, Michael Jackson and the Beach Boys growing up. I just liked them sonically. If I later talked about this style of beats, we just said that Alvin & the Chipmunk shit or that Just Blaze shit or that Heatmakerz shit. People knew what you were talking about. Some shit doesn't need to be organized and sterilized.

AYATOLLAH

I just considered it soul music. I would say the term mostly described the Dipset era. Because they did that style quite often and it worked. People loved those songs. But I'm glad to be asked about it and be affiliated with that.

RSONIST

We referred to it as the chipmunk style of making beats. That era did open the door for a lot of producers who didn't play instruments. Producers were looked at differently after us. Even though DJ Premier sampled and chopped, he kinda chopped in a way musicians would play. People like me, Kanye, Just [Blaze], even RZA before us, we sampled voices and made our own melodies out of them.

The Birth
While the origins of the style can be traced back to the soulful groundwork of producers like Marley Marl and Pete Rock, most people rightfully credit chipmunk soul to the RZA. Instead of looking for "empty" bars to loop, the Wu-Tang mastermind consistently took whole chunks of soul songs with vocals on top and pitched them up to the hip-hop tempo of the time. A more spacious version of this sound became the trademark of many late '90s records of the Rawkus era. Queens-bred producer Ayatollah in particular laid down a string of classics for Mos Def, Cormega and Styles P, bridging the gap between RZA's density and the high energy, club-inspired beats of Just Blaze and the Heatmakerz that followed.
AYATOLLAH

I was definitely influenced and inspired by those Wu-Tang and RZA records. I heard the power in them. Songs like ODB's "Snakes" or Raekwon & Ghostface's "Ice Cream," you hear that sample, that rawness and power. It can't be topped.

RSONIST

RZA started it in like 1996, he was ahead of his time. RZA's style was closer to a sped-up loop. Whether it was a two-bar or a four-bar loop, he might add some drums and a bassline and that's it. The way me, Kanye and Just chopped it, it was more: We'll get seven pieces of a record, put it back together, add a breakdown part and make the sample do the hook. We simply attacked it a little different.

JUST BLAZE

You know what, everyone thinks of this as more of a lineage than most of us do. Don't get me wrong, RZA is a huge inspiration. But to me, this is just a matter of hip-hop musicians making what they have to make out of necessity. The record's too slow, OK, speed it up! RZA just did it in a way that no one had ever heard it before, and he did it amazingly.

RSONIST

This is gonna sound weird, but I actually give most of the credit to house producers like my man Todd Terry. Todd was sampling things and speeding them up on house records before you had to clear samples. I think they're part of the reason why you had to start clearing samples, because they were generating so much money off other people's voices that the people who owned it were like, "Wait a minute, we're supposed to get money from this."

JUST BLAZE

House music and hip-hop music both came from the ghetto. That means, from people who, if they wanted to hear some type of record, they had to go and make it. Both of it were DIY-type cultures. And it was music that was very much about the respective scene. When I used to DJ back in the day, I was DJing house records the same as I was DJing hip-hop records. To me, they were always kindred spirits since they both came from a place of struggle.

EDDIE HUANG

I was in Florida rollin' around, so I liked music you could creep to. The gap in hip-hop Down South was mixtapes. You could get Tony Touch mixtapes downtown at some spots, but when I went to college, I met a bunch of dudes from NY that brought mixtapes down with them every time they went home. I copped all the Sickamore, Green Lantern, Black Wall Street, Dipset, G-Unit tapes, etc... That's when I started to hear the chipmunk soul samples. You heard it with Kanye, too, but I was a hater of the first Kanye album. A lot of bros and frat kids were bangin' it and I wasn't into "Jesus Walks" so I'd ride around playing Dipset and G-Unit as loud as I could. I didn't fuck with Kanye until Emile [Haynie] played "Can't Tell Me Nothing" for me in his old studio on top of the Duane Reade.

JUST BLAZE

In those years, timing-wise, everybody and their mother had super high-pitched, whiny soul sounds and strings. It really took off at the beginning of the Dipset era, but I feel like it started with Jay Z, obviously. At one point after we started doing it with Jay, a lot of people started to do the same thing. That's cool, that's how it works.

RSONIST

Overall, the era we're talking about lasted from 1999/2000 'til about late 2005. At the end of 2005 it started to change into crunk music and then, after crunk, trap came in. Besides us [the Heatmakerz], Just Blaze and Kanye definitely were the defining producers of that style.

Mostly Tha Voice

Dating back the advent of chipmunk soul to the year 1999 makes sense for a number of reasons. It was the year that Big L, Harlem's sharpest pen and Cam'ron's former partner in Children of the Corn, got murdered. Later that year, Cam met Juelz Santana and invited him to join the Diplomats. Elsewhere, Kanye sketched out his first solo tracks for what ended up becoming The College Dropout, and Just Blaze signed a production deal with Roc-A-Fella Records. While all these key figures were gearing up to shape the years to come, Rawkus Records put out one of their most acclaimed releases, Mos Def's Black on Both Sides, which has its own place in this story thanks to the visionary production of Ayatollah on the lead single "Ms. Fat Booty" and album cut "Know That."

AYATOLLAH

Rawkus in the late '90s was just a really dope era for hip-hop. Back then, the high-speed soul samples kind of became my trademark. Here's what I did: Most people would try to take the vocals out and just catch the main root with the instruments and loop it. I wanted to keep the vocals in and have artists write around the lyrics in the sample. I thought it brought a stronger feeling to songs like Mos Def's "Ms. Fat Booty." I tried to sample parts of the Aretha Franklin record that I though were just really impactful and rearrange them. When Yasiin, or Mos at the time, heard it, he was like, "Oh my God, I need this!"

The key for me is to keep the spirit in the music. It's a very delicate thing. I had no idea it would become that big of a record. Funny enough, a lot of people don't know that "Mathematics," the song on the B-side of "Ms. Fat Booty," produced by DJ Premier, was supposed to be Mos's lead single. But Rawkus reconsidered after they heard what we had done. To this day, every time he sees me, Premier teases me about it, like "Aw man, you took my lead single from the Mos album!" But it's all fun and love.

RSONIST

Ayatollah's beat for Styles P and Pharoahe Monch was fire, too...

AYATOLLAH

"The Life," that's another record I sampled Aretha Franklin for. Two years before, I produced a track called "Last Man Standing" by Cash Brown with an earlier version of the beat. I switched up the percussion but kept the sample the same. The Cash Brown record was dope, but it didn't go to the same height as "The Life." Man, just seeing Styles and Monch rhyming on my beat, it gave me chills.

RSONIST

We all started using the voices as instruments. A lot of times, I used the voice simply because I couldn't get it out. But when I started putting it together, something dope happened. Like, "Oh shit!" When you chop it and piece it back together, you realize that the voice is actually an intricate part of what you do. When people started working with me, they were like, "Is there any way you can take the voice out so I can rap over it?" I'm like, "Nah, you gotta think of the voice as an instrument. What that voice adds is what your ad-libs are gonna add. You might not even need ad-libs with that voice going in the background, because that voice is setting the tone for you. Y'know what I mean?"

JUST BLAZE

When I was including vocal samples in songs, I wanted them to be used a certain way. Sometimes I would pitch it to the artist that way. "You know, when it comes to the singing part, just let the record do the talking there." That was definitely an intentional thing - not in all cases, but in most cases.

Let The Beat Build

As with most great inventions, chipmunk soul was a result of both necessity and accidents. Stuck with limited amounts of sampling time, beatmakers in the '90s started to look for ways to creatively work around the restrictions of their hardware. Using the MPC to live-trigger sample chops and create whole new melodies in an almost percussive manner, Just Blaze and Heatmakerz added a stadium-rap energy fit for blockbuster albums by Diplomats and Jay Z.

AYATOLLAH

From a technical perspective, you had to turn the turntables on to 45 to get more sample time.

JUST BLAZE

A lot of times, people would take relatively slow soul and R&B records and then get them up to the traditional rap tempo. In the process, the genre was getting defined.

My point is: If we had had things like Ableton and Logic back in the early 2000s, you would have never gotten that natural shrillness of the record being sped up so fast. For example, people always ask me how I made Kanye's "Touch The Sky" play so slow without it changing the key. We were using a machine called the Roland VP 9000. It was basically Ableton in a box before Ableton existed. You could put a sample into it and manipulate the time and the pitch independently from each other. With this machine it was the first time it was actually done well. That was the secret to my success with "Touch The Sky."

I didn't have the VP 9000 when I did the Dipset and Jay Z records, though. Now I realize that part of the charm of "hip-hop soul" was the sound of these vocals being stretched and distorted and set up so fast. Good thing that very few people beside myself were up on those early timestretching technologies. We might have missed that whole genre.

RSONIST

I've been using the MPC for the last, shit, 19 years! The first MPC I owned, Todd Terry bought for me. Matter of fact I, still have it to this day. I'm not really a fan of trying to learn something new - especially in this point of my career when I have to make music at a rapid pace. I used to move so fast that the MPC would freeze up before I could hook it up to the computer. I always loved the MPC for that reason, because I know it so well.

AYATOLLAH

I was working on the MPC60 II, the Roger Linn version. I personally like to be hands-on with the equipment. I feel like I'm more of a part of the music when I'm hitting the pads, you know. Some people like to draw their music. I'm not against that at all, but this is how it works for me.

JUST BLAZE

I was using all the MPCs from the 60 II up to the 4000. Nowadays I pretty much do everything in Logic, but the MPC is my favorite piece of hardware for sure. Some people like to draw their music, which is more popular than you'd think. But music for me is such a hands-on thing. There's a certain element of imperfection that comes from playing as a normal human being. If you draw everything and you don't know how to draw something to make it feel human, you shouldn't be doing it that way.

AYATOLLAH

Why do you think Just started on the MPC60 II? Because I showed him how to use it! Just Blaze worked at Platinum Island Studios, and he used to engineer a lot of my sessions. This is a true story: It was me and Tragedy Khadafi, he was recording a song for his album, that I produced, a cut called "Lift Your Glass." The song was bananas. Just Blaze engineered the session and he saw me working on the MPC60 II, like, "How the hell did you do all this on that one machine right here?" And I showed him. The funny thing was, Just Blaze used to use the Triton keyboard to make a lot of his beats. But after he saw me working on the MPC60 II, right after he started buying MPCs. He would pick my brain, like "'Tollah, how do the drums do this, how do you do that? Yo?"

The Takeover

At the turn of the millennium, it all came together at Baseline Studios in Midtown Manhattan. With everyone from Jay himself to Memphis Bleek, Beanie Sigel's State Property crew and the Diplomats competing over beats and studio time, Baseline resembled a boot camp in which creative juices and tension could rise at any moment.

An early result of Just Blaze's newly formed liaison with the Roc came in the form of The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. Officially billed as a Jay Z solo album, the label compilation showcased a new and powerful soul sound, spearheaded by Just and Kanye. Rather reluctantly, Roc co-founder Dame Dash had also signed Kanye as an artist, mostly in an attempt to keep him around as an in-house producer. It was not before 2002 that Ye famously had his solo breakthrough, rapping post-car accident through wired-up jaws over Chaka Khan's "Through The Fire." Simultaneously, the Heatmakerz were working on the lion's share of Dipset material, while Just and Ye mapped out The Blueprint for Jigga.

JUST BLAZE

Roc-A-Fella was where it was at. If you ask me about my favorite MCs on those beats, I would just say the entire Roc-A-Fella camp, because that whole roster helped define the sound of this era. Obviously, the work I did with Jay Z helped start the movement, but some of the other artists contributed in different and great ways, too.

AYATOLLAH

I was happy and proud of myself and the other producers. I'm not against any musician doing what they do. But at the same time, I was on the fence because I felt I could've gotten a call to be involved with maybe even Blueprint 1 or Blueprint 2. I had the music for it at the time. I was like, "Damn, if Jay Z hears these beats, oh my God, he loses his mind!" But he ain't even got a chance to hear it. I'm not bitter at all, really. But I went to Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam a lot of times and play music for them, when Jay was doing the Blueprints. Everybody was coming to the office like "Wow, who is this dude?" I don't know, it didn't happen for whatever reason. But I was ready.

RSONIST

There's definitely competition. There's competition on every aspect of the game, from producer to producer, from artist to artist. Out of Baseline you had different producers like me, Just, Kanye, Chad "Wes" Hamilton. Everybody wanted to make the best beat on the best album. Dipset was heating up and I was doing the majority of Dipset. I'm sure Just and Kanye would've liked to do the majority of Dipset, the same way when Just was working with Jay, I wanted to get on Jay's album. But that was what made everybody what they were. And that's what's missing in the internet era: The personal side of this shit is gone. You don't get to see the natural reaction of somebody to your music via email.

Dipset Forever

For the core of Dipset - Cam'ron, Juelz Santana, Jim Jones and Freeky Zekey - Baseline was less of a hangout than a place of business. Being the youngest addition to Roc-A-Fella, the four always tried to cut up multiple records per day. Inevitable alpha male pettiness aside, some of the swelling tension between Dipset and the Roc stemmed from the distribution of studio time and instrumentals. Apparently, Just Blaze's "Oh Boy" was originally meant for Jigga (there's even an existing version of the finished track with a Jay Z verse taking shots at Nas), while Kanye wanted Dipset to record on the beat that became Jay Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A)." This competitive spirit peaked with Jay's and Cam's "Welcome to New York City," the recording of which Dipset remember as more like a punch-for-punch pub brawl than a regular session.
However, with Cam'ron's 2002 album Come Home With Me and the crew sampler Diplomatic Immunity a year later, Dipset fully delivered on their promise of taking over the game (or this city/world/your girl, respectively). Their swagger and flamboyant rhetoric felt outrageous in and outside of Harlem - especially since it was performed in uniforms ranging from 6XL tee's to construction worker helmets and the infamous all-pink fur coats. As is custom with micro-scenes, once they get adopted outside of their natural habitat, the appropriators tend to overdo it. Even in Europe, Dipset had official (SAS Gang) and non-official acolytes. That all is to say: When Dipset spoke of a movement, they were actually leading one - and it was marching to the beat of Just Blaze and the Heatmakerz (and "a couple of just miscellaneous mediocre producers" as Juelz Santana told Miss Info in an RBMA lecture.)

RSONIST

It was like a perfect marriage. Dipset never questioned how busy those beats were. A lot of the beats you heard on Diplomatic Immunity, I had already made before I met them. It wasn't like I created that sound for Dipset, they just were the first people that got it. So we became synonymous with each other.

EDDIE HUANG

First time I heard "Dipset Anthem" was on Green Lantern tapes and I never switched up. I still listen to Dipset two or three times a week. I just fucked with it cause Killa, Juelz, Jimmy and Freeky had the most heart. They didn't give a fuck, the bars were crazy, but they also weren't trying to "be about bars." They weren't nerds about it. They just knew they were the nicest and there was a real class clown derelict vibe to all their shit talkin' bout "thick chicks in sandals." I was dying when I heard that the first time. My homie at the time dated this fly joint, but she wore Reef sandals and the feet always stank when she took them off. When I hear "Dipset Anthem" I still laugh about that shit.

RSONIST

"Dipset Anthem" is essentially a love song! If you know the original reggae record, Sanchez's "One In A Million," it's a love song. I found the most exciting part of the tune and tried to keep that feeling for the length of the record. That's really the way I approach things. I'll stray away from that part that everybody else would sample - it's just too predictable.

JUST BLAZE

I remember Jay was holding the beat to what later became Cam'ron's "Oh Boy." I think he wanted to put it on Blueprint 2, but then he forgot about the beat. Kyambo "Hip-Hop" Joshua, who was an A&R at Roc-A-Fella at the time, gave Cam'ron a book of CDs and my CD was in there. Jay apparently decided not to do anything with it. [Roc engineer] Young Guru called me and asked me if it was cool to use it, I was like, "Yeah." They finished the record and 20 minutes later it was on the radio. It was crazy.

AYATOLLAH

I was indifferent about the evolution of the sound. When other producers sped up the samples like super fast, when it really started to become "chipmunk soul," I thought it took away from the impact of the music. It took the soul away a bit. I was like "Nah..." Of course, these tracks are enjoyable, just for me personally it lacked feeling and spirit. Again, nothing against them, because it clearly worked.

RSONIST

Dipset music, some of it was silly! Joking around, saying silly shit, and people appreciated that! When you look at something like " Purple Haze " - the song is saying "you're my crutch," like, you're the only person that I have. I'm thinking they gonna make a sentimental song about their families. And Cam makes a song about smoking weed! To me that was dope because that was his interpretation of what the music was saying to him.

There was sentimental tracks, too. You can actually hear my daughter on " Daddy " by Juelz Santana, I sampled her and put her in the background. If I'm not mistaken, Juelz's son was younger than my daughter at the time, I don't know if he was talking yet.

EDDIE HUANG

If I'ma be a critic and break it down for cats, Dipset stayed in the interior of Harlem World and sat down in the every day. Other rappers stop the track and want a cookie when they rep something real, but Dipset did that every single word. All these people got A&R, creative directors, influencers, etc... they're all vultures picking off someone else's life trying to make it their own. Killa and them didn't have to take nobody's shit, they were living it: "The game abuse it, there's pain in music." That's the realest shit.

RSONIST

Being affiliated with Dipset was everything at the time. I honestly told them, I would charge less for the beat if they shout me out at the beginning. But they always paid me what I asked and shouted me out anyway. I knew how important that was, because in my head, I wanted people to know who did this beat. Those records were like billboards for us. When somebody heard that, they might've gone, "Who the fuck is Heatmakerz, go get them on the album." Whether it was working with Kay Slay, Lil Flip or T.I., everybody knew Heatmakerz from Dipset shouting us out.

EDDIE HUANG

I was such a fan, I even got Cam to do the theme song to my show, Huang's World. It was a family thing. I'd met Killa a few times through my boy China, through Fool's Gold Day Off. We spoke on the phone about ideas and Cam liked our online show, especially the Miami episode. He was bugging that we did a food show on the Bangbus. He sent the song, I listened on my iPhone in the Taipei airport and it was a wrap. Son said "chicken, chicken, turkey, bacon," I was dying.

To me, Cam and Just Blaze's "I Really Mean It" is the greatest chipmunk soul song of all time. You will literally see dudes bow their heads and pray to the universe one time when those horns come on in the club. If my girl is with me and that song comes on, she will literally put her arm on my shoulder and be like "He's about to have a moment." Y'all gonna play it at my funeral, I REALLY MEAN IT. It's Just Blaze doing his best Kehinde Wiley flipping King Arthur horns, laying down shorty's sample screaming "don't go" just so Cam can talk up and down the shit. It's dark humor class clown shit with a story to tell.

"Y'all just kids
see what I just did
took a couple bars off let JUST live"
("I Really Mean It")

...is the hardest shout out to a producer on wax ever.

More Than Music

The idea of shining the spotlight on the man behind your music is as old as hip-hop itself. But it's fair to say that the concept of the East Coast superstar producer evolved dramatically since the chipmunk soul era. Just Blaze revolutionized the producer tag by saying his name at the top of each track, a strategy that has become common practice among today's producers, from DJ Mustard to Metro Boomin. Branding one's productions was especially important since hip-hop in those days was defined by rapidly changing trends and sampling fads.

RSONIST

We changed the way that people looked at sampling.

AYATOLLAH

The record label was taking care of clearing all the samples back then, Rawkus Records had a department just for that. I didn't have to worry about that, all I had to do was to give them the sample information.

JUST BLAZE

Every sample is different. The same people who were difficult back in the day are probably the same people who are difficult now. And those are generally people who don't need the money. I think overall it is easier to clear samples now, because nobody is sampling anymore. So publishers are more likely to get all the money they can get.

AYATOLLAH

It all depends on the artist, some of them really don't mind, others don't want their music used at all, and I respect that. I'm just fortunate enough that Aretha Franklin gave us clearance to sample her records. The cool thing was, Rawkus actually sent her a copy of the Black on Both Sides album. She heard the song that I sampled her for and she loved it. That's why she gave us clearance, because she genuinely liked it. I one day have to meet Aretha Franklin, just to thank her.

JUST BLAZE

Here's an example for how things changed. I had done the high-pitched Middle Eastern samples a few years before it became cool to sample that kind of stuff. I'm not saying I was the first one to do it, although I probably was the first. It's funny, a record like "React" by Erick Sermon and Redman sat around for years! Redman had the demo for a long time and he never knew what to do with it. And then that sound became a hit, it was really popular all of a sudden. Erick Sermon remembered that he and Redman had a record by me that had that feel. Interestingly enough, a lot of people - simply because it was music they were not familiar with - they didn't even know who they were sampling, let alone seek clearance. Even though some of the original artists were super-duper celebrities and legendary acts in their countries. And here we are, lazy Americans, sampling their music... I feel a lot of that style went away after Lata Mangeshkar sued Dr. Dre and Truth Hurts and got all that money. I'm pretty sure after that people went, "Yeah, no, never mind, we're not gonna do that." That must be a big part of the reason that sound came and went.

Fade To Black?

One might argue that the demise of chipmunk soul started with Jay Z's three-year hiatus from music in 2003. The Black Album, an unashamed victory lap of an LP, got its most anthemic moments from Kanye's and Just Blaze's productions. By all accounts, Roc-A-Fella was pretty much Dame Dash's operation, with Jay Z inhabiting a Lebron-like role as the roster's de facto boss and most valuable asset. Following Jay's announcement that he was leaving the rap game, Dash and Jay had their own internal quarrels, and with Dipset firmly on Dash's side, the foundation of Roc-A-Fella started to crumble.
The Dipset movement had peaked in 2003 with the release of Diplomatic Immunity, anyways. Its sequel, Diplomatic Immunity 2, came out on Koch Records only one year later, but failed to carry the same excitement. (Cam's and Juelz's respective solo albums Purple Haze and What The Game's Been Missing did considerably better in that regard.)
Kanye, on the other hand, had by now established himself as a solo artist and as the producer with the most sustainable vision for the chipmunk sound, partially by bringing it back to its roots. By the end of 2005, Ye had already given Twista the biggest look of his career with "Slow Jamz," released The College Dropout and Late Registration, and tailored a more spiritual version of the genre for Common's acclaimed Be, making Chicago a hotbed of pitched soul variations that still worked for rap purists. The ecstasy of the style lives on in some of Ye's later, more gospel-tinged work. Just Blaze continued to refine his highly energetic beats for the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Drake and Beyoncé, while the Heatmakerz and Dipset recently appeared back on the scene together.

Most importantly, the very specific impact of lower digit BPMs and breakneck-speed soul samples sparked a legacy outside of New York, helping to bridge the gap between Harlem, Atlanta, Texas and New Orleans - and, once again, between hip-hop and contemporary club music.

RSONIST

We kind of laid the alley-oop for trap music. Just like RZA gave us the alley-oop to take it to another level. This shit is all evolution.

At the time when we came in, the template of music was 90 BPM or better. "Mo Money, Mo Problems," Jay Z's "Sunshine," etc... When I came with Dipset, we slowed music down to 65 BPM, which in the trap world equals 130. Down South dudes usually had a slow, slurry type of flow, chopped & screwed and shit like that. So now we came with "Killa Cam" and "Postman" ["Oh Yes"]... the bounce of "Postman" is the same bounce as a trap beat! If I put 808s in there and add some faster hi-hats, that shit is a trap beat. "Wait a minute - Mr. - Mr. - uh," that's the trap bounce! We helped shift where music was at at the time, we brought it down to shit that had like 80 BPM. Trap music had the perfect assist from that to transition into what it is. Also, I ran into a bunch of EDM DJs taking some of the shit that I've done and turn it into EDM, because it already comes pre-energized for the crowd.

JUST BLAZE

Hits are about energy. I played rap shows, I played EDM shows, I played huge festivals. And I feel like the reason why I can do that as well as still make hit records, is because my records are all based on a certain, sometimes frantic energy. I feel that separates me from other guys, it's what sets me apart. Not in a better or worse way, just in a very different way.

RSONIST

Dipset was so big in the South, because the music was slowed down and it was easier for them to vibe to as opposed to, let's say, M.O.P. I worked with Gucci, Lil Wayne and with Young Jeezy. My record I did with Jeezy never made his album though. Crazy story, it was gonna be Jeezy's first single off his first album. And then Jim and Juelz did a freestyle to the same beat and threw that shit out. Jeezy heard it and was like, "I can't use the beat anymore." So I ended up losing that. But I had a record with T.I., Jim Jones and Bun B on Jim's first album. When the transition into the 808 Mafia's and the Mike Will's happened, they switched some of the formula around, they made it into their own. I know we helped transition the two worlds.

AYATOLLAH

I don't think production-wise I left behind anything in that era, really. I switched up certain little things, nuances. I incorporated more to the production but I didn't leave anything behind. If it's not broke, why fix it?

JUST BLAZE

I feel like I didn't leave anything behind in that era necessarily, because there is always a way to take something old and make it new. One of the big records I had in recent years was with Baauer, a song called "Higher." That's a perfect example of taking something very old and making it new while keeping the energy. So for me it's not so much about leaving things behind, it's more about keeping what I've learned and apply it to the future. And about being able to go back to your own past to create a new future.

RSONIST

Being attached to an era, there's worse things that could happen to you. People could not mention your name with that era - that would probably be more of a slap in the face than anything. I appreciate people saying that it brings them back to a certain point in their childhood or their college years. I'm happy about that. I just think that I'm more efficient now. Even the new Dipset shit we did, "Once Upon A Time." I wanted it to feel like 2001, but I didn't want it to have the same elements, like we didn't get any better since then. I wanted the beats to sound strong, the drums to sound heavy. I wanted everything to sound like it was on steroids, a perfected version of what we used to do.

That's what it takes. Today we don't have the luxury to make music at the pace we did ten or 15 years ago. All producers are searching for a record that can last and carry them for however long. You now need a record that lasts three month in order to fuel your year financially. That's where we're at: Music is different now and we as producers need to figure out a way to approach it that's not gonna burn us out.

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Explore the halcyon era of a sound that once ruled hip-hop.

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On "The College Dropout" West collaborated with Jay-Z, Ludacris, Talib Kweli, Common, Mos Def, and others but this time with West as the main creative input and star rather than to support others.

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West's second project, "Late Registration" released in 2005 didn't see a drastic change in West's image but rather a refinement of what was already laid down in "The College Dropout", with only a slight musical shift towards incorporating a string orchestra. Jon Brion was also the co-producer who, at the time, was somewhat out of place due to working on film scores and having no hip-hop experience whatsoever. However, this would speak to Kanye's position as "outside" of hip-hop and a desire to experiment with new sounds and musical ideas.

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West would also face a lot of controversy after "Late Registration"'s release up until the release of his next album for a series of public outbursts including storming the stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards s in 2006 over his single "Touch the Sky" didn't win the award for Best Music Video. Perhaps more notable was West's rant on live television about George Bush and the media's portrayal of African Americans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

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Early showings of Kanye West's arrogance and his repeated controversies involving award shows

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Kanye West crashing stage at EMA's after losing to Justice

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"George Bush doesn't care about Black people"

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"George Bush doesn't care about Black people"

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The infamous of clip Kanye West saying "George Bush doesn't care about black people. This show his image as outspoken and critical of the establishment

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It's the wee hours of a Monday night in London, and inside Stringfellows strip club, about a dozen scantily clad women form a rough semicircle around Kanye West and his small entourage. The girls let him know that for just one twenty-pound note (about forty dollars), they will drop their knickers and gyrate in his face for the length of one song, and while I contemplate how low the U.S. dollar has plummeted, West scans the room and kicks back on a couch, armed with a stack of bills. Over the next few hours, he hardly moves an inch. The strip-club environment seems to have tranquilized him. For someone who travels through life at hyperspeed and talks a mile a minute, West is unusually still and silent. Inside these walls, during this brief moment, he is able to pleasantly disconnect himself from the hoopla surrounding his new album, Graduation, and his impending showdown with 50 Cent at the record stores.
50 Cent, Taking Care of Business: The 50 vs. Kanye Cover Story
Graduation is West's third album. In 2004, as a pink-Polo-wearing preppy with a positive message, the Chicago native broke through with The College Dropout, netting three Grammys, including one for his song "Jesus Walks," which contemplated his relationship with God, and another for his skilled production work behind the Alicia Keys hit "You Don't Know My Name." In 2005, he branched out with Late Registration, the five-star album on which he collaborated with producer Jon Brion. Over the years, West has become a lightning rod for controversy, not only for his highly un-hip-hop fashion sense (which could be described as metrosexual) but also for braggadocio and unfiltered outspokenness regarding the ills of society.

Famously, West complained to reporters backstage at the 2004 American Music Awards after country singer Gretchen Wilson won for Best New Artist, expressed his outrage at the rampant homophobia in hip-hop and, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, declared that George Bush doesn't care about black people. Aside from the rare fashion faux pas - he'd like to forget that he showed up at the Grammys last year in a lavender tuxedo/white-glove combo - it is usually West's mouth that lands him in pop-culture purgatory. And last November, after he stormed the stage to protest a Best Video victory by dance-music tag team Justice and Simian at MTV's European Music Awards, he watched his approval ratings plummet. "When I saw it on MSN the next day, it looks like I went into an orphanage and bit a baby's head off," says West, who obsessively monitors his image via blogs and other Internet sites. "I felt like the Earth was on top of me."
50 Cent and Kanye West: The Rolling Stone Cover Shoot
It was a wake-up call. And instead of publicly defending himself, West chilled out and hunkered down, immersing himself in the music. Graduation is another stellar accomplishment. His thoughts are focused, his stories are vivid, and his rhymes can be both bizarre and breathtaking. "Drunk and Hot Girls" is a dead-honest portrayal of chasing ladies, inspired by a hook from the 1972 Can cut "Sing Swan Song." (Listening to the original track, West heard the line "drunk and hot girls," while the actual lyrics appear to be "drunky hot bowls.") "Champion" samples Steely Dan's gem "Kid Charlemagne." Coldplay's Chris Martin adds gospel-flavored piano on "Homecoming." And "Big Brother" is a tear-jerking ode to his mentor and label boss, Jay-Z.

As a performer, West seems to operate entirely on impulses. During the three shows I witness in the London area, there is no set list, and if a song failed to ignite an audience, it was aborted on West's command. In conversation, over the course of many hours in his hotel room and while traveling through England, he is impulsive as well. He frequently veers off-subject, breaks into song, thinks up new lyrics and cracks jokes. Sometimes he can only tide his loquacity and end a rant with a sentence so random that there is nowhere to go with it ("Hey, I just looked down and realized how dope my shirt is").

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Kanye West: A Genius in Praise of Himself

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The battle between 50 Cent and Kanye West could answer the question: Who is the King of hip-hop?

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Reaction to Jon Brion

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The streets can't wait for ... er, Jon Brion?

When word got out that West had enlisted the esoteric composer/producer to collaborate on his second LP, Late Registration, some fans scratched their heads -- "Who??" -- while others assumed the worst.

" 'Oh, [Kanye's] gone off his rocker -- he's going to make an art record with some crazy, left-field music guy,' " Brion said, imagining haters' comments. "That's not the case whatsoever. It's very much a Kanye West record."

Brion should know -- he's the co-executive producer of nearly every track on Late Registration. Renowned for his distinctive production work (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann) and film scores for auteurs like Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), Paul Thomas Anderson ("Punch Drunk Love") and David O. Russell ("I Heart Huckabees"), Brion's not exactly known for his hip-hop chops.

In fact, his résumé is completely devoid of hip-hop.

So why was he given such a big role in Late Registration? According to Brion, Kanye is a Fiona Apple fan, and while watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," his ears perked up at Brion's evocative score (see [article id="1492279"]"Unsung Composer Jon Brion Brings Heart To 'Huckabees' "[/article]).

Hooked up through a mutual friend, producer Rick Rubin, Kanye wasted no time ringing up Brion. The two clicked instantly, and by the end of their first afternoon in the studio, the basic tracks for "Gold Digger" were complete.

"It was completely apparent that he was open to investigating new ideas," Brion said. "I was playing something on a track and he was completely psyched, and then he left after a few hours and said, 'I'll see you tomorrow.' "

The album's recording was experimental and exploratory. West, who marveled at the many unusual instruments Brion has at his disposal, would bring in a song's basic structure, and then the pair would let their imaginations run wild. Kanye would then pick and choose, shaping the track as he saw fit. Make no mistake, Brion says: Kanye was in charge.

Producer/rapper recalls VMA magic, reveals what made him a fighter and admits that someone else is calling the shots, only on Overdrive.

"When he hears something he likes, he knows it," Brion said. "He has vision, and when the guy makes quick, intuitive decisions, he just has it. I'd watch him take a rough track that I had worked on and completely stand it on its head in 10 minutes -- and it's just better. It was mind-boggling."

All that praise makes it seem that Brion's as big a fan of West as the rapper is of himself. But the producer said Kanye's choice to enlist a hip-hop novice was not only courageous, it spoke to West's true nature -- which isn't the one you usually read about.

"On your sophomore record, that's the ultimate time to not f--- with the formula, right?" he said. "And he gets me -- a guy who has never made a hip-hop record in his life -- and gives me half the reins? That is not an egomaniac."

Brion makes his mark on tracks like "Gone," which features rappers Cam'ron and Consequence and is slated to be the last track on the album. "It's just a drum beat, an Otis Redding sample and Kanye going to town over it. There's a whole string section, and it turns into crazy soundtrack music. It's a big piece of work."

Brion conducted a 20-piece orchestra on "Celebration," and had to restrain the players' laughter at the lyric "You know what this is?/ It's a celebration, bitches." He also had to fight with Kanye to keep the song, which had begun with weird electronic twinkling sounds before morphing into its current cinematic treatment, on the album -- something he also had to do with a track about his sick grandmother called "Roses."

"His attitude was, 'See if you can make me like this,' " Brion recalled. Brion layered the track with keyboards -- and hours later, Kanye eliminated all of his work, along with the beat, which the producer adored. West reconfigured the song so that the verses are based around a vocal that forms the rhythm, and then Brion's music comes crashing in on the chorus. "All the authority [and] groove is from his voice, and when the chorus comes in, it's just this extravaganza of stuff going on," Brion said, comparing the track's construction to Prince's famous last-minute removal of the bass from "When Doves Cry."

"Heard 'Em Say," featuring Maroon 5's Adam Levine, was done quickly, as the singer had only a couple of free hours. Levine had a vocal that the pair had already discovered meshed with West's music (see [article id="1507001"]"'Can He Do It Again?' -- Kanye West Says New LP Backs Up His Bragging"[/article]), and Brion "translated" the two pieces in a matter of hours. "Adam had something, Kanye loved it and the three of us went at it like banshees, and there it was," he said.

Other guests on the record include Jay-Z, Nas, Game, Jamie Foxx, Paul Wall, John Legend, Brandy -- and an unlikely guest drummer on "Diamonds From Sierra Leone": filmmaker Michel Gondry, who just happened to visit the studio on a day Brion had set up a drum kit (see [article id="1504247"]"Kanye Previews New LP, Modestly Exclaims: 'This Is Killing Everything Out There!' "[/article]).

Other songs on the album include "Addicted," "Touch the Sky" and "Drive Slow." Brion says each track the pair worked on could have gone in multiple directions, and he expects that drastically different remixes of the songs will be released. While Brion acknowledges that the album is not standard hip-hop, he stresses that West isn't, either.

"There are colors and ideas that make [the album] different from average hip-hop, but Kanye is already different from the average hip-hop guy. He's got this sense of pop record-making which is really solid, and he likes tracks with a lot of things going on in them -- which is not necessarily common for hip-hop. He was already barking up that tree."

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Kanye's Co-Pilot, Jon Brion, Talks About The Making Of Late Registration

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When word got out that Kanye West had enlisted esoteric composer/producer Jon Brion to collaborate on his second LP, some fans scratched their heads others assumed the worst. But Brion insists, "It's very much a Kanye West record."

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Single from "Late Registration"

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"Graduation" was released in 2009 and saw a change in West's musical identity as he began to broaden his musical influences to include electronic synth-pop and the European Rave scene. West's ability to become a chameleon musically, combining different sounds from different sources and influences and managing to make them work, defines his musical image as well as his star persona.

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West also collaborated with T-Pain, Lil Wayne, and Mos Def on "Graduation" which has fewer contributors then West's previous album possibly due to West wanting to stand alone as an artist.

However Kanye West did associate with artist Takashi Murakami in the promotional work and album cover for his album. West continues to challenge expectations for what his music and inspirations should be. This can also be seen in the music video for "Stronger" where West sites anime film "Akira" as a major influence.

This would also see the end of West's school theme as his music and topics would continue to evolve.

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Review of "Graduation" at the time, showing attitudes towards West and his changing music

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While rap music famously thrives on the kind of drama surrounding this week's 50 vs. Kanye record-sales standoff, even this showdown's closest followers would probably admit there's something faintly procedural about it. Maybe it's because album sales don't really work as a precise measure of absolute popularity anymore. Maybe it's because 50's a shadow of his former self and no longer considered among the best, biggest, or most anything. Or maybe it's because Universal labelmates 50 and West seem more like they're doing this for us than for themselves. This is a prize fight between two heavyweight boxers moving in polar-opposite directions; the former weakly flailing through a creative crisis and a serious absence of hunger, the latter trying to transcend America by setting his sights on nothing less than the entire world.

For all the pageantry, the most substantial takeaway from Kanye's new album is the realization that he might actually deserve the legendary status he constantly ascribes to himself. Though it doesn't quite match College Dropout or Late Registration in pleasure-center overload, West's third album in four years is both his most consistent and most enterprising yet. It also caps off an incredible (maybe even unprecedented) run: In terms of consistency, prolificness, and general all-around ability, it's hard to find anyone in mainstream rap who can touch what he's achieved within the same timeframe.

Where College Dropout and Late Registration mostly functioned as contagious nostaglia trips, Graduation finds him settling into the pocket; instead of looking inside for answers, he's looking out to the world. When he raps "I shop so much I can speak Italian" on "Champion", it's obvious he's holding up worldliness as a point of pride. His production choices reinforce that belief: Here, Kanye splices his well-articulated production style with a brand new set of influences-- most of them European. What he ends up with is a record that splits the difference between two distinctive styles: his familiar strings and brass, helium vocal samples, and warm soul samples on one side; corroded rave stabs, vinegary synth patches, and weirdly modulated electronic noises on the other. (Ironically, the latter all have roots in West's hometown of Chicago.)

While Graduation is far from the electro-house record some fans predicted when the Daft Punk-sampling "Stronger" first leaked, Kanye's interest in French house and rave extend beyond that one track. The stunning "I Wonder" combines a gentlemanly, piano-led sample (courtesy of 70s folk/jazz artist Labi Siffre) with a frizzy synth lead and alien-sounding keys, only to drown it all out with a massive swoop of strings; the weirdly dystopian club track "Drunk and Hot Girls" lurches along at a snail's pace, mixing Can's "Sing Swan Song" with a blend of gypsy music and detuned electronics for maximum queasiness; and the string-led "Flashing Lights" marries a Bond-worthy coda to staccato sounds and cut-up vocal samples. Where lesser producers have tried to bridge this gap only to wind up with beats that sound like bad mashups, West and co-producer DJ Toomp (T.I., "What You Know") make the juxapositions feel utterly natural. Combined with some other familiar source material ("Champion", for example, nicks from Steely Dan), that undercurrent of experimentation puts Kanye's talents to good use.

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Though it doesn't quite match College Dropout or Late Registration in pleasure-center overload, Kanye West's third album is both his most consistent and most enterprising yet, indicating that he might actually deserve the legendary status he constantly ascribes to himself.

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"Graduation" (2005) legacy and Donda West's death

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On this day in 2007, the "old" Kanye released his third studio album, the last of his scholastically themed albums, which is aptly titled Graduation on the Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella imprint.

With the success of his The College Dropout debut and his sophomore Late Registration, Kanye was already on an unprecedented ascension that popular culture was totally unprepared for. The concurrent releases of 50 Cent's Curtis album and Graduation also created a unique promotion of both projects. However, with West as the newer, "rookie" artist, he was the favored underdog in the competition between the two. Graduation was the obvious winner in terms of sales, selling almost a half-million copies on its first day on the shelves.

Graduation offered several smash singles that gave Ye' propelling momentum beyond his musical peers and set him well above the rest. Songs like "Can't Tell Me Nothing," "Stronger," and "Good Life" with T-Pain on the help-out made 2007 probably the best year of Kanye's career. Aside from the fact that Graduation earned Kanye a Grammy and an AMA, this last installation of his tetralogy served as the last piece of happiness before tragedy struck when Ms. Donda West passed away from coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors due to or as a consequence of liposuction and mammoplasty just two months later.

Salute to Yeezy, DJ Premier, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, and everyone involved in the Graduation album. Definitely an important piece of Hip Hop history!

dj premier Graduation album kanye west lil wayne

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The Source |Today In Hip Hop History: Kanye West Dropped His Third LP 'Graduation' 16 Years Ago

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On this day in 2007, the "old" Kanye released his third studio album, the last of his scholastically themed albums, which is aptly titled Graduation on the Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella imprint.

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"808's & Heartbreaks" was released in 2008 after the death of Kanye West's mother, Donda West, and this is reflected in the changing musical style again. West's lyrics are much more personal than his previous albums choosing to sing about love and loneliness with auto-tune that previously hadn't been seen on any of his albums. West challenges the expectations put on him with every new album he releases with "808's & Heartbreaks" being a completely different genre to what is expected of him.

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Retrospectively the album has been heralded as one of the most influential in contemporary hip-hop with its fusion of elements from the genre with electropop has defined a new generation of artists

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boom is a bedrock sound of hip-hop, but West saw it as a way to propel himself beyond the genre's walls. "I'm trying to put on those Phil Collins melodies," West told Miss Info , naming the most elusive and least-explored influence on 808s. He was talking about Collins' synth-like, proto-Auto-Tuned voice, but there's also a sonic kinship between the hard, sharp, and dry drums that Collins popularized on his earliest solo records and the uncanny explosions in dead space that make up 808s' beats. Collins first came upon this "gated reverb" drum sound while working on Peter Gabriel's 1980 track "Intruder" , when the song's engineer, Hugh Padgham, used a microphone normally used for in-studio communication-something closer to an intercom-and then trapped and snuffed out any overtones with a signal processor called a noise gate. It made the drum hits both vivid and lifeless, loud sounds that confused our sense of how loud sounds travel. The technique was famously employed on Collins' signature hit "In the Air Tonight", which Kanye has covered live.

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The Coldest Story Ever Told: The Influence of Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak

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Over the last seven years, 808s & Heartbreak has become a touchstone for musicians interested in exploring emotional and artistic upheaval. Jayson Greene details its lasting impact.

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In 2009 West found himself at the center of another awards show controversy this time interrupting Taylor Swift after she won Best Music Video at the Video Music Awards to proclaim Beyonce's "Single Ladies" music videos should have won. This again shows West's outspoken image as well as positioning him as a curator of good taste which is central to his image.

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HD Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift VMA 2009

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West faced a lot of backlash following this outburst and apologized to Taylor Swift publicly and privately but the public had turned on him at this point.

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President Barack Obama has labelled rap star Kanye West a "jackass" for interrupting Taylor Swift's winning speech at the MTV Awards on Sunday.
West stormed the stage in New York to tell the crowd Beyonce should have won the prize for best female video.

Since then, he has called Swift personally to apologise.

Speaking before a TV interview, Mr Obama said: "I thought it was inappropriate, it's like she's getting an award, why are you butting in?"

He added: "The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she's getting her award, what's he doing up there?"

Chatting with CNBC reporter John Harwood, Mr Obama made an off-the-cuff remark: "He's a jackass."

The comments came to light after ABC News staff mentioned them on Twitter.

The network said some of its employees had overheard a conversation between the president and Mr Harwood and did not realise it was off the record.

The network apologised to the White House and CNBC and removed the Twitter posts.

An audio recording of the remarks was later posted on showbiz website TMZ.

Since the incident at the MTV Awards, West has admitted he was in the wrong and has said sorry.

Swift told ABC News Radio that the rapper called her after the ceremony. "He was very sincere in his apology and I accepted that apology," she said.

But she told the US chat show The View, that his behaviour had "rattled" her.

"I had to perform live five minutes later, so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform."

West, who was booed every time he appeared on stage after the incident, also wrote on his blog afterwards about how sorry he was to have ruined Swift's big moment.
Email us your webcam video reaction to this story to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, or Read the terms and conditions you can upload it here.

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President Barack Obama calls rap star Kanye West a "jackass" for interrupting Taylor Swift's winning speech at the MTV Awards on Sunday.

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West did however track on this apology and this interview further highlights West's outspoken nature, especially when it comes to perceived injustice as implied at the end of this article.

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Despite his repeated apologies for crashing Taylor Swift's stage during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West sounded unapologetic in a new interview during which the hip hop hitmaker dubbed his actions that night "selfless," claiming that he bore the brunt of criticism in standing up for a fellow artist.

West told Minnesota radio station KDWB: "It's like, what's so arrogant about that moment? If anything, it's selfless.

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"I'm walking around now with half an arm, trying to sell albums and having to walk in rooms and be afraid of my food getting spat in, like people going 'I lost all total respect for you,' and nobody wants to just sit and look at the reality," West said.

Last year, West hijacked the stage during Swift's VMA acceptance speech, protesting her win for the best video award for You Belong With Me, which he felt should have gone to Beyonce Knowles for Single Ladies. He said at the time: "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'll let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!"

Best, Worst & Wackiest Fashions At The MTV Video Music Awards
West built upon those sentiments in his KDWB interview, again saying the Single Ladies video was slighted at the VMAs.

"The audacity of it losing anything ... I guarantee if it was the other way around, and Taylor Swift was 15, 12, 15 years into the game, and on her 40th video or 50th video, and she made the video of her career, do you thing she would have lost to a brand new artist? Hell no!" West said.

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VIDEO: Kanye West Backtracks On Taylor Swift Apology

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Despite his repeated apologies for crashing Taylor Swift's stage during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West sounded unapologetic in a new interview

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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

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My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

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After the controversy of the VMA's, West would take a hiatus from music and delve into fashion before his fifth studio album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and this can be seen in the content of the album focusing more on excess and materialism. Constant references to fashion occur throughout the album as well and the album has a maximalist aesthetic. Whilst focused on the material, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" also allows West to comment on his place within culture and his newfound celebrity fame not allowing his self-awareness and introspection to be lost.

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Label:

Def Jam / Roc-A-Fella

Reviewed:

November 22, 2010

Kanye's big year culminates in an LP that feels like an instant greatest hits, the ultimate realization of his strongest talents and divisive public persona.

Kanye West's 35-minute super-video, Runaway, peaks with a parade. Fireworks flash while red hoods march through a field. At the center of the spectacle is a huge, pale, cartoonish rendering of Michael Jackson's head. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's gargantuan "All of the Lights" soundtracks the procession, with Kanye pleading, "Something wrong, I hold my head/ MJ gone, our nigga dead." The tribute marks another chapter in West's ongoing obsession with the King of Pop.

West's discography contains innumerable references and allusions to Jackson. His first hit as a producer, Jay-Z's "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)", sampled the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back". For many, his first memorable lines as a rapper came during 2003's "Slow Jamz": "She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson/ Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson." And when West's recent interview with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show went awry, he took to Twitter, writing, "I wish Michael Jackson had twitter!!!!!! Maybe Mike could have explained how the media tried to set him up!!! It's all a fucking set up!!!!" Like most everything else, Kanye may exaggerate the kinship, but it's real. And it's never more apparent than on Twisted Fantasy, a blast of surreal pop excess that few artists are capable of creating, or even willing to attempt.

To be clear, Kanye West is not Michael Jackson. As he told MTV last month, "I do have a goal in this lifetime to be the greatest artist of all time, [but] that's very difficult being that I can't dance or sing." He ended the thought with a laugh, but you get the impression he's not kidding. Unlike Michael, he's not interested in scrubbing away bits of himself-- his blackness, his candidness-- to appease the masses. And while Jackson's own twisted fantasies of paranoia and betrayal eventually consumed him whole, West is still aware of his illusions, though that mindfulness becomes increasingly unmoored with each newspaper-splashing controversy. The balance is tenuous, but right now it's working to his advantage. On Twisted Fantasy, Kanye is crazy enough to truly believe he's the greatest out there. And, about a decade into his career, the hardworking perfectionist has gained the talent on the mic and in the control room to make a startlingly strong case for just that.

Kanye's last album, 2008's 808s and Heartbreak, was heavy on the Auto-Tune and stark synths, but relatively light on grandiose ideas. It was a necessary detour that expanded his emotional palette; a bloodletting after a harsh breakup and the passing of his mother that manifests itself in Twisted Fantasy's harshest lows. But musically, the new album largely continues where 2007's Graduation left off in its maximalist hip-hop bent, with flashes of The College Dropout's comfort-food sampling and Late Registration's baroque instrumentation weaved in seamlessly. As a result, the record comes off like a culmination and an instant greatest hits, the ultimate realization of his strongest talents and divisive public persona. And since the nerd-superstar rap archetype he popularized has now become commonplace, he leaves it in the dust, taking his style and drama to previously uncharted locales, far away from typical civilization.

He's got a lot on his mind, too. After exiling himself for months following last year's infamous Taylor Swift stage bomb, the rapper made some of his first comeback appearances at the headquarters of Facebook and Twitter in late July. Videos of West standing on a table in tailored GQ duds while gesticulating through new rhymes (sans musical accompaniment) quickly made the rounds. The Silicon Valley visits seemed like a stunt, but they were prophetic. Forever an over-sharer, Kanye was looking for an outlet for his latest mirror-born musings. He found that platform with Twitter, and proceeded to dictate his own narrative in 140 character hits. Whether showing off exotic purchases, defending himself against the press, or going on stream-of-consciousness rants, Kanye finally had the middleman-free, instant-gratification platform he'd always wanted.

Juiced on the direct connection, he began releasing weekly songs for free online, the generosity of which would be moot if the songs didn't deliver. But they did, over and over, eventually building up the same type of superstar goodwill Radiohead pulled off with their pay-what-you-want In Rainbows release plan and Lil Wayne's free mixtape barrage leading up to 2008's Tha Carter III. So while Kanye can't sing or dance like Michael, he's making meaningful connections in a fresh, oftentimes (ahem) naked way. "When I used to finish an album I would be so excited for my mom to hear the final - final!" he wrote on November 11. "The final - final is what we used to call the... completed album with all the skits!!! I made songs to please one person... MY MOM!!! I would think... would my my Mom like this song!"

I'm not sure which song he's talking about. Because, between July and November, West seemingly decided to make My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy less mom-friendly and more of a hedonistic exploration into a rich and famous American id. At Facebook, he rapped the first verse of what would become album closer "Lost in the World", at one point changing Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something" refrain to, "Mama-say mama-sah Mama Donda's son," referring to his late mother. The familial allusion was left off the album. Another Facebook tune-- a brutally oedipal account called "Mama's Boyfriend"-- was also deleted, along with the vintage-Kanye-sounding "See Me Now". Such exclusions speak to the album's sharp focus-- to move everything forward while constantly tipping on the brink of frantic instability.

This isn't the same resourceful prodigy who made The College Dropout or even the wounded soul behind 808s and Heartbreak. Instead, Kanye's Twisted Fantasy incarnation cherry-picks little things from his previous work and blows them up into something less than sane. The expansive, all-encompassing nature of the album is borne out in its staggering guest list which includes mentors Jay-Z, RZA, and No ID, along with new charges like Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. The inclusion of Minaj (who contributes the schizoid verse of her life on "Monster"), Ross (a guy known for making up his own reality as he goes), and Cudi (who's probably even more wildly self-destructive than Kanye) especially adds to the hallucinatory tone. By the time Chris Rock shows up to provide comic relief during one of the album's bleakest moments, it begins to feel as if Kanye is stage-managing his own award show with enough starpower, shock, and dynamism to flatten the Grammys, the VMAs, and the rest all at once.

Over the past few months, Kanye has intermittently tried to flush away his rep as a boorish egoist in interviews and on Twitter, which is, fortunately, impossible. Because without his exploding self-worth-- itself a cyclical reaction to the self-doubt so much of his music explores-- there would be no Twisted Fantasy. "Every superhero needs his theme music," he says on "POWER", and though he's far from the virtuous paragons of comic book lore, he's no less complex. In his public life, he exhibits vulnerability and invincibility in equal measure, but he's just as apt at villainy-- especially here.

With "Runaway", he rousingly highlights his own douchebaggery, turning it into a rallying cry for all humanity. Like many of his greatest songs, it's funny, sad, and perversely relatable. And while the royal horns and martial drums of "All of the Lights" make it sound like the ideal outlet for the most over-the-top boasts imaginable, West instead inhabits the role of an abusive deadbeat desperate to make good on a million blown promises. "Hell of a Life" attempts to bend its central credo-- "no more drugs for me, pussy and religion is all I need"-- into a noble pursuit. As a woofer-mulching synth line lurks, Kanye justifies his dreams of not sleeping with but marrying a porn star, peaking with the combative taunt, "How can you say they live they life wrong/ When you never fuck with the lights on." Inspired by his two-year relationship with salacious model Amber Rose, the song blurs the line between fantasy and reality, sex and romance, love and religion, until no lines exist at all. It's a zonked nirvana with demons underneath; a fragile state that can't help but break apart on the very next song.

The haunted, Aphex Twin-sampling "Blame Game" bottoms out with a verse in which Kanye's voice is sped up, slowed down and stretched out. The effect is almost psychotic, suggesting three or four inner monologues fighting over smashed emotions. It's one of many moments on the record where West manipulates his vocals. Whether funneling some of his best-ever rhymes through a tinny, Strokes-like filter on "Gorgeous" or making himself wail like a dying cyborg in the final minutes of "Runaway", he uses studio wizardry to draw out his multitudes. Tellingly, though, he doesn't get the last word on the album. That distinction goes to the sobering tones of Gil Scott-Heron's 1970 spoken-word piece "Comment #1", a stark take on the American fable. "All I want is a good home and a wife and children and some food to feed them every night," says Scott-Heron, bringing the fantasy to a close.

On "POWER", Kanye raps, "My childlike creativity, purity, and honesty is honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts/ Reality is catching up with me, taking my inner child, I'm fighting for custody." The lines nail another commonality between the rapper and his hero. Like Michael, Kanye's behavior-- from the poorly planned outbursts to the musical brilliance-- is wide-eyed in a way that most 33 year olds have long left behind. That naivety is routinely battered on Twisted Fantasy, yet it survives, better for the wear. With his music and persona both marked by a flawed honesty, Kanye's man-myth dichotomy is at once modern and truly classic. "I can't be everybody's hero and villain, savior and sinner, Christian and anti Christ!" he wrote earlier this month. That may be true, but he's more willing than anyone else to try.

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Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

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Kanye's big year culminates in an LP that feels like an instant greatest hits, the ultimate realization of his strongest talents and divisive public persona.

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West's grandiose album is matched by the A-list collaborators on the album which include; Kid Cudi, Raekwon, Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Bon Iver, Pusha T, RZA, and John Legend. This shows West's alignment with established A-list stars as a focus point for them to gather around, as well as his eclectic musical influences which included the folk band Bon Iver.

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The 35-minute music video for the single "Runaway" shows the diversity of West's image and his aim to construct himself as an artist rather than just a musician.

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"Watch the Throne" is a collaboration album between Jay-Z and Kanye West released in 2011. West again positions himself at the forefront of hip-hop but this time he has an entire album with one of the legendary figures of the genre. With this and "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" West's lyrics stray much further into braggadocious materialism but there is still some semblance of the critical and socially aware character of West's previous iterations.

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These subtler moments are admirable, but they don't always work. Consider, for example, the song "That's My Bitch", on which Kanye and his collaborators flip the classic "Apache" break into a devastating dance-rap monster with synths zooming off in every direction and Justin Vernon making the aforementioned sweaty soul moves. It's a vicious song, catchy as fuck, but it turns out to be weirdly awkward. Despite the title, Jay's verse is all devotional-prophet; it mostly concerns the way American beauty standards so often work against women of color. The sentiment deserves respect, but his laidback delivery, on a track with production and structure that call for ferocity, drains his ideas of force.

Watch the Throne works best when Jay and Kanye are just talking about how great they are. The single " Otis" is dizzy fun, with Jay and Kanye rapping hard and swapping mics like hungry kids. "Niggas in Paris" rides an impossibly propulsive synth riff and gigantic drums and gives Jay a chance to display the technical rap wizardry he still has in him. (It also features this great Kanye moment, "Doctors say I'm the illest because I'm suffering from realness/ Got my niggas in Paris, and they going gorillas," followed by a sample of Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory talking about how awesome shit doesn't have to mean anything.) "Gotta Have It" unites Kanye and the Neptunes to crazily chop up James Brown vocal samples and Eastern flute melodies. And "Who Gon Stop Me" finds Kanye cussing in Pig Latin while turning dubstep-rap into a viable subgenre.

If you buy Watch the Throne from iTunes-- the only place you can buy it at the moment-- you'll notice that it's credited to "JAY Z & Kanye West" (capital letters and missing hyphen unexplained). But while Jay might be billed first for seniority's sake, Kanye is this album's obvious guiding force. Throughout, he displays levels of unequaled audacity. On "Otis" and "Gotta Have It", he reduces Otis Redding and James Brown to simple grunts, then builds rhythm tracks out of them. On "New Day", over a beat co-produced by RZA, he actually runs Nina Simone through Auto-Tune. On "No Church in the Wild", he authoritatively vows, "You will not control the threesome." The musical scope of Watch the Throne is a tribute to his distinctive taste and sense of style. The whole thing sounds huge, and even the sillier moments ("Made in America", especially, reminds me of the inspirational ballads of late-period Michael Jackson) succeed on pure orchestral excess. Jay and Kanye debuted the album in a private listening session at a New York planetarium, a setting which made perfect sense: even if it never approaches the grandeur or character-study complexity of Twisted Fantasy, this is still exploding-star music.

So: two long-reigning titans make a relatively quick album which, despite their best efforts, still winds up being a monument to their own grandiosity. Should we care? Well, yeah. Kanye doesn't have a cruise-control switch, and when he's around, neither does Jay. On Watch the Throne, they push each other and have fun doing it, and the result is a stadium-sized event-rap spectacle that still sounds like two insanely talented guys' idiosyncratic vision. That's worth celebrating.

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Maybe you've heard of this one? This meeting of two long-reigning titans is the kind of stadium-sized event-rap spectacle we don't get often enough.

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West's music label released the collaborative album "Cruel Summer" in 2012 which featured songs from himself, Pusha T, Kid Cudi, Big Sean, Chief Keef, 2 Chainz, DJ Khalid, Ghostface Killah, and Jay-Z. Whilst not definitively a Kanye West album it does follow his musical trend towards a maximalist style shown in "Watch the Throne" and "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". West's trend towards a collectivist form of music production shows how, during these three years, West wanted to position himself as a cultural nexus where different arts and different musicians at their creative peaks from different genres of music all intersect.

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Cruel Summer's secret MVP is Hit-Boy, the producer who brought Kanye the "Paris" beat; he shows up on with "Cold" (formerly known as "Theraflu"), a sleekly coursing West solo track in which he hashes out the increasingly silly details of his life -- his jealousy towards Kim Kardashian's 72-day husband Kris Humphries; his adventures go-karting with Polish models -- with his trademark aggrieved sense of urgency. Hit-Boy also offers up "Clique", a transfixing, Timbaland-like collection of hiccups and synth strobes. "Clique" is haughty, spotless, and coldly perfect; it sounds like bottle service. West takes the opportunity to sneer at former CIA director George Tenet's car.

Apart from Hit-Boy's contributions, there are three tracks from Hudson Mohawke, the rising Glasgow producer whose compellingly fractured beats have caught the ear of hip-hop figures like Just Blaze. His contributions -- "To the World", "The One", and "Bliss", which makes use of 2009's "Ice Viper"-- don't sound like anything off of his riotous Satin Panthers EP, but they are welcome signs that Mohawke is moving into high-profile hip-hop territory. "To the World", a track featuring R. Kelly that's built off a slightly stiff drumline beat and swarms of string plucks, benefits from an animated turn from Kanye, who mangles Francis Ford Coppola's name hilariously and taunts Mitt Romney in a nagging singsong for failing to disclose his taxes.

But once the early run of singles are out of the way, things start to go south. By the time you get to Kid CuDi's dribbly alt-rock solo turn "Creepers" (actual lyric: "If I had one wish, it'd be to have more wishes/ Duh... Fuck trying to make it rhyme") it seems like even the artists involved have left the room. Pusha-T huffs and snorts a lot, but drops lines like "wherever we go, we do it pronto." You'd never guess from his performance here that he was once a member of Clipse. Big Sean, who's shown flickering signs of wanting to actually rap lately, sits back and offers terrible puns on the word "ass." R&B singer Teyana Taylor comes nowhere near her work on Twisted Fantasy.

It's the sense of Event, which has become as much of an art for Kanye as his music over the years, that is most blatantly missing here. The only people who seem to recognize what's at stake are the old-timers. Ma$e, of all people, shows up out of nowhere on "Higher" to lick shots at his former Bad Boy rival Loon: No one cares, but he still sounds slick. And then there's Ghostface, who roars to life at the end of "New God Flow", a track based off his own "Mighty Healthy" from 2000's classic Supreme Clientele. Ghost's appearance is an obvious prestige-casting move, but still a perfect one, and he makes the most of it, reliving his Pretty Toney days one more time. A handful of guests aside, though, none of G.O.O.D. Music's personalities do much to justify their newfound prominence. If Cruel Summer is meant to be an argument for the label's other talent, it makes a weak case.

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The long-awaited Cruel Summer is a crew album, a chance for all of the rappers Kanye West has signed over the past few years (former greats like Pusha T, half-decent punchline rappers like Big Sean, and entourage bottom-feeders like CyHi the Prince) to momentarily feel like they own the place.

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In keeping with West's tendencies, "Yeezus" (2013) marks a radical shift in West's image and sound. West trades the grandiose of "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" for a minimalist industrial sound inspired by techno and acid-house.

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Marking a blunt break with the filigreed maximalism he nailed on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye's sixth solo album trades smooth soul and anthemic choruses for jarring electro, acid house, and industrial grind while delivering some of his most lewd and heart-crushing tales yet.

Look at the song title "I Am a God" and it seems like easy blasphemy-- Kanye West's update of John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" shocker from 1966. But just as the Beatle's proclamation was fuller and wiser in context-- "I believe that what people call God is something in all of us," Lennon would later explain-- "I Am a God" is not simply the latest self-important blast from one of pop culture's pre-eminent egoists. For starters, the track sounds less triumphant than breathtakingly vexed, crashing in with a gnarled dancehall vocal sample and paranoid sawtooth synths that aim to destroy. Here, Kanye raps about loyalty, respect, threesomes, and, yes, croissants with the urgency of someone being chased by a 30-ton steamroller. The song is pierced by a series of primal screams, pixelated outbursts that are only briefly able to halt the beat's heaving evil. In Kanye's hands, being a god sounds stressful as hell, something we can all relate to, and the song's apparent inspiration is a passage from the book of Psalms: "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High."

These are the immeasurably lofty stakes Kanye deals in on Yeezus, his sixth solo album. His intensity here has a heightened desperation as he howls into the void, but the Chicago native has always been beguiled by the view from above. Take " Jesus Walks", where he references another Psalm while gasping from on high: "I walk through the valley of the Chi where death is/ Top floor, the view alone will leave you breathless." Then, on "POWER", he contemplates leaping out of the penthouse, "letting everything go." In a way, Yeezus is the panicked sound of that ensuing free-fall, a rush of angst and despair with absolutely nothing left to lose.

The album is something of a razor-sharpened take on 2008's distressed 808s & Heartbreak and marks a blunt break with the filigreed maximalism Kanye so thoroughly nailed on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. In hindsight, the latter record-- with its ingratiating GOOD Fridays buildup, endless guest list, and uncharacteristically apologetic interview sessions-- was his attempt at recapturing a superstar-sized American audience after a slew of entertaining-yet-questionable PR incidents. Except it didn't exactly work: While Twisted Fantasy was universally lauded and went platinum, it still stands as Kanye's worst-selling album to date, failing to produce a top 10 single. But even if it wasn't a chart smash, the intricacy and durability of Twisted Fantasy incubated the Cult of Kanye to an extreme level. "I'd rather piss a bunch of people off and make myself happy than make everyone else happy and be pissed off inside," he told VIBE around the release of 808s. Yeezus doubles-down on this exclusionary philosophy: "Soon as they like you, make 'em unlike you/ 'Cause kissing people ass is so unlike you."

For Kanye, there's purpose in repulsion. And on Yeezus, he trades out smooth soul and anthemic choruses for jarring electro, acid house, and industrial grind while delivering some of his most lewd and heart-crushing tales yet. This is willful provocation that Ice Cube, Madonna, and Trent Reznor could all be proud of. Some of the record has him tackling the same issues he's been rapping about since The College Dropout, albeit with a fire-eyed stare. On his debut's "Family Business", he poignantly lamented a jailed cousin's absence at the Thanksgiving dinner table in a manner "so sweet, like a photo of your granny's picture." On Yeezus, he's still addressing the plight of incarcerated black men, but now he's incensed. With "New Slaves", he confronts us with vulgar stereotypes while exposing the prison-industrial complex for the deeply systemic racist sham that it is.

Meanwhile, XXX creeper "I'm In It" sounds like a dancehall orgasm mired in quicksand and makes previous come-ons like "Slow Jamz" come off like Disney theme songs. "The kids and the wife life, but can't wake up from the nightlife," says the new father on that track's knowingly button-pushing final verse. "I'm so scared of my demons/ I go to sleep with a nightlight." Kanye told The New York Times he's recently reached a new level of Zen, but this is the opposite of beach-chair music. Perhaps the album's most explicit lines are the blurry fantasies of a confessed porn addict who's described his daughter's mother as a "superstar all from a home movie." Without much room for levity, Kanye's complicated and distrustful view of women is unrelenting on Yeezus. And while there's no real excuse for flat oafishness like "eatin' Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce," many of the album's most powerful moments have him broken down, insecure, and bloody, railing against an ineptitude with the opposite sex.

Album pinnacle "Blood on the Leaves" tells a nightmarish story of divorce and betrayal, all while samples of Nina Simone's pitched-up "Strange Fruit" and TNGHT's demonic "R U Ready" horns play yin and yang to the protagonist's alternately sorrowful and furious headspace. "Hold My Liquor" and "Guilt Trip", meanwhile, find Kanye trying to restate his manhood while his emotions crumble around him; if he's not drunk and swerve-y, trying vainly to reconcile with an ex, he's hoping to brag himself out of being dumped. Caustic humor shows up now and then, buoying certain lines or tracks like "Send It Up" and "Bound 2", but it's often fleeting. As on "Runaway", there's something palpably sad about the men in these songs, which twists them away from misogynistic assertions of power toward feelings that are ultimately more self-destructive. As contemporaries like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Justin Timberlake increasingly devote their music to largely winning tales of contentment, Kanye is unwilling or unable to settle for settling down.

This discomfort is essential to his enduring appeal. For instance, instead of working with giant phone companies to guarantee commercial success, a la his big brother, Kanye's now making a point out of rejecting corporate sponsorship. Whether it's a meaningful stance or a blindly contrarian move is up for debate. But after recent tensions between hip-hop and corporate America, visceral and disturbing lines like "put my fist in her like a civil rights sign" put Kanye beyond the reach of mainstream brands hoping to siphon his credibility. As he told the Times, he's not disinterested in the idea of big companies or big money-- he compared himself to Steve Jobs, after all-- but he wants control.

The restlessness spreads to his aesthetic and collaborative choices. Rather than relying on known hitmakers to augment his music, Kanye solicited ideas from exciting up-and-comers including Hudson Mohawke, Young Chop, and Arca. And even veteran producers involved in the project, like Rick Rubin and Daft Punk, were seemingly chosen not for their name recognition but their history of rule-breaking. In the mid-1980s, Rubin veered away from the colorful, party-starting tones of early rap music and created bare, hard beats for LL Cool J, Run-D.M.C., and the Beastie Boys-- a perfect fit for Yeezus' less-is-more snarl. And though Kanye's blaring, digitized assault couldn't be further from Daft Punk's naturalistic, groove-based Random Access Memories, the artists share a basic philosophy. As Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter recently said of their new record: "We had the luxury to do things that so many people cannot do, but it doesn't mean that with luxury comes comfort."

The idea extends to the how Yeezus treats the human voice. Running with the confounding hook from last year's "Mercy", dancehall patois is scattered throughout, bringing with it that music's sense of menacing confrontation. And Bon Iver's Justin Vernon shows up on a few tracks, using his voice to give the darkness an angelic tint. Expanding upon the cracked vocal experimentation on Twisted Fantasy's "Blame Game", Kanye's own voice is often shadowed by pitched-down ghouls. And though he could've likely chosen any rapper on earth to guest on the riotous "Send It Up"-- probably the most likely, if not only, chance Yeezus has for a rap-radio hit-- he chose Chicago's relatively unknown King L. His presence, along with that of fellow Chi-town driller Chief Keef, makes the message clear: America may want to ignore these young black men from the gang-strewn South Side, but here, they have a voice.

All of these unlikely choices demonstrate how cohesion and bold intent are at a premium on Yeezus, perhaps more than any other Kanye album. Each fluorescent strike of noise, incongruous tempo flip, and warped vocal is bolted into its right place across the record's fast 40 minutes. The precise approach runs through Yeezus' guerrilla-style promotion, too, which found an army of dark vans lighting projections onto buildings around the world, itself a boots-on-the-ground reaction to today's InstaTweet brand of music dissemination. I went to one of these impromptu happenings last Saturday night, in the middle of Manhattan. At 1:20 a.m., the words "NOT FOR SALE" lit up on the south side of the Louis Vuitton building. A few guys ran across the street with Christmas-morning glee, snapping photos. Then, Kanye's starkly-lit visage appeared to recite "New Slaves"'s anti-consumerist lines as cabs streaked by the luxury stores below. His was the only black face to be seen across the jumbo ads lining an eerily desolate 5th Ave. The van soon closed its doors and drove away; the culture bomb's flash was over in an instant, but the reverberations were just starting to spread.

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Marking a blunt break with the filigreed maximalism he nailed on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye's sixth solo album trades smooth soul and anthemic choruses for jarring electro, acid house, and industrial grind while delivering some of his most lewd and heart-crushing tales yet.

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West remains outspoken on the album commenting on institutionalized racism but most prominently his introspective feelings about women which are filled with insecurity and anger. Whilst at times abrasive, this still supports West's outspoken tendencies on any topic including parts of himself that might not be well received which is reflected in the album's radical shift towards an uncomfortable sound.

This personal inflection is also further heightened by the lack of features on the album

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West collaborated with Paul McCartney in 2015 for "FourFiveSeconds" and "Only One" showing both Kanye's affiliation with music icons (this time The Beatles) but also his ever-changing musical style moving fluidly between industrial acid-house to folk-pop.

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Chappelle's anecdote, whether fictitious or not, is telling of public perception of West as arrogant, or at least self-confident, and also confirms this notion.

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Dave Chappelle Describes His First Encounter with Kanye West

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Another comedic mocking of West's history with award shows but this time by close collaborator Jay-Z. This clip reinforces West's self-awareness and he is quick to laugh at his own expense.

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Extend interviews allow for West to expand on ideas and allows for a more 'intimate' look at his star iamge

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The Breakfast Club Classic - Kanye West Interview 2013

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West's anger and outspokenness about perceived injustices, especially racial and institutional, are very common in his music coming out in interviews. This reinforces West's image as someone who will say what he thinks even if others around him disagree. This interview does however also show West's volatility and sometimes confusing ramblings that begin to characterize his career.

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KANYE WEST Flips Out on Sway in The Morning Interview HD

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West's blunder constructs the star as 'real' adding 'authenticity' to his character by showing that he too makes embarrassing mistakes.

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Kanye tells handicapped fan in wheelchair to stand up at Sydney show

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West's award show outbursts are so memorable that even West himself can't help but play along. Moments of self-awareness help to construct an 'authentic' star image.

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Kanye West "crashing" Beck's Album Of The Year Acceptance Speech | GRAMMYs

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"The Life of Pablo" premiered alongside West's own clothing collection "Yeezy" owing to the intersectionality that West hopes to achieve.

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Label:

Def Jam / G.O.O.D. Music

Reviewed:

February 15, 2016

Finally, after a protracted and often chaotic roll-out, the new Kanye West album is here. The Life of Pablo is the first Kanye West album that's just an album: No major statements, no reinventions, no zeitgeist wheelie-popping. But a madcap sense of humor animates all his best work, and the new record has a freewheeling energy that is infectious and unique to his discography.

Pablo Picasso and Kanye West share many qualities-impatience with formal schooling, insatiable and complicated sexual appetites, a vampiric fascination with beautiful women as muses-but Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole. Kanye, specifically, toasted them. The Life of Pablo's namesake is a provocation, a mystery, a sly acknowledgement of multitudes: Drug lord Pablo Escobar is a permanent fixture of rap culture, but the mystery of " which one?" set Twitter theorists down fascinating rabbit holes, drawing up convincing stand-ins for Kanye's Blue Period (808s & Heartbreak), his Rose Period (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), and his Crystal Period (Yeezus). If Kanye is comparable to Picasso, The Life of Pablo is the moment, after a turbulent life leaving many artistic revolutions and mistreated women in his wake, that the artist finally settles down. In this formulation, Kim Kardashian is Jacqueline Roque, Picasso's final muse and the woman to whom he remained faithful (she even kinda looks like a Kardashian), and the record is the sound of a celebrated megalomaniac settling for his place in history.

The Life of Pablo is, accordingly, the first Kanye West album that's just an album: No major statements, no reinventions, no zeitgeist wheelie-popping. It's probably his first full-length that won't activate a new sleeper cell of 17-year-old would-be rappers and artists. He's changed the genre's DNA with every album, to the point where each has inspired a generation of direct offspring, and now everywhere he looks, he sees mirrors. "See, I invented Kanye, it wasn't any Kanyes, and now I look and look around and there's so many Kanyes," he raps wryly on "I Love Kanye." The message seems clear: He's through creating new Kanyes, at least for now. He's content to just stand among them, both those of his own creation and their various devotees.

Kanye's second child Saint was born in early December, and there's something distinctly preoccupied about this whole project-it feels wry, hurried, mostly good-natured, and somewhat sloppy. Like a lot of new parents, Kanye feels laser-focused on big stuff-love, serenity, forgiveness, karma-and a little frazzled on the details. "Ultralight Beam" opens with the sound of a 4-year-old preaching gospel, some organ, and a church choir: "This is a God dream," goes the refrain. But everything about the album's presentation-the churning tracklist, the broken promises to premiere it here or there, the scribbled guest list-feels like Kanye ran across town to deliver a half-wrapped gift to a group birthday party to which he was 10 minutes late.

Thankfully, he's bringing a Kanye album, and Kanye albums make pretty goddamn good gifts. His devotion to the craft of album-making remains his greatest talent. Albums are his legacy, what he knows, deep down, will endure after the circus of attention he maintains around him subsides. His ability to package hundreds of stray threads into a whole that feels not just thrilling, but *inevitable-*at this, he is better than everyone, and he throws all of his best tricks into The Life of Pablo to remind us. He picks the right guests and gives them idealized settings, making people you don't care about sound fantastic and people you do care about sound immortal. Chance the Rapper, a spiritual heir to backpack-and-a-Benz Kanye if there ever was one, is given the spotlight on the opener "Ultralight Beam," and uses his dazed, happy verse to quote both "Otis" and the bonus track to Late Registration. His joy is palpable, and it's clear he has waited his entire adult life to be featured on a Kanye album. On the other hand, "Fade" pits Future knockoff Post Malone, of all people, against a sample of Chicago house legend Larry Heard's " Mystery of Love" and a flip of Motown blues rock band Rare Earth's " I Know I'm Losing You" and rigs the mix so that Malone, somehow, sounds more important than both of them.

This moment is also a reminder of Kanye's audacious touch with huge, immediately recognizable pieces of musical history-his best work as a producer has always drawn from iconic songs so venerated most sane people wouldn't dare touch them, from " Gold Digger" to " Blood on the Leaves" and beyond. He doesn't just sample these songs, he climbs in and joyrides them like the Maybach in the " Otis" video. On "Famous," he does it twice, first by matching up Nina Simone's " Do What You Gotta Do" with Rihanna, who sings the song's hook before Nina does, and then with Sister Nancy's " Bam Bam," which gets flipped so it sits atop a chorale-like chord progression. It sounds like a dancehall remix of Pachelbel's Canon, and it's the most joyful two minutes of music on the album.

"Waves," a song that made the tracklist at the last second at Chance the Rapper's insistence, has a similar energy. You can hear why Chance, specifically, might've wanted it back: It is a throwback to the Rainbow Road maximalism of " We Major," and it is so warmly redemptive it even makes Chris Brown, who sings the hook, sound momentarily benevolent. "Waves" is hardly the only last-second change made: The Kendrick Lamar collaboration "No More Parties In L.A." is back on here, as is an inexplicable minute-long voicemail from imprisoned rapper Max B, granting Kanye permission to use his popular slang term " wavy." Such last-second fidgets seem to say something about The Life of Pablo itself. After years of agonizing over how to follow up the conceptually triumphant 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and Yeezus, he seems to have settled upon eternal flux as a resting place, and the album plays like Kanye might still be remixing it furiously in your headphones while you listen.

"Father Stretch My Hands" tosses a sample from Southside Chicago icon, activist, and one-time fraud convict Pastor T.L. Barrett into a gurgling trash compactor alongside some pigeon-cooed backing vocals and an entire undigested verse from another Future knockoff, Brooklyn upstart Desiigner. It's the least-finished-sounding piece of music to ever feature on a Kanye album. This is the logical endpoint to the sort of obsessive perfectionism that led West to make 75 near-identical mix downs of "Stronger," and in the song's lyrics, Kanye admits that the same workaholism that made his father a distant figure in his childhood now keeps him from his family. On "FML," he name-checks the antidepressant Lexapro on record for the second time in a year, and alludes to something that sounds an awful lot like a manic episode. The life of a creative visionary has dark undercurrents ("name me one genius who ain't crazy," Kanye demands on "Feedback") and it's possible that The Life of Pablo title serves as much private warning as boastful declaration.

The album's most humane moments come when he reaches for his family: "I just want to wake up with you in my eyes," he pleads at the end of "Father Stretch My Hands." On "FML," a bleak song about resisting sexual temptation, he sings to Kim, "They don't want to see me love you." "Real Friends" reprises his "Welcome to Heartbreak" role as the unhappy outsider at his own family events, squirming through reunions and posing for pictures "before it's back to business"; it's maybe the saddest he's ever sounded on record.

Tuning into the humanity in Kanye's music amid bursts of boorish static can be difficult, and the most prominent example of assholery on Pablo comes from the instantly infamous jab "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex," which feels like a piece of bathroom graffiti made to purposefully reignite the most racially-charged rivalry in 21st-century pop. But there's lots more where that came from, sneaking in behind the headline: "If I fuck this model/ And she just bleached her asshole/ And I get bleach on my T-shirt/ I'mma feel like an asshole" is maybe the most unforgivably stupid thing Kanye West has ever rapped. And on the bonus track "30 Hours," he takes a moment to sneer, "My ex said she gave me the best years of her life/ I saw a recent picture of her, I guess she was right."

At moments like this, you sense the airlessness of super-celebrity closing in around him. Even when he was being loathsome, Kanye's behavior always felt rooted in something messy and relatable. During the wild scrum of The Life of Pablo's press cycle-when he tweeted "I own your child!!" at Wiz Khalifa in response to a minor misunderstanding, or his " BILL COSBY INNOCENT !!!!!!!!!!" tweet, for instance-there was a prevailing sense that Kanye had entered such a consequence-free zone that we can never truly relate to him anymore. Once upon a time, he was The Asshole Incarnate, the self-described "douchebag" that we couldn't look away from. But there are moments here where he just sounds like another asshole.

And yet, as it always does in Kanye's essentially crowd-pleasing, deeply Christian music, the light wins out over the darkness. A madcap sense of humor animates all his best work, and The Life of Pablo has a freewheeling energy that is infectious and unique to his discography. Somehow, it comes off as both his most labored-over and unfinished album, full of asterisks and corrections and footnotes. "It was my idea to have an open relationship, now a nigga mad," he jokes on "30 Hours," sending up his own masculine fragility. "I need every bad bitch up in Equinox/ I need to know right now if you a freak or not," he jokes on "Highlights."

And with The Life of Pablo, this humor isn't just in the verses, it's in the rollout, too. Somewhere between the record's several title changes, it started to feel like Kanye had decided to turn his troubled-blockbuster-syndrome into performance art. "We still don't have a title," Kim Kardashian tweeted, days before the announced rollout. The day after he rented out Madison Square Garden so he could plug in his laptop, it was suddenly unclear, again, if the album was coming out at all; the mess was so profound that a tweet noting "Young Thug claimed on Periscope it was coming out on SNL tomorrow" suddenly seemed like solid intel. Chaos reigned, and as the twists and turns mounted, it was hard to keep from laughing helplessly.

Around this point, the joke became clear: This whole thing-album cycles, first-week sales, release dates, the album-as-statement, the album itself-is ridiculous. The only other recent marquee star to allow something this messy to bear their name was Rihanna, whose ANTI was released into the world last month in a similarly slipshod manner. Both stars are jewels in the late-period Roc-A-Fella dynasty, their careers forged in the dying embers of the old-school music industry where promotional campaigns were telegraphed months in advance, where singles and video rollouts were executed with airstrike precision, where release dates loomed like skyscrapers. In the ensuing industry freefall, Kanye and Rihanna have weathered every absurdity imaginable-platinum plaques handed out by Samsung, biometric suitcases carrying leakproof records, artist-owned streaming services that put up their records for a few minutes by accident. Watching the sea of confusion and despair on news feeds and timelines, you can almost hear them chuckling: None of this matters, because none of it is real.

If there was a larger message behind all this impulsive last-second lurching and heaving, that was it. "We on an ultralight beam/ This is a God dream" reads like an affirmation that we live in a world touched by divinity-but it could also mean the universe is a trick of the light, and we're nothing but a figment in a higher being's imagination. Nothing is as it seems, nothing is safe from revision, and nothing lasts: In one last rug pull, Kanye claimed that the "Pablo" of the title was neither Escobar nor Picasso, but St. Paul of Tarsus ("Pablo" in Spanish). The claim slots neatly with his assertion that The Life of Pablo is a "gospel album," and on "Wolves," he offers a resonant, lonely image: Kim and Kanye as Mary and Joseph, alone in the manger and surrounded by the void. "Cover Nori in lamb's wool/ We surrounded by/ The fuckin wolves," he raps. If Pablo is indeed St. Paul, Kanye might have a passage on his mind from Corinthians, Chapter 13 verse 2: "If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."
Correction: The original version of this review misinterpreted a lyric from "Highlights" as a reference to writer and comedian Bridget Phetasy; it has since been removed.

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Finally, after a protracted and often chaotic roll-out, the new Kanye West album is here. The Life of Pablo is the first Kanye West album that's just an album: No major statements, no reinventions, no zeitgeist wheelie-popping.

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It is however moments like this that defined West at this point in his career and moving forward. After his tour following "The Life of Pablo ", West was admitted for psychiatric observation.

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Kanye West - RANTS THEN LEAVES AFTER BARELY 3 SONGS [Live @ Sacramento, 11/19/2016]

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Kanye West being called out points to West's image changing. Whilst Kanye is still outspoken about his beliefs, his rants and ramblings have become nonsensical and instead of speaking for the people West has began to become delusional.

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Kanye West's Rant In TMZ Office (Extended Cut) | TMZ

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West's supreme self-confidence that borders on arrogance is reinforced through this clip but also the image of West as socially aware and critical of institutional racism. This also shows to some extent a growing delusion within West and a detachment from reality that has accompanied his growing egomania.

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kanye west speaking some truth on with zane lowe bbc radio 1 interview

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Provocative and political video for the single "Famous" showing clay bodies of controversial people in bed naked together. This is perhaps also a sign of Kanye's image as outspoken politically twisting into something more pervasive, intrusive, and unsettling than his original political messaging.

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An Article on West's unsubstantiated claims that white Democrats are forcing Black women to have abortions. This is another example of Wests political image changing from being critical of Conservative Republicans to know supporting them and their policies. This is however still in keeping with West's outspoken nature and his tendency to speak before thinks .

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Kanye West Claimed Democrats Make Black People Kill Their Children

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West claimed without evidence that Democrats are forcing Black people to abort their children and seemed to confuse Plan B with abortion.

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West's sudden change from liberal ideas voiced in his earlier work came with much controversy due to Trump's attitude towards minority groups. This is another sign of West's public and political image shifting as a lot of his fan base would become alienated by this shift. This reinforces Kanyes need for intersectionality, after conquering the arts he now wants to be involved in politics, but it also reinforces his refusal to conform to expectations about who he should support politically.

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Donald Trump has thanked Kanye West after the rapper professed his love for the president and said the pair "are both dragon energy".

West posted a series of tweets about Trump on Wednesday afternoon, days after praising a rightwing pundit on Twitter.

"You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him," West said.

"We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought."

Trump retweeted West's message, describing it as "very cool", in the latest display of affection between the pair.

West later posted a picture of himself wearing a hat featuring Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again", then posted a closeup picture of a Make America Great Again hat that appeared to have been signed by Trump.

It is not clear what prompted West's display of affection. In between tweets about Trump he had also written: "I'm nice at ping pong."

West visited Trump Tower during the presidential transition and was booed during a concert shortly after the 2016 election when he declared that he "would have voted for Donald Trump".

This week the Hot 97 radio show host Ebro Darden claimed that West told him: "I do love Donald Trump" during a conversation over the weekend. He also praised the rightwing pundit Candace Owens on Saturday.

It is unclear how Trump discovered West's messages. He does not follow West on Twitter, and Trump did not respond to a later tweet from West clarifying his remarks.

"My wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don't agree with everything Trump does. I don't agree 100% with anyone but myself," West said in his subsequent message.

During a briefing on Wednesday afternoon the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was asked whether West had spoken to Trump since their Trump Tower meeting.

"I don't know of any conversations that they have had over the last week or so," Sanders said. "I'll keep you posted if that changes any time."

The meeting did not mark West's first presidential interaction. In 2005, West said on live television during a telethon for victims of Hurricane Katrina: "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Bush later described that moment as the worst of his presidency.

In 2009, the then president, Barack Obama, labeled West "a jackass" after West charged the stage in protest at the MTV Video Music Awards after Taylor Swift won an award.

Asked for a comment, a spokesman for the Trump critic Senator Ben Sasse paraphrased an infamous West remark, saying: "Kanye, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Cardi B had one of the best rants on taxation as theft of all time."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kanye West proclaims his love for Trump: 'We are both dragon energy'

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Rapper tweets: 'He is my brother' and Trump calls message 'very cool' in latest sign of mutual affection

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"Ye" (2018) accompanies a series of albums produced by West for Nas, Pusha T, and Teyana Taylor reinforcing West's image as a nexus of culture and creativity.

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West's outspoken image is further contorted with nonsensical remarks. Specifically on his remarks about slavery being a choice, West's previous image as socially savvy has become twisted through insensitive and detached remarks.

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Kanye West on slavery: ‘For 400 years? That sounds like a choice’

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In a confrontation in the TMZ newsroom, the rapper talks about his view on slavery as well as reaffirming his support for Donald Trump

# data[].attributes.body
"Ye" (2018) was released during a trying time for West's image as his arrogance and self-obsession seemed to reach a high point - "ye is an album devoted to the stand-off between visceral self-loathing and baroque levels of narcissism, further complicated by mental illness and a recent opiate addiction."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Label:

G.O.O.D. Music / Def Jam

Kanye West's stint in Wyoming created an album born from chaos for chaos' sake. Though it can be somewhat fascinating, it is undoubtedly a low point in his career.

There is something about the crumbling of American civilization that makes you want to say "fuck it" and go full cowboy; cue Kanye West and friends cosplaying Wyoming as a concept, living out a dude-ranch fantasy beneath the Tetons. It was there, in Jackson Hole-the most economically imbalanced city in America-where Kanye threw together his eighth album in the midst of a public unraveling that, in a society where celebrity wasn't deified, would be the stuff that ends a career.

In the month leading up to ye, during which he and his team of producers and songwriters created the 24-minute album in its entirety, West proudly donned a Trump-autographed MAGA hat, sputtered that slavery seemed like a choice, and offered a steady stream of empty platitudes urging his followers to "stop thinking so much" and "google dopamine." He was broadly considered "canceled," a term we use because we at some point collectively decided to project our sociopolitical hopes and fears onto millionaires. And then, in keeping with his tradition of elaborate, immersive rollouts, he chartered private planes for 150 or so influencers to listen by Jackson Hole campfire to seven tracks he farted out to meet his arbitrarily self-imposed deadline. Those who are obsessed with money assume goodwill can be bought. Even "free-thinkers" know nothing really comes for free.

If West has successfully pulled off anything this album cycle, it is managing expectations with all the shameless savvy of his in-laws, the Kardashians. Of course, Kanye West was never really going to get canceled. West knows better than anyone that a few decent beats to remind people of The Old Kanye are usually enough to replenish one's goodwill, bleak as it may be. And while ye, whose diminutive title feels appropriate, may be vacant of soul and full of punchlines like, "Don't get your tooth chipped like Frito-Lay," it is at the very least not West's alt-right album-that's where the bar is set now. Nor is it the Performance Art 101 bait-and-switch some fans had hypothesized. Instead, ye reveals that the past month's flailing attempts at iconoclasm were building up to exactly nothing: It is an album born from chaos for chaos' sake, an album that can barely be bothered to refer to that chaos with anything more committal than a Kanye shrug.

It would be convenient to say that ye fails because of his persona. It remains unclear exactly when West lost the map: Perhaps it was recently, or perhaps he has always been an ideologue representing nothing more or less than the hyper-individualist dogma of Kanye West. Until this year, the music had always been great enough to ostensibly eclipse the man himself, had we wanted that. But for most of the 2000s, loudly declaring West an asshole was, in itself, a certified asshole move, the party line of drunk uncles and least-favorite cousins. And besides that, the intersection of his art and persona was made clear eight years ago when he toasted to his own douchiness before anybody else could.

If anything, ye compresses the Kanye West character, making everything about the artist feel smaller, blurrier, like you are squinting at an image once larger than life. We have reached the point where West's once-constant churn of ideas-usually inspired, regularly awkward, but always like nothing else out there-is barely meeting the standard of "Lift Yourself," the desperate troll banger that preceded ye, corralling every meaning of the word "scat." The problem with ye is not that it was made by an unrepentant asshole, but that it is thoroughly, exhaustingly boring-a word I never imagined would apply to a generation's most reliable innovator.

As an art-making ethos, "first thought, best thought" works great for beat poetry and hardcore. For most pop stars, including those deemed geniuses, a few weeks to create an album start to finish is hopeless. To be fair, West has pulled his share of buzzer-beaters: a decent chunk of Yeezus' vocals were written and recorded in the 48 hours before deadline and for all we know, he's still fixing "Wolves." Those last-minute edits registered as the neurosis of a perfectionist-annoying, definitely, but at least a sign of care. But ye feels rickety, almost, as if removing a bassline would send the whole thing toppling. The lyrics riff on events of the past month, sometimes the past week. When West announced the album alongside four other G.O.O.D. Music productions in late April, none of ye's seven songs existed. You could argue that this isn't exactly a shocking development. If there's anything that unites the divergent sounds across West's catalog, it's their reactionary nature-antagonistic responses to his previous material (in the case of Yeezus) or the state of rap at large (on his earliest popped-collar mixtapes) or to his public perception (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).

But ye responds petulantly and exclusively to reactions deliberately provoked by West himself, the kind of thing you'd expect from a YouTube celebrity whose last name is Paul. It's as if he'd completely forgotten the music was the reason we loved him in the first place. "Yeezy Yeezy trolling OD, ha!/Turn TMZ to Smack DVD, ha!" he scoffs in an anesthetized Juvenile flow on the aptly-named "Yikes." He is referring to his recent visit to the gossip site's headquarters, where he was duly humiliated by a newsroom employee after suggesting slaves should have simply emancipated themselves and invoking the right-wing dog whistle of black-on-black crime in his hometown of Chicago. Somehow, still, he sounds proud. "Yikes" offers no further insight into West's beliefs because there is not much more to say. Instead, he flips Russell Simmons' rape allegations into a cringey #MeToo punchline; his conclusion is relief that it isn't him in the hot seat. "Wouldn't Leave"-a minimalist re-conjuring of The Old Kanye where Young Thug, PARTYNEXTDOOR, and Ty Dolla $ign 's voices melt into one-presents a telling glimpse into the Kardashian-Wests' psyches. "She told you not to do that shit/She told you you was gonna fuck the money up," West casually reminds himself on the outro, presenting the past month's careless fuckery as a quirky tale of how boys will be boys while exposing the foul inner mechanics of brand management.

It is dark, dark, dark, as one might expect of a record that opens with a song called "I Thought About Killing You," which pretty much does what it says on the tin. "I think about killing myself, and I love myself way more than I love you, so..." West rambles over a queasy, almost negligible beat that builds into a sped-up, uncleared sample from PAN's 2017 mono no aware ambient compilation. These are not easy statements to hear, no matter how casually West presents them, and they're contextualized further by the album art: an iPhone photo of Jackson Hole's horizon, snapped en route to the listening session, on which West has scrawled "I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome" [sic]. As West sells it, ye is an album devoted to the stand-off between visceral self-loathing and baroque levels of narcissism, further complicated by mental illness and a recent opiate addiction. Listening to "Killing You," it's unclear whether West's violent thoughts are directed at his wife or towards himself, or if he even means it at all: maybe a homicidal fantasy is just another badass way to start an album, an inverted "Ultralight Beam." It is the work of a broken man, whatever the case. But to meet West on his terms here feels impossible. In his world, self-expression justifies itself, and speaking your most twisted thoughts out loud is an act of bravery, one that makes "I Thought About Killing You" not just a fine thing to write and share, but a work made from a place of love. Art, then, is a way of existing beyond reproach, an excuse for everything.

"People say, 'Don't say this, don't say that'-just say it out loud, just to see how it feels," West encourages further in "Killing You," still speaking plainly, without much emotion. It is the most coherent distillation of his creative mindset that West has offered all shaky-ass year. Just do whatever, this attitude suggests: All art is good art so long as it feels honest, and anything goes so long as you worship yourself. ye is a record made entirely from this "Just say it out loud" ethos-from the dead-eyed dad jokes ("None of us would be here without cum," is an immediate contender for worst-ever West punchline, and that's considering "Swaghili") to the production, a re-gifted grab-bag that borrows indiscriminately from almost every pre-existing West epoch.

That "Ghost Town" is ye's clear highlight feels loaded: handled at the front half by John Legend, stolen on the back half by recent G.O.O.D. signee and emo-rap heiress apparent 070 Shake, and held down by a grungy refrain from Kid Cudi, it is the track where West's contributions are most easily ignored. He gargles a few half-finished thoughts, his tone not so much sad as dazed, re-using the verse melody from " Runaway" over a sample chop that, at one point, sounds a whole lot like his work with JAY-Z on " Otis." Shake's performance is unexpectedly magnetic, yelping, "I put my hand on the stove, to see if I still bleed/And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free." It's an ode to total numbness, and somehow it's also ye 's emotional climax, an irony as apt as it is depressing.

By the time you've considered settling in, the album's basically over, saving its most retrograde sentiment for last. "Violent Crimes" is certainly a spicy title for a song about West's 4-year-old daughter, North, who he fears will one day become hot, illustrating these fears in disturbingly specific detail. (You can almost picture Nas in the Jackson Hole ski lodge, resting a solemn hand on West's shoulder: "You're 40 now, Ye. It's time for your 'as a father of daughters' song.") Over dull, sappy keys, West speculates about the ways in which North's teenaged body might one day make his life difficult, warning, "Don't do no yoga, don't do pilates," as though her hypothetical puberty was a personal affront-this from the guy who once defended, in all caps, Bill Cosby's innocence. Of the many "father guarding their daughter's virtue" ballads I have heard in my life, "Violent Crimes" is unquestionably the most uncomfortable listen. "How did he think this would go over?!" I wondered incredulously on first listen, but the simplest answer is, he probably didn't. And just like that: the eighth Kanye West album, out with a whimper.

So to seek answers within ye-answers that do not involve fucking Stormy Daniels lookalikes while tripping on DMT, at least-feels foolish. And maybe Kanye West doesn't owe us answers. Maybe we cared way too much, projecting all that genius onto a guy who wore shutter shades and never missed an opportunity for a mayonnaise pun. Maybe it created a dynamic that's turned out to be actively toxic to both music and politics. Maybe we should abolish the word "genius," or just find heroes who give a shit. But I can admit that after ye ended unceremoniously the third or fourth time, I put on "Family Business," and I thought about the kid from Chicago who wanted to be the biggest rapper in the world, who now lives in an empty-looking concrete mansion in Calabasas, who has stopped trying.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kanye West's stint in Wyoming created an album born from chaos for chaos' sake. Though it can be somewhat fascinating, it is undoubtedly a low point in his career.

# data[].attributes.body
"Ye" is a response to West's personal life and begins a trend where Kanye West's public outbursts and controversies begin to define him more than his music does.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Label:

G.O.O.D. Music / Def Jam

Kanye West's stint in Wyoming created an album born from chaos for chaos' sake. Though it can be somewhat fascinating, it is undoubtedly a low point in his career.

There is something about the crumbling of American civilization that makes you want to say "fuck it" and go full cowboy; cue Kanye West and friends cosplaying Wyoming as a concept, living out a dude-ranch fantasy beneath the Tetons. It was there, in Jackson Hole-the most economically imbalanced city in America-where Kanye threw together his eighth album in the midst of a public unraveling that, in a society where celebrity wasn't deified, would be the stuff that ends a career.

In the month leading up to ye, during which he and his team of producers and songwriters created the 24-minute album in its entirety, West proudly donned a Trump-autographed MAGA hat, sputtered that slavery seemed like a choice, and offered a steady stream of empty platitudes urging his followers to "stop thinking so much" and "google dopamine." He was broadly considered "canceled," a term we use because we at some point collectively decided to project our sociopolitical hopes and fears onto millionaires. And then, in keeping with his tradition of elaborate, immersive rollouts, he chartered private planes for 150 or so influencers to listen by Jackson Hole campfire to seven tracks he farted out to meet his arbitrarily self-imposed deadline. Those who are obsessed with money assume goodwill can be bought. Even "free-thinkers" know nothing really comes for free.

If West has successfully pulled off anything this album cycle, it is managing expectations with all the shameless savvy of his in-laws, the Kardashians. Of course, Kanye West was never really going to get canceled. West knows better than anyone that a few decent beats to remind people of The Old Kanye are usually enough to replenish one's goodwill, bleak as it may be. And while ye, whose diminutive title feels appropriate, may be vacant of soul and full of punchlines like, "Don't get your tooth chipped like Frito-Lay," it is at the very least not West's alt-right album-that's where the bar is set now. Nor is it the Performance Art 101 bait-and-switch some fans had hypothesized. Instead, ye reveals that the past month's flailing attempts at iconoclasm were building up to exactly nothing: It is an album born from chaos for chaos' sake, an album that can barely be bothered to refer to that chaos with anything more committal than a Kanye shrug.

It would be convenient to say that ye fails because of his persona. It remains unclear exactly when West lost the map: Perhaps it was recently, or perhaps he has always been an ideologue representing nothing more or less than the hyper-individualist dogma of Kanye West. Until this year, the music had always been great enough to ostensibly eclipse the man himself, had we wanted that. But for most of the 2000s, loudly declaring West an asshole was, in itself, a certified asshole move, the party line of drunk uncles and least-favorite cousins. And besides that, the intersection of his art and persona was made clear eight years ago when he toasted to his own douchiness before anybody else could.

If anything, ye compresses the Kanye West character, making everything about the artist feel smaller, blurrier, like you are squinting at an image once larger than life. We have reached the point where West's once-constant churn of ideas-usually inspired, regularly awkward, but always like nothing else out there-is barely meeting the standard of "Lift Yourself," the desperate troll banger that preceded ye, corralling every meaning of the word "scat." The problem with ye is not that it was made by an unrepentant asshole, but that it is thoroughly, exhaustingly boring-a word I never imagined would apply to a generation's most reliable innovator.

As an art-making ethos, "first thought, best thought" works great for beat poetry and hardcore. For most pop stars, including those deemed geniuses, a few weeks to create an album start to finish is hopeless. To be fair, West has pulled his share of buzzer-beaters: a decent chunk of Yeezus' vocals were written and recorded in the 48 hours before deadline and for all we know, he's still fixing "Wolves." Those last-minute edits registered as the neurosis of a perfectionist-annoying, definitely, but at least a sign of care. But ye feels rickety, almost, as if removing a bassline would send the whole thing toppling. The lyrics riff on events of the past month, sometimes the past week. When West announced the album alongside four other G.O.O.D. Music productions in late April, none of ye's seven songs existed. You could argue that this isn't exactly a shocking development. If there's anything that unites the divergent sounds across West's catalog, it's their reactionary nature-antagonistic responses to his previous material (in the case of Yeezus) or the state of rap at large (on his earliest popped-collar mixtapes) or to his public perception (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).

But ye responds petulantly and exclusively to reactions deliberately provoked by West himself, the kind of thing you'd expect from a YouTube celebrity whose last name is Paul. It's as if he'd completely forgotten the music was the reason we loved him in the first place. "Yeezy Yeezy trolling OD, ha!/Turn TMZ to Smack DVD, ha!" he scoffs in an anesthetized Juvenile flow on the aptly-named "Yikes." He is referring to his recent visit to the gossip site's headquarters, where he was duly humiliated by a newsroom employee after suggesting slaves should have simply emancipated themselves and invoking the right-wing dog whistle of black-on-black crime in his hometown of Chicago. Somehow, still, he sounds proud. "Yikes" offers no further insight into West's beliefs because there is not much more to say. Instead, he flips Russell Simmons' rape allegations into a cringey #MeToo punchline; his conclusion is relief that it isn't him in the hot seat. "Wouldn't Leave"-a minimalist re-conjuring of The Old Kanye where Young Thug, PARTYNEXTDOOR, and Ty Dolla $ign 's voices melt into one-presents a telling glimpse into the Kardashian-Wests' psyches. "She told you not to do that shit/She told you you was gonna fuck the money up," West casually reminds himself on the outro, presenting the past month's careless fuckery as a quirky tale of how boys will be boys while exposing the foul inner mechanics of brand management.

It is dark, dark, dark, as one might expect of a record that opens with a song called "I Thought About Killing You," which pretty much does what it says on the tin. "I think about killing myself, and I love myself way more than I love you, so..." West rambles over a queasy, almost negligible beat that builds into a sped-up, uncleared sample from PAN's 2017 mono no aware ambient compilation. These are not easy statements to hear, no matter how casually West presents them, and they're contextualized further by the album art: an iPhone photo of Jackson Hole's horizon, snapped en route to the listening session, on which West has scrawled "I hate being Bi-Polar its awesome" [sic]. As West sells it, ye is an album devoted to the stand-off between visceral self-loathing and baroque levels of narcissism, further complicated by mental illness and a recent opiate addiction. Listening to "Killing You," it's unclear whether West's violent thoughts are directed at his wife or towards himself, or if he even means it at all: maybe a homicidal fantasy is just another badass way to start an album, an inverted "Ultralight Beam." It is the work of a broken man, whatever the case. But to meet West on his terms here feels impossible. In his world, self-expression justifies itself, and speaking your most twisted thoughts out loud is an act of bravery, one that makes "I Thought About Killing You" not just a fine thing to write and share, but a work made from a place of love. Art, then, is a way of existing beyond reproach, an excuse for everything.

"People say, 'Don't say this, don't say that'-just say it out loud, just to see how it feels," West encourages further in "Killing You," still speaking plainly, without much emotion. It is the most coherent distillation of his creative mindset that West has offered all shaky-ass year. Just do whatever, this attitude suggests: All art is good art so long as it feels honest, and anything goes so long as you worship yourself. ye is a record made entirely from this "Just say it out loud" ethos-from the dead-eyed dad jokes ("None of us would be here without cum," is an immediate contender for worst-ever West punchline, and that's considering "Swaghili") to the production, a re-gifted grab-bag that borrows indiscriminately from almost every pre-existing West epoch.

That "Ghost Town" is ye's clear highlight feels loaded: handled at the front half by John Legend, stolen on the back half by recent G.O.O.D. signee and emo-rap heiress apparent 070 Shake, and held down by a grungy refrain from Kid Cudi, it is the track where West's contributions are most easily ignored. He gargles a few half-finished thoughts, his tone not so much sad as dazed, re-using the verse melody from " Runaway" over a sample chop that, at one point, sounds a whole lot like his work with JAY-Z on " Otis." Shake's performance is unexpectedly magnetic, yelping, "I put my hand on the stove, to see if I still bleed/And nothing hurts anymore, I feel kinda free." It's an ode to total numbness, and somehow it's also ye 's emotional climax, an irony as apt as it is depressing.

By the time you've considered settling in, the album's basically over, saving its most retrograde sentiment for last. "Violent Crimes" is certainly a spicy title for a song about West's 4-year-old daughter, North, who he fears will one day become hot, illustrating these fears in disturbingly specific detail. (You can almost picture Nas in the Jackson Hole ski lodge, resting a solemn hand on West's shoulder: "You're 40 now, Ye. It's time for your 'as a father of daughters' song.") Over dull, sappy keys, West speculates about the ways in which North's teenaged body might one day make his life difficult, warning, "Don't do no yoga, don't do pilates," as though her hypothetical puberty was a personal affront-this from the guy who once defended, in all caps, Bill Cosby's innocence. Of the many "father guarding their daughter's virtue" ballads I have heard in my life, "Violent Crimes" is unquestionably the most uncomfortable listen. "How did he think this would go over?!" I wondered incredulously on first listen, but the simplest answer is, he probably didn't. And just like that: the eighth Kanye West album, out with a whimper.

So to seek answers within ye-answers that do not involve fucking Stormy Daniels lookalikes while tripping on DMT, at least-feels foolish. And maybe Kanye West doesn't owe us answers. Maybe we cared way too much, projecting all that genius onto a guy who wore shutter shades and never missed an opportunity for a mayonnaise pun. Maybe it created a dynamic that's turned out to be actively toxic to both music and politics. Maybe we should abolish the word "genius," or just find heroes who give a shit. But I can admit that after ye ended unceremoniously the third or fourth time, I put on "Family Business," and I thought about the kid from Chicago who wanted to be the biggest rapper in the world, who now lives in an empty-looking concrete mansion in Calabasas, who has stopped trying.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kanye West's stint in Wyoming created an album born from chaos for chaos' sake. Though it can be somewhat fascinating, it is undoubtedly a low point in his career.

# data[].attributes.headline
"Kids See Ghosts" Kid Cudi and Kanye West

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"Kids See Ghosts" Kid Cudi and Kanye West

# data[].attributes.body
Kid Cudi and Kanye West's collaborative project "Kids See Ghosts" (2018) carries over the themes of emotional health and brokenness from "Ye" and molds them into melancholia. Both these albums show West's change in both the theme and content of songs as well the the stylistic and musical influences.

The cover art for this album is again influenced by Murakami.

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The psychic bond between Kanye and Kid Cudi yields a spacious and melancholy album about brokenness—thoughts are fragmented, relationships are ended, and societal ties are cut.

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But there is also danger, and potential stigmatization, in equating Kanye’s celebrity lawlessness—available only to him and those in his orbit—with mental health.

# data[].attributes.subject
But there is also danger, and potential stigmatization, in equating Kanye’s celebrity lawlessness—available only to him and those in his orbit—with mental health.

# data[].attributes.body
From the Review of "Kids See Ghosts" - This quote encapsulates this era; of West until the present day, West deflects accountability from his actions and statements by using mental health, and it only spirals further

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"Jesus is King" (2019) has a very strong religious theme that separates the album from West's other work, however West has been talking about faith and religion since "Touch the Sky" on "The College Dropout" (2004) "Jesus is King" also focus on family but also most importantly West himself in an odd contradiction where the album is a glorification of religion and spirituality aswell as stroking West's ego.

The album does reinforce West's lack of fear to experiment with new sounds and influences.

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Christianity is the unwavering focus of Kanye’s gospel album, a richly produced but largely flawed record about one man’s love of the Lord (and himself).

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"Jesus is King" also released with film showing West's eagerness to expand into new art forms and not be confined into any one label. Also during this album release cycle West found his own choir and began to hold Sunday Services

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jesus is King - A Kanye West Film (Trailer) - Only in IMAX

# data[].attributes.body
This article shows further hwo West's outspoken image twists against him as he makes public statements that seem confusing, contradictory, and controlling.

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Kanye West's ninth studio album Jesus Is King is due to drop tonight, and, in a new interview with Zane Lowe airing on Beats 1 this afternoon, West is opening up about the recording process behind the project. As it turns out, he's made some major lifestyle changes in the year that's followed since creative directing the inaugural PornHub Awards in September 2018. "Some people drown themselves in drugs, and I drown myself in my addiction: sex," West said, of the time leading up to his 2009 VMAs breakdown.

His solution for the recording of Jesus Is King? Celibacy. "There were times where I was asking people not to have premarital sex while they were working on the album," West told Lowe. "There were times where I went to people that were working on other projects and said can you just work and focus on this? I thought if we could all focus and fast... Families who pray together stay together." West also preemptively defended his decision to implement abstinence in the studio from the inevitable Shade Room headlines, jokingly saying, "What you mean no premarital sex? You better turn Megan Thee Stallion on now."

Stay tuned for a full stream of his conversation with Lowe, due out shortly.

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Kanye West banned premarital sex during the recording of Jesus Is King

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In a new interview with Zane Lowe, Kanye West says that he asked people "not to have premarital sex" while they were working on Jesus Is King.

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This article covers the tumultuous launch of West's next album "Donda" (2021). The time period between "Donda" being announced and the album actually releasing was over a year and had multiple setback release dates. West became enigmatic during this time period owing to a change in fashion and tonal shifts from"Jesus is King". The release schedule included multiple sold-out arena listening parties for different versions of the album with it becoming more finished over time before the eventual release. West could be seen here as trying to reinvent himself by branching out, instead of just releasing music he is organizing shows and experimenting with basic ideas of how music should be delivered to people whilst all eyes are placed firmly on himself

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Kanye West's highly-anticipated record is over a year late. The studio album, which supposedly serves as the followup to 2019's JESUS IS KING, was initially announced as early as May 2020 with a July 2020 release date. During the second half of 2020, the record suffered a possible name change, a delay and a fear of the project being shelved indefinitely, but a few months into the new year, it seemed like fans might actually be getting closer to hearing the finished product.

New release dates were scheduled a full year after it was first announced to drop, listening events were held and tracks were teased in advertisements, but when the album failed to materialize on those dates, some began to wonder if DONDA, much like , will just be another Kanye West pipe dream. It remains to be seen whether the record will actually release after the Chicago listening party, but while you hold your breath, take a look back at the long journey of DONDA in HYPEBEAST's detailed timeline.

May 24, 2020 - Kanye Reportedly Releasing God's Country Album

Renowned artist Arthur Jafa shared in a conversation with Michèle Lamy that West was working on a new record. "It's called God's Country and this will be, like, the first single, I guess, off of it," he shared. "I don't know if I'm 'posed to not be announcing it or whatever. I may just be spilling the beans."

🚨 NEW KANYE MUSIC & VIDEO SOON. 🚨

Cinematographer Arthur Jafa tells Michèle Lamy that he's been working with Kanye on a new video possibly dropping next week. He added that the accompanying song is from Kanye's forthcoming album. pic.twitter.com/trwJIHtz2O

- TeamKanyeDaily (@TeamKanyeDaily) May 22, 2020

June 30, 2020 - Kanye Releases "Wash Us in the Blood" With Travis Scott

"Wash Us in the Blood" initially served as the debut single from the upcoming record, with the track featuring an appearance from Travis Scott and additional mixing from Dr. Dre.

July 12, 2020 - Kanye Previews "DONDA"

The beginning of the DONDA album essentially began with a track of the same name, which West previewed on Twitter on July 12, 2020. In the now-deleted tweet, the song hears his late mother reciting lines from the first and second verses of the KRS-One hit, "Sound of da Police," over a choir-based sonic backdrop. It also arrived with a visual showing behind-the-scenes footage of the two having a good time together and honoring her memory before the preview abruptly cuts.

July 19, 2020 - Kanye Reveals DONDA Album Tracklist

About a week after previewing the "DONDA" track, he shared a hand-written list of 20 songs, including the Travis Scott-featured single "Wash Us in the Blood," and confirmed that his upcoming album will be called DONDA rather than the previously-announced God's Country. He also revealed a release date of July 24 with the hashtag #2020VISION.

July 21, 2020 - Kanye Reveals Second DONDA Tracklist

A few days after the initial tracklist, Ye released a completely different DONDA tracklist while retaining the July 24 release date. Clocking in at 39 minutes and comprised of 12 tracks, the list no longer includes "Wash Us in the Blood" and its titles seemingly have a gospel tone.

July 26, 2020 - Kanye Reveals DONDA Album Art

Two days after missing its original release date of July 24, the artist shared an image of what was supposed to be DONDA's album art. The cover features an infrared scheme of orange and red that take the shape of the people and sun/moon in the sky, highlighted by green mountains and purple and white clouds. Spray painted hues of green and soft orange are splattered in the background, heavily contrasted by the sun/moon's purple and black shadow.

September 26, 2021 - Kanye Previews "Believe What I Say"

By late September, West teased a 40-second preview of a song titled "Believe What I Say." The teaser arrived with a home video shot on a boat and hears him sample Ms. Lauryn Hill 's 1998 hit "Doo-Wop (That Thing)." Only a few bars from the rapper can actually be heard in the snippet, including a line that hears "Just one time for the record/Just one time for the record/Don't agree with the message/Don't agree with the methods."

October 16, 2020 - Kanye Releases "NAH NAH NAH"

A few months after announcing his presidential candidacy, Ye released "NAH NAH NAH" as his campaign's theme song. His attention was diverted to his foray into politics, with many fans speculating that DONDA will be shelved indefinitely. He conceded in November. As of writing, the single has been removed from streaming platforms.

March 7, 2021 - Kanye Supposedly Working on DONDA Again

According to CyHi the Prynce, the G.O.O.D. Music head went back to working on DONDA after a "vacation." The news arrived a few weeks after Kim Kardashian filed for divorce, asking to end their seven-year marriage.

July 17, 2021 - Tyler, the Creator Spotted in Studio With Kanye

By mid-2021, Tyler, the Creator was seen working in the studio with West, with Consequence writing "Summer 21'" as the caption of the video. Fans also spotted a whiteboard in the background that supposedly features a rough tracklist of over 10-tracks.

July 19, 2021 - Justin LaBoy Confirms Kanye Played DONDA for Him and Kevin Durant

Respectfully Justin host Justin LaBoy revealed on Twitter that Ye played DONDA for him and Kevin Durant in Las Vegas, writing, "Man listen! The production is light years ahead of it's time, and the bars sound like he's broke & hungry trying to get signed again. Any artist who plan on dropping soon should just push it back."

Kanye played his new album for me & @KDTrey5 last night in Vegas. Man listen! The production is light years ahead of it's time, and the bars sound like he's broke & hungry trying to get signed again. Any artist who plan on dropping soon should just push it back 😤 #Respectfully

- Respectfully Justin (@JustinLaboy) July 18, 2021

July 19, 2021 - First Listening Party in Atlanta Announced by Pusha T

Pusha T announced the first DONDA listening party in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, slated for July 22. The poster was a simple text-only post uploaded on Instagram.

July 20, 2021 - Kanye Previews "No Child Left Behind" During NBA Finals and Confirms July 23 Release Date

The track "No Child Left Behind" was previewed during a TV spot for Beats during the NBA Finals. The one-minute visual, which featured Sha'Carri Richardson, also confirmed a release date of July 23.

July 22, 2021 - First Listening Party in Atlanta Takes Place

West debuted DONDA to a sold-out Atlanta stadium, sporting what appeared to be his unreleased adidas YEEZY 1020 boot and a red version of his YEEZY Gap Round Jacket. Also present at the listening party were Kardashian and their kids.

July 24, 2021 - Justin LaBoy Shares New August 6 Release Date

A day after missing its supposed release date, LaBoy announced on Twitter that DONDA's new release date is now scheduled for August 6: "KANYE WEST WILL MOVE THE RELEASE DATE OF DONDA TO AUGUST 6TH. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE[.] HE WANTS TO GIVE HIS FANS THE BEST POSSIBLE PRODUCT WITHOUT RUSHING ANYTHING. HE LOVES YALL WITH ALL OF HIS HEART. GOD BLESS[.]"

KANYE WEST WILL MOVE THE RELEASE DATE OF DONDA TO AUGUST 6TH. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE ❤️ HE WANTS TO GIVE HIS FANS THE BEST POSSIBLE PRODUCT WITHOUT RUSHING ANYTHING. HE LOVES YALL WITH ALL OF HIS HEART. GOD BLESS 🙏🏾 #DONDA #RESPECTFULLY

- Respectfully Justin (@JustinLaboy) July 24, 2021

July 26, 2021 - Kanye Supposedly Moves In Atlanta Stadium to Finish DONDA

Ye moved in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, adamant to finally finish DONDA. In the now-deleted Instagram post and during a subsequent Apple Music livestream, his living quarters featured a simple bed, television and weights.

July 30, 2021 - Second Listening Party in Atlanta Announced

Abou "Bu" Thiam, West's manager, confirmed to HYPEBEAST that they will be holding a second listening party for DONDA in Atlanta. It was initially billed as a " DONDA album release" event, scheduled for August 5.

August 3, 2021 - Kanye and Mike Dean Tease The Weeknd Feature

Kanye shared a screenshot of his recent call log, tagging Mike Dean who re-posted the same image on his Instagram. Fans pointed out three calls from The Weeknd timed at 1:14 a.m., 2:17 a.m. and another one from the day before, and the XO Records head's manager Wassim "Sal" Slaiby dropped by the comments section of Dean's post to write "XO" in emojis.

August 5, 2021 - Kanye Teases Dr. Dre-Produced Song "Glory"

In another teaser with Sha'Carri Richardson, West previewed the Dr. Dre-produced song "Glory" on a Beats ad.

August 5, 2021 - Second Listening Party in Atlanta Takes Place With New Mix and Features

For his second listening party, fans pointed out a better DONDA mix and additional guest features from the likes of Kid Cudi, Fivio Foreign, Westside Gunn, Conway The Machine, 070 Shake, Jay Electronica and The Weeknd. Ye closed out the listening party with "No Child Left Behind" as he got harnessed up and away from the stage. He also released merch from the event online, along with an album pre-order.

Live from the #DONDA listening party! pic.twitter.com/izVFFq1m29

- HYPEBEAST (@HYPEBEAST) August 6, 2021

August 7, 2021 - DONDA's Apple Music Page Delays Release Date to August 15

After missing its scheduled release date for the second time, eagle-eyed fans spotted the release date on the DONDA Apple Music pre-order page change to August 15. This was not confirmed by anyone from West's team, however, and the date eventually changed to August 20.

August 9, 2021 - Kanye Supposedly Moves to Different Stadium

KayCyy, an artist who worked closely with West during DONDA, revealed in a now-deleted tweet that they are moving to another stadium. However, he did not share if they will be staying in Atlanta or leaving the city.

August 15, 2021 - Mike Dean Debunks Rumor of His Departure From DONDA

Producer Mike Dean reaffirmed that he is still working on DONDA after rumors spread that he had left the project. "I haven't quit anything. The album continues. Lol. People read too much into tweets. Lol," he tweeted, adding, "Also. It's good not to be breathing toxic stadium air and to be in sunny la for a while. Mexico soon!"

I haven't quit anything. The album continues. Lol. People read too much into tweets. Lol

- MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) August 15, 2021

Also. It's good not to be breathing toxic stadium air and to be in sunny la for a while. Mexico soon!

- MIKE DEAN! #MWA (@therealmikedean) August 15, 2021

August 18, 2021 - Third Listening Party in Chicago Announced

A third DONDA listening party was announced, this time taking place at Soldier Field Stadium, Chicago on August 26.

August 19, 2021 - Bu Thiam Confirms DONDA Is "Absolutely" and "100%" Dropping After Chicago Event

Bu Thiam addressed fan concerns on the comments section of his Instagram post announcing the Chicago listening party, confirming that Ye is "absolutely" and "100%" dropping DONDA after the next listening party.

August 21, 2021 - Kanye Clears Instagram and Posts Sole Photo of Childhood Home

Despite being more active on social media the last couple weeks, West cleared out his Instagram page and posted a sole photo of his childhood home. The home was sold by Donda West in 2004, bought by artist and Chicago activist Rhymefest in 2016 and supposedly re-purchased by Ye last year.

August 21, 2021 - Kanye Reignites Drake Beef With Threatening Group Message

The peace and quiet between Ye and Drake was short-lived after the former shared a screenshot of a group text that included Pusha T. Sending an image of Joaquin Phoenix as Joker, Ye texted, "I live for this. I've been f*cked with by nerd ass jock n****s like you my whole life. You will never recover. I promise you." Fans are speculating that the pair are back at war after Drizzy supposedly dissed Kanye on Trippie Redd's "Betrayal."

August 23, 2021 - Kanye's Childhood Home Supposedly Being Recreated in Chicago Stadium

Just days before the listening event in Chicago, it was rumored that West is recreating his childhood home in Chicago's Soldier Field Stadium. While it is not confirmed, the former Instagram post of his childhood home is hinting that it is a strong possibility.

August 24, 2021 - Kanye's Files to Legally Change His Name to "Ye"

Just days before the Chicago listening party, a report from TMZ claims that he filed in court to legally change his name from "Kanye Omare West" to just "Ye," his longtime nickname. The interesting move will see him drop his last name which has been used in a number of his tracks, most notably on the cut "Wake Up Mr. West."

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Finding 'DONDA': A Timeline of the Elusive Kanye West Album

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Finding 'DONDA': A Timeline of the Elusive Kanye West Album: Over a year after its announcement and several rescheduled release dates, will 'DONDA' ever arrive?

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"Donda" (2022) has his most varied and star-studded feature list of any of West's albums to date; Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Playboi Carti, The Weekend, Baby Keem, Kid Cudi, Pop Smoke, DaBaby, and Marilyn Manson.

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Quote from a Pitchfork review of "Donda" (2020)

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Quote from a Pitchfork review of "Donda" (2020)

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"Now, something has dulled in his kingdom and the thrill of watching man vs. art has turned into a rote acceptance of Kanye and his stadium-sized album release events, shelved projects, billion-dollar sneaker empire, public grappling with bipolar disorder, devotion to Christianity and non-secular music, MAGA tryst with former President Donald Trump, and presidential run of his own. The subordinate clauses that are now required to contextualize the artist himself loom large over everything he does."

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On Donda, West's relationship with God does push him in a slightly more thoughtful direction. The closing verse on "Off the Grid" homes in on the Tao of Kanye by laying out his religious mission statement: "I ain't delivering heavenly messages just for the hell of it/Don't try to test me; I keep it clean, but it can get messy." The opening verse on "Jesus Lord" is the most focused and raw Kanye's been in years, a swirling mass of pent-up anxiety, drug addiction, and memories of his mother. There are lines about talking to, finding power in, relying on, and needing only God-which make moments like Kanye asking a hookup to text him "heyyyyy with a bunch of y's" and sneaky odes to getting head curdle under the somber, youth pastor vibe around it. Outbursts about delayed croissants and references to The Waterboy on were low comedy inside high art. With all the listlessness and confusion happening on Donda, Kanye's infamous joke bars land with a thud.

An inherent flaw to beta testing your album in full public view is that everyone becomes a tiny little executive producer, each with their own thoughts on sequencing, versions, features. Here's my piece: Apart from the title track missing its somber verse from G.O.O.D. Music President Pusha T, Donda herself is missing from a good chunk of this album. The first two iterations of Donda featured more vocal clips of Kanye's mother, a guiding light and platonic ideal for he and his guests to strive for. (The grounding advice found on the cut track " Never Abandon Your Family " is a felt void on this final version). Though she makes a few appearances, her truncated presence here robs the album of its initial tribute to confiding in maternal love and wisdom. The reverence he's at least performatively after doesn't land, exposed by the lack of women on the 27-song tracklist, the inclusion of a parade of men accused of sexual abuse-including Chris Brown and Manson-and others with a history of homophobia, like DaBaby and Buju Banton.

The guests, however, are Donda's clear highlights. Roddy Ricch and Baby Keem croon and shout their way to owning their respective songs, but Texas vocalist Vory shines, his wavy melodies lingering like a ghostly presence on his handful of features. Veterans Jay Electronica and Yonkers trio the Lox match West's contemplative poise on the great "Jesus Lord pt 2." The sheer amount of guests and jumps in production from trap and drill to boom-bap and gospel invoke the 2012 G.O.O.D. Music album Cruel Summer, but that at least gave us " Clique" and " Mercy." "Off the Grid" and "Junya" come the closest to bottling that manic energy, but neither will tear down a Summer Jam stage anytime soon.

Kanye is great at A&R, and that's part of the frustration here. We already know he can corral some of the best artists around on a charcuterie board's worth of beats, even if Drake, Kenny Beats, and West's own protege Travis Scott have since better wielded this mantle. Donda standouts like the soulful "Jonah" or the soaring "Pure Souls" work because they tap into the energy of the 2021 zeitgeist, but these moments are few and far between, set adrift in a confusing sea of post-marital anxiety and surface-level religious ideation. Strip Donda of most of its context-the constant editing, the laundry list of guests with real-life cases both alleged and confirmed, the last two decades of hip-hop's largest ego-and a significant portion of this album still sounds incomplete, searching for meaning everywhere and coming up impressively short.

Catch up every Saturday with 10 of our best-reviewed albums of the week. Sign up for the 10 to Hear newsletter .

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Kanye West's 10th album arrives barely finished and with a lot of baggage. Its 27 tracks include euphoric highs that lack connective tissue, a data dump of songs searching for a higher calling.

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West is defined more for his place within the public eye rather than his music, it's West's next stunts that grant him publicity, not new innovative music.

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West declares that he will run for president in 2020

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West declares that he will run for president in 2020

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West's continued need to be at the center of public discourse manifested itself in a half-baked run for president. West always strives for intersectionality but this move not only into politics but running for president seemed bizarre rather than inspired.

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Just when you thought 2020 couldn't get any weirder, rapper Kanye West declared his candidacy for US president.

The unlikely challenger to Donald Trump - of whom he has been a vocal supporter - and Joe Biden, chose American independence day to make the surprise announcement on Twitter, triggering a social media storm.

"We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future," West wrote. "I am running for president of the United States."

We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States 🇺🇸! #2020VISION
- ye (@kanyewest) July 5, 2020

The post was accompanied by a stars and stripes flag, an exclamation mark and "#2020VISION". His wife, Kim Kardashian West, replied to the tweet with an American flag.

With just four months to go before polling day on 3 November, it was not clear whether West's tweet would have been more fitting on April Fools' day than American Independence Day.

Kanye says 'I love this guy right here' as he walks over and gives Trump a hug - video

Nor was it clear whether the 43-year-old had filed any official paperwork to appear on state election ballots. The deadline to add independent candidates to the ballot has not yet passed in many states.

But after businessman and reality TV star Trump won the White House in 2016, perhaps the idea of Kim Kardashian as first lady could be written in the stars as America's fate.

And West, a 21-time Grammy award winner, picked up an immediate endorsement from Elon Musk, the chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla and another celebrity known for eccentric outbursts, who tweeted in reply: "You have my full support!"

A West-Musk ticket is not what anyone was expecting in an election that has already delivered a cornucopia of the unexpected.

West and his wife have visited Trump in the White House to discuss prison reform. At one bizarre meeting in 2018, West wore a red "Make America Great Again" cap and uttered words such as "motherfucker" and "infinite amounts of universe". He said Trump made him feel like Superman, hugged him and declared: "I love this guy right here."

Asked if West could be a future presidential candidate, Trump replied: "Could very well be."

West replied: "Only after 2024. Let's stop worrying about the future. All we really have is today. We just have today."

Indeed, the rapper has floated the idea of running for president before. In January last year, a tweet that said simply "2024" was interpreted as a sign that he would run for the White House that year.

West was criticised last week after declaring: "I am so proud of my beautiful wife Kim Kardashian West for officially becoming a billionaire." She had sold a stake in her beauty brand for $200m. But he also earned praise for releasing a single about racism and religion.

If he ran, West would follow in a long tradition of independent or third-party campaigns challenging the Democratic and Republican stranglehold. In 1992, Ross Perot, an eccentric Texan billionaire, took 19% of the vote. In 2000, Ralph Nader's Green party took less than 3% but was widely blamed for costing Democrat Al Gore the presidency.

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Kanye West declares he will run for US president in 2020

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Rapper uses Independence Day to make announcement, but it's not clear if he has filed any official paperwork to appear on ballots

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This offers insight into West's views that his political opinions are just an extension of his star image - West believes there is an expectation for Black Americans to vote Democrat simply because they are Black and he wishes to challenge that by offering an unconventional answer. This is an outspoken and provocative message fitting with West's star image but is also a twisted version of West's original political star image. For example, he was outspoken talking about racial inequalities after Hurricane Katrina and George Bush but now he can't even think as to why Black Americans would have issues with Donald Trump.

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Kanye West has reaffirmed his support for Donald Trump, whom he has previously called "his brother", in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal.

West says people make assumptions about his political views because of his race, automatically assuming he would disagree with Trump's views.

West also compares the pushback he faces for publicly wearing his Make America Great Again hat to racial profiling and discrimination. "It reminded me of how I felt as a black guy before I was famous, when I would walk in a restaurant and people would look at you like you were going to steal something," the musician says. "'This is your place, Ye, don't talk about apparel. This is your place, Ye, you're black, so you're a Democrat.'"

West's praise of Trump comes as medical experts, health officials, and growing numbers of unemployed workers criticize the president's response to the growing coronavirus pandemic.

The rapper was previously known for publicly attacking the inadequate federal response to a national crisis. In 2005, he delivered the memorable line "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when a ravaged New Orleans had yet to receive substantial federal assistance.

The past few days have been turbulent for West and his reality-star wife, Kim Kardashian West. Over the weekend, the internet entered a frenzy over new leaked footage of a controversial phone call between West and Taylor Swift. To some, the extended clip, recorded around 2015, provided proof that West had lied about asking Swift for permission to call her a "bitch" in a song lyric and intentionally set out to disparage her public image. Kardashian West spoke out against the renewed accusations, writing that Swift was "actually lying".

In the interview, West also reveals that he worked closely with Trump and the White House adviser Jared Kushner to help free the rapper A$AP Rocky, who was detained by the Swedish government for aggravated assault charges last summer.

Trump tweeted about the case following discussions with West, suggesting the rapper had a major influence on his diplomatic decision. "Just spoke to @KanyeWest about his friend A$AP Rocky's incarceration. I will be calling the very talented Prime Minister of Sweden to see what we can do about helping A$AP Rocky," Trump said at the time.

West has previously faced blowback for praising Candace Owens, a conservative black activist, and suggesting slavery " was a choice ". (West later apologized for the slavery comments.)

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Kanye West likens backlash over support for Trump to racial profiling

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Rapper says anger over his views reminds him of racial assumptions he once faced: 'You're black, so you're a Democrat'

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West's collaboration with Marilyn Manson and DaBaby garnered controversy due to Manson having recent accusations of sexual assault and DaBaby using homophobic language. West's response, "They can't cancel us all", sounds like a man who cannot take accountability for his actions. West's image as someone outspoken who will cut through the fake and say the truth has now been replaced with someone eager to collaborate with and cover up for people who he would have initially been opposed too

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Ye, the musician formerly known as Kanye West, appeared on the podcast Drink Champs Thursday night (November 4). During the discussion, he discussed a wide range of subjects, including God, politics, the NBA and his relationship with Kobe Bryant, his marriage, , Drake, group chats, thoughts on cancel culture, and much more. Early in the program, he said that he had received only one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, calling himself "halfcinated." He also returned to the subject of abortion and further expanded on some of his other ideas on spiritual and physical wellness.

Ye said he'd be open to appearing on Verzuz, and said that he'd beat Drake in a face-off. He continued to discuss his ongoing feud with Drake, comparing it to both a basketball rivalry and Mike Tyson's beef with Evander Holyfield. "I bit his ear," Ye said, aligning himself with Tyson.

At one point, Ye compared himself to Robin Hood, using that comparison to explain his recent collaboration with Gap. He went on to discuss his other work with Marilyn Manson and DaBaby, saying, "They can't cancel us all." Later, he claimed that he had been shadowbanned on Twitter after traveling to Haiti. He detailed his recent experience cutting his own hair, saying it was representative of his thoughts developing.

Ye revived his Sunday Service performances at the end of October with guests Justin Bieber, Marilyn Manson, and Roddy Ricch, having rolled out the record with three stadium listening events. Manson had joined West for the final installment at Chicago's Soldier Field, which featured a replica of West's childhood home. A documentary about West titled is set to appear on Netflix next year.

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Kanye West Discusses Marilyn Manson, DaBaby, Drake Beef on Drink Champs Podcast

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A rare interview with the recently renamed Ye

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"Eazy" and West's issues with Pete Davidson

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"Eazy" and West's issues with Pete Davidson

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West's 2022 began with the release of the single "Eazy"(2022) featuring The Game. The music video sparked controversy as it depicts West burying a clay model of Pete Davidson. This music video was released off of the back of West's divorce from long-time partner Kim Kardashian and her new relationship with comedian Pete Davidson which West took issue with. This music video speaks to the dark side of West's psyche and would set the tone for West's 2022 as a whole. Provocative and controversial material released from the West was becoming more hate-filled. Much like with the release of "Donda" and "Jesus is King", West's public and private life would continue to define him more than his music.

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The Game, Kanye West - Eazy (Official Music Video)

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West began selling and wearing "White Lives Matter" shirts in 2022 and this article articulates West's changing image in regards to profiting from the hate statement. Where West was once keenly aware of social injustices in American it seems that now he readily ignores it and doesn't care for the harm he cause to Black people across America

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Ye, the man formerly known as Kanye West, might have taken off the red Make America Great Again hat, but he isn't done peddling tropes of white supremacy.

In just the past week, Ye's antics included wearing a "White Lives Matter" shirt during Paris Fashion Week and spewing antisemitic conspiracy theories that resulted in his Instagram and Twitter accounts being restricted and an appearance on getting abruptly pulled. His partnerships with Adidas and Gap are in trouble, too.

For those who acknowledge his musical genius - especially when he digs in the crates to breathe new life into samples - and how it has allowed him to transcend the stage, we know this is a familiar pattern whenever Ye feels slighted. He lashes out, gets incredibly petty and then claims his reaction is based on some highbrow reference the public is too pedestrian to understand.

The stage may be different this time, but the performance, which always revolves around the Black experience in America, is the same.

Even if we wanted to argue there is a point to the performance, it's hard for most people to go there with Ye. While he prides himself on being a provocateur, digging his fingers into the wounds of Black existence, he refuses to acknowledge the pain it causes. Instead, he dismisses it. Repeatedly.

Long before that red hat and "White Lives Matter" T-shirts, Ye said " racism is a dated concept," and used painful relics to make misguided statements about race. For example, merchandise from the 2013 Yeezus tour featured the Confederate flag and his pop-up store in Los Angeles included a Confederate flag with the words " I ain't coming down."

"React how you want," he told Los Angeles radio station 97.1 AMP at the time. "Any energy is good energy. The Confederate flag represented slavery in a way. That's my abstract take on what I know about it, right? So I wrote the song 'New Slaves.' So I took the Confederate flag and made it my flag. It's my flag now.

"I just think people look cool in it," he continued. "They look nice. And it's colorless also. It's super 'hood and super white boy-approved at the same time. That's really what my style has always been."

While other artists such as Kara Walker or Dave Chappelle try to use the symbols of white supremacy to try to subvert its power, Ye has been less successful in using the shock value of those symbols to confront their continuing role in the oppression of Black people.

Jeffrey McCune, a professor of African American literature and culture at the University of Rochester, once taught a course called The Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics. He said Ye positions himself outside of Black community, even as he pretends that he's positioning himself within it.

"He benefits from Black people's purchasing and investments in his creativity while demonizing Black people and departing from what we call Black cultural ideals," McCune said.

Ye's recent YZYS9 presentation in Paris illustrated both his creativity and his clumsy appropriation of white supremacy: There were full bodysuits mimicking bug-eyed aliens, an oversized puffer coat that at first glance looked like the model was in the palm of someone's hand, and hoods that felt like a futuristic take on HBO's Game of Thrones.

But it was impossible to focus on those pieces because Ye wore a black T-shirt with a photo of Pope John Paul II and the words "Seguiremos tu ejemplo" ("We will follow your example") on the front. On the back was the phrase "White Lives Matter," which the Anti-Defamation League has identified as a symbol of hate. He sent one down the runway on late reggae musician Bob Marley's granddaughter, 23-year-old model Selah Marley. Conservative political commentator Candace Owens was there wearing one of the shirts in white.

Obviously, Ye is being a provocateur. Vogue fashion editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson was at the show and compared the shirt to the work of Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, who famously submitted a porcelain urinal to an artistic exhibit in 1917.

"I guess I get what he tried to do - he thought it was Duchampian. It wasn't. It didn't land and it was deeply offensive, violent, and dangerous," she wrote on Instagram.

"What I feel is that he is not fully aware of the difference between appropriating Black Lives Matter and subverting the 'Make America Great Again' hat," she wrote.

"I understand his idea that the hat was a readymade. And its value was intrinsic to context ... When it's worn by Trump, it's racist, when worn by Kanye, it's about liberation."

But that approach failed when it was applied to the White Lives Matter slogan, she argued.

"... the idea that white supremacy is in danger of extinction is what justifies mass incarceration, murder en masse, indeed even the advent of slavery," she wrote. "And it's hugely irresponsible to furnish the most dangerous extremists with this kind of fictional narrative."

Despite Karefa-Johnson's elegant read on his sloppy idea of performance art, Ye attacked her on Instagram.

In a since-deleted post, which featured a photo of the fashion editor, wrote, "This is not a fashion person You speak on Ye ima speak on you." In a separate post, on a photo of Karefa-Johnson knee-high, high-heeled Timberland boots, Ye wrote "I KNOOOOOOW ANNA HATES THESE BOOTS," referring to Vogue 's editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.

Lisa Lipinski, a professor of art history at George Washington University, agreed that if Ye was trying to channel the spirit of Duchamp with the shirt, he missed the mark. Duchamp used irony, puns, alliteration and paradox in his art to playfully challenge and undermine pretensions in art and elitism in the art world, she said. Duchamp "questioned the nature of art, that it must be beautiful, and that art must be well-crafted and handmade."

"​​Kanye West's 'White Lives Matter' T-shirts offended people who believe that Black Lives Matter," said Lipinski. "It did not subvert systemic oppression, and could be seen as reinforcing the status quo, which is social inequality and lack of justice for people of color."

Ye's always been a troll, but his relationship with the Black community has grown increasingly contentious. We're often the butt of some inside joke he's having with his art and it begs the question of who is allowed to critique the troll.

Black women certainly have spoken their piece about him. We spoke out against him when he said " slavery was a choice"; his anti-abortion rant; his preference to cast "multiracial" women instead of Black women for his fashion shows; his partnership with artist Vanessa Beecroft, who thinks her work with Ye makes her Black; and when he complimented Owens in 2018 after she said Black Lives Matters supporters "are pretending to be oppressed for attention."

Back in 2004, Ye described his music to Rolling Stone, saying: "My niche is that I'm the funny version of Dead Prez. I'm the rap version of Dave Chappelle. I'm not sayin' I'm nearly as talented as Chappelle when it comes to political and social commentary, but like him, I'm laughing to keep from crying."

It's an interesting comparison. Pre-Netflix Dave Chappelle was arguably white folks' favorite Black comedian until he stepped away from his highly-acclaimed Comedy Central sketch series Chappelle's Show. Chappelle told Oprah Winfrey in 2006 that he was growing concerned about how popular his comedy had become and the shifting racial dynamics of his audience.

"I was doing sketches that were funny but socially irresponsible," he told Winfrey.

He gave an example of a sketch he wrote for the show about a pixie that would appear whenever racist things would happen, like, "whenever someone would make you feel like they were calling you that N-word but they don't say it." The premise of the joke was that every race had this racial complex, but in the sketch the pixie was in blackface to be the visual personification of the N-word. When a white person on the set laughed too hard, Chappelle had second thoughts.

He didn't want to disappoint Black people. Or himself, as Winfrey prompted him.

Artist Walker's work also sits at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity. A lot of the time, Walker's work is ugly and painful because she appropriates racist imagery. As the curatorial note for her giant " sphinx-turned-mammy " at the Domino Sugar factory in Brooklyn in 2014 points out, "As she herself has said, she likes her work to produce a sense of 'giddy discomfort.' "

This might be what Ye is aiming for but he's failing. There is no giddiness in the discomfort, no reason to laugh. Artists have a responsibility to actually say something, not just inflict pain. Ye isn't the same man making a cultural critique in his music to and for a Black audience. He has a much wider fan base now and when he appears on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show spouting nonsense and conspiracy theories, there is a percentage of his fans who hear confirmation of their beliefs. There are real-world consequences to Ye's behavior, making it hard to take him seriously as a performance artist.

"We see him acting out in a way that we might see a young child acting out, even," said McCune.

Just last month, Ye compared reading to eating Brussels sprouts on an episode of the Alo Mind Full podcast. "I actually haven't read any book," he said. Now, that's an incredibly socially irresponsible thing for a Black man to say.

"The problematic formula is when the provocateur meets impulsivity," said McCune. "So, he wants to be provocative and impulsive at the same time. And we know that his creative work, there's great intentionality in what he does, but when he moves to the political sphere or the cultural sphere, unintentionally he's like, 'I don't care how this impacts people.'

"Because Kanye has such a big platform, [the fact] that he proliferates so much negative speak and so much anti-Blackness, inadvertent anti-Blackness or even unconscious anti-Blackness, we have to counter it with heightened degrees of pro-Blackness," McCune said.

"Because someone like this who's messaging to a particular white supremacist base, we have to counter his rhetoric because there is a base that really is thirsty for this rhetoric."

McCune thinks it's not productive to banish Ye to a corner where we never address him again, because he's not an individual but an entity.

"Kanye is not a brother, he's a brand," said McCune. "Brands have more power. They travel further and they stay in the air longer. And so in order to fight the brand, we have to rebrand and we have to actually critique the brand."

Channing Hargrove is a senior writer at Andscape covering fashion. That's easier than admitting how strongly she identifies with the lyrics "Single Black female addicted to retail."

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'White Lives Matter' Kanye is a provocateur who dismisses Black pain

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Throughout 2022-2023 West has made a series of antisemitic remarks that have seen almost everything in West's life, from his deals with GAP and Adidas to his completed documentary, crumble around him. As previously stated, West's image corruption didn't start with this instance but this was the 'straw that broke the camel's back' so to speak. West's image has been distorted so much that now hate speech and controversial racist remarks have become the norm.

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Kanye West has been widely condemned for his recent slew of antisemitic comments, but the rapper has previous form with making controversial remarks.

The 45-year-old, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, has seen a completed documentary about him shelved and he has been dropped by his talent agency, fashion brand Balenciaga, Adidas and his bank JP Morgan.

Here is a look at what Westsaid and other controversial comments he has made in the past.
What were his most recent comments?
Earlier this month West tweeted to say he was "going death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE" before alleging he wasn't "Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also".

He added: "You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda".

The post has since been removed.

It came after he accused record producer Sean "Diddy" Combs of being controlled by "the Jewish people" in a post on Instagram.
What has the reaction been?
Many people have condemned West's remarks and several brands have distanced themselves from him.

Adidas ended its lucrative partnership with the star and announced that production of the popular Yeezy line would stop immediately - after which he dropped out of Forbes' billionaire list.

Clothing company Gap Inc, which terminated its tie-up with West in September, is also taking immediate steps to remove Yeezy Gap products from its stores.

Talent agency CAA and the Balenciaga fashion house have also ditched the 45-year-old - and a completed documentary about West has been shelved.

Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said West's comments were "awful" but that his music would stay on the platform.

In an incident at a Skechers corporate office in LA, West was escorted off the premises after he "showed up unannounced and uninvited".

In a statement, the US footwear company said he had turned up and engaged in "unauthorised filming".

Madame Tussauds in London has also removed its waxwork of the star from public view.

West was also restricted from posting, commenting and messaging on Instagram and had his account locked on Twitter.

In response, he said he wouldbuy social media platform Parler, which pitches itself as a "viewpoint-neutral social media app dedicated to freedom of expression, civil discourse, and user privacy".

His ex-wife Kim Kardashian has condemned his comments, posting on Instagram and Twitter: "Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end."

In 2020 she opened up about her then-husband's struggles with bipolar disorder.

She said "those who are close with Kanye know his heart and understand his words sometimes do not align with his intentions".
Celebrity reaction
Responding to his latest remarks, comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted: "Kanye threatened the Jews yesterday on Twitter and it's not even trending. Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud".

However, some have supported the rapper, with an antisemitic hate group in the US reportedly unfurling a banner reading "Kanye is right about the Jews" on a Los Angeles flyover and making the Nazi salute.

The move was met with a backlash on social media, with Silverman sharing a picture of the demonstration with the caption: "Lemme guess: still not time to get scared."

Actor and writer Dan Levy did the same, commenting: "F*** this ignorant, dangerous bull****".

Actor Florence Pugh shared a photo of the banner on her Instagram story and wrote: "Absolutely appalling."

Reese Witherspoon tweeted: "Anti-semitism in any form is deplorable. In person. Online. Doesn't matter where. It's hate and it's unacceptable.

"Completely understand why my Jewish friends/colleagues are frightened for their families. This is a very scary time."
What has he said in the past?
West has also made several other controversial remarks recently, including suggestions slavery was "a choice" and calling the COVID-19 vaccine the "mark of the beast".

He caused a ruckus at Paris Fashion Week after wearing a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which tracks hate groups, says White Lives Matter is a neo-Nazi group.

In an appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, West made several remarks about Jews and money.

He was previously criticised for voicing support for Donald Trump and wearing Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats.
Settlement paid to former employee
In early November, West paid a settlement to a former employee who alleged he had used antisemitic language in the workplace, according to documents seen by NBC News.

In addition, six people who have worked with West or witnessed him in professional settings over the past five years said they had heard the US rapper praise Adolf Hitler or mention conspiracy theories about Jewish people.

Three of them are former employees or collaborators, and said they recalled multiple instances of West using antisemitic language. The three other people said they recalled a 2018 incident in which he went on an antisemitic tirade in an interview at TMZ's offices.

Their accounts, as well as the settlement, suggest that West has used such language for years in more instances than previously known to the public - well before his recent antisemitic comments online and in interviews came to light, resulting in him losing a wave of business deals.

West was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2017 and has spoken about his mental health.

In an interview with David Letterman in 2019 he said: "When you're in this state, you're hyper-paranoid about everything, everyone.

"This is my experience, other people have different experiences. Everyone now is an actor. Everything's a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you're being recorded. You feel all these things."

Bipolar disorder is characterised by intense mood swings which can range from extreme highs to extreme lows, the NHS website says.

Sufferers can experience episodes of mania and depression that often last for several weeks or months.

People with bipolar disorder may make uncharacteristic and risky decisions, often without realising their harmful effects.

Commentators have said, however, that a person's mental health cannot excuse their offensive behaviour.

Ari Emanuel, chief executive of Endeavor, an entertainment and media company, wrote in the Financial Times: "Mental illness is not an excuse for racism, hatred or anti-Semitism. Millions of people affected by mental illness do not perpetuate hateful ideologies. Others brush his comments off as just words, but hateful words far too easily become hateful actions."

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Kanye West antisemitism controversy: What rapper said and how people have reacted

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The 45-year-old, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, has seen a completed documentary about him shelved and he has been dropped by his talent agency, fashion brand Balenciaga and bank JP Morgan.

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Whilst these statements remain in line with key components of West's star image, like being outspoken and calling out perceived racial inequalities, West's speech now comes from a place of ignorance and hate.

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Rapper Kanye West, now also known as Ye, has posted antisemitic tropes on his social media accounts, shared antisemitic conspiracy theories with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and on social media, threatened violence against Jews.

West has also targeted Jewish people on podcasts and traveling with an entourage of known antisemites. Meanwhile, in an interview, late last year on the InfoWars talk show hosted by provocateur Alex Jones, West, alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes, said people should "stop dissing the Nazis" and exalted Adolf Hitler.

Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has been ordered to pay parents more than a billion dollars for insisting the massacre of their children in one of America's deadliest school shootings was a "hoax," pushed back on West's praise, but made references to the "Jewish mafia."

Later, West posted to Twitter the image of a swastika fused with a Star of David. AJC called out the blatant Jew hatred on social media.

Tragically, West's antisemitic rhetoric has had real-world repercussions, inspiring antisemitic behavior that has increasingly crept into mainstream American discourse from celebrities to politicians.

While antisemitism comes from a variety of sources including white supremacists, Black supremacists, and religious extremists, the rapper's antisemitic slurs seem to run the gamut. With a social media following of more than 31 million, his statements have become more acute, more delusional, and more dangerous. West has acknowledged he suffers from bipolar disorder, but mental illness is no excuse for antisemitism.

"Although some have tried, there is no rationale, no explaining away Kanye West's rants on social media for anything else than what they are: vicious antisemitic statements that pose a clear and present danger to every Jewish person," said AJC CEO Ted Deutch.

Here are five of Kanye West's previous statements and how they tie to common antisemitic tropes and conspiracies.

"I prefer my kids knew Hannukah from Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering."

During his interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Kanye West said he would prefer that his children learn about Hanukkah instead of Kwanzaa because at least the Jewish holiday would teach them about "financial engineering." Producers cut that statement from the two-part, two-hour conversation that aired on Fox News Oct. 6 and 7.

The theme of greed is common in antisemitic rhetoric and fuels Jewish stereotypes such as being excessively materialistic and money-oriented, exploiting others for personal gain, being overly wealthy, and controlling the world's finances. Read more about this antisemitic trope in AJC's Translate Hate glossary of antisemitic terms.

"I just think that's what they're about, is making money," West said in an apparent reference to Jared Kushner and his Jewish family.

Unlike West's Hanukkah remarks, Fox News did not edit out West's accusation that Jared Kushner, who is Jewish, negotiated the Abraham Accords simply to make money.

Again, this statement is part of the antisemitic theme of greed as explained above.

"Planned Parenthood was made by Margaret Sanger, a known eugenics, with the KKK to control the Jew population. When I say Jew, I mean the 12 lost tribes of Judah, the blood of Christ, who the people known as the race Black really are. This is who our people are."

West perpetuated the myth that Planned Parenthood was part of a conspiracy to limit the growth of the Black population by preventing the birth of Black children. But instead of saying the Black population, he called it the "Jew population."

This echoed a long-standing antisemitic trope common among Black supremacists that claims "white" Jews are "not the real Jews." Instead, these Black supremacists alleged without evidence that Jews are imposters who have stolen the identity and "birthright" of Black people as the true chosen people of God. According to this conspiracy theory, the descendants of the twelve Hebrew tribes of Israel settled across Africa after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel and eventually were sold into slavery.

Elements of Black supremacy can be found within Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam and the Black Hebrew Israelite movement. The latter inspired a deadly antisemitic attack in 2019 at a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey. Read more about this antisemitic trope in AJC's Translate Hate glossary of antisemitic terms.

"This ain't a game. Imma use you as an example to show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me. I told you this is war. Now gone get you some business."

When fellow rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs contacted Kanye West directly for unveiling a "White Lives Matter" shirt as part of his fashion line at Paris Fashion Week, West posted a screenshot of their text exchange on Instagram and accused Diddy of being controlled by Jews.

Antisemitic tropes that claim Jews control the media, banks, and governments are part of a longstanding conspiracy of secret Jewish power. These myths of control portray Jews as secret puppet masters ruling over others and manipulating the world's economies and governments, and even, apparently, Grammy Award-winning rappers.

Meta, the company that runs Instagram, removed the post and, as of the posting of this article on October 13, 2022, froze Kanye West's account indefinitely.

"I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I'm going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda."

Being frozen out of Instagram pushed West to post on Twitter for the first time in nearly two years. But he didn't last long there either.

On Oct. 8, West tweeted that he would be going "death con 3 on Jewish people," a dark and possibly confused reference to the defense readiness condition (DEFCON), a U.S. military term for heightened readiness in the face of a threat. By the next morning, Twitter had removed the post and locked West's account for violating the social media platform's rules regarding hateful conduct.

"Social media companies know their algorithms promote engagement," said Holly Huffnagle, AJC's U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism. "And hate, conspiracies, and lies foster the most engagement, which is why their hate speech policies are in place."

Those guidelines are imperative at a time when antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world continues to rise. More than half of all religious bias crimes in the U.S. are committed against Jews. Furthermore, AJC's 2021 State of Antisemitism in America report found that nearly a quarter of American Jews had been targeted personally and nearly half knew someone who had been targeted by antisemitism.

"Hatred and bigotry must not be excused," Huffnagle said. "We must keep people accountable, especially those whose words impact millions of people. Using these platforms to share his plans 'to go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE' spreads antisemitic hate speech at an immeasurably amplified level."

AJC's U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism Holly Huffnagle breaks down Kanye's vile statements and explain how they are part of longstanding rhetoric that targets Jews.

Bonus Read:

Why Was Kanye West Banned (And Then Reinstated) From Twitter/X?

A lot has happened since West's outbursts in October 2022. Elon Musk took over Twitter and restored West's account. On Thanksgiving, West used the account to announce his 2024 campaign for president after he and notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes dined with former President Donald Trump. He and Fuentes then went on the conspiracy circuit, spewing their antisemitism on a number of talk shows, including InfoWars, hosted by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

"Every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler," he told Jones. He also denied the Holocaust.

Wearing a black ski mask and armed with props including a Bible, a butterfly net, and a bottle of Yoo-hoo chocolate beverage, West went on a series of rants. Using the net and Yoo-hoo bottle, he railed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We have to control the history books, we have to control the banks and we have to go and kill people," West said in a high-pitched voice, apparently mimicking Netanyahu and employing the tactic of targeting prominent Jewish figures to cast blame on all Jewish people.

After the show, he tweeted a swastika fused with the Star of David. This apparently crossed a line for Musk. West was banned from Twitter again in early December 2022.

Yet after being banned for over eight months, Twitter, which has since been rebranded as X, inexplicably reinstated West's account. The rapper, who also recently performed for the first time since his antisemitic outburst, has yet to post anything to his social media account.

What Did Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden Say About Kanye West?

Nearly a year after Kanye West's antisemitic tirade, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden reignited controversy over West's remarks, which appeared to downplay the harm caused by West's antisemitic statements. Speaking to the podcast "In Good Company," hosted by philanthropist Nicolai Tangen, Gulden was asked about the sportswear company's partnership with West, branded as Yeezy, and how it came apart.

"He did some statements, which wasn't that good and that caused Adi to break the contract and withdraw the product," Gulden said on the podcast, which had aired on Sept. 12.

"Very unfortunate because I don't think he meant what he said and I don't think he's a bad person - it just came across that way," he added.

Amid the fallout over West's statements late last year, Adidas ended its partnership with West for his antisemitic remarks. Gulden, who became CEO of the company a month after the scandal, called the breakup with West "very sad" and that the company "lost that business," which he said was very lucrative.

Last year after Adidas announced it would sever ties with Kanye, AJC Berlin Director Dr. Remko Leemhuis met with senior representatives to urge them to demonstrate their commitment to combating Jew-hatred by adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism.

AJC CEO Ted Deutch spoke with Gulden following his comments, reminding him that West's antisemitic tirade had real-world repercussions for Jewish communities.

Yesterday I spoke with Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden. While I don't believe Mr. Gulden meant to cause harm with his comments, I reminded him that Ye's antisemitic tirade has real world consequences that can neither be minimized nor dismissed for any reason. AJC has documented multiple...
- Ted Deutch, CEO of American Jewish Committee (@AJCCEO) September 22, 2023

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5 of Kanye West's Antisemitic Remarks, Explained

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What did Kanye West say about the Jews? Kanye's antisemitism has run rampant. He has posted antisemitic tropes on his social media accounts, shared antisemitic conspiracy theories, and later, on social media, threatened violence against Jews. Learn more about what Kanye is saying about the antisemitism meaning and why people hate Jews.

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West can almost be seen as self-sabotaging at this point. In a bid to make a provocative and edgy statement West continually misses the mark in his aim to remain in the public eye. Some might argue that this is another manic episode from West but, as the Pitchfork review of "Kids See Ghosts" says, how much of this hate speech should we really attribute to mental health and when are people going to say enough is enough?

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Kanye West joined alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his InfoWars talk show on Thursday (Dec. 1), where he shockingly admitted that he likes Adolf Hitler.

When discussing backlash for the rapper's previous antisemitic statements, Jones initially empathized with him, noting that he's not Hitler or a Nazi, and he doesn't "deserve to be called that and demonized." In response, Ye said, "Well, I see good things about Hitler also. I love everyone, and Jewish people are not going to tell me, 'You can love us and you can love what we're doing to you with the contracts, and you can love what we're pushing with the pornography.' But this guy that invented highways and invented the very microphone I use as a musician, you can't say out loud that this person ever did anything good and I'm done with that. I'm done with the classifications."

He added, "Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler. How about that one?"

The Yeezy designer doubled down on his thoughts later, when Jones noted that he didn't like Nazis. When the camera started panning away to a commercial break, Ye is heard saying into the microphone, "I like Hitler."

Elsewhere in the interview, even Jones began to disagree with Ye's statements, with the radio host saying that he thinks "most Jews are great people," even though he agrees that there's a "Jewish mafia." Jones then told Ye that he has a "bit of a Hitler fetish going on," to which the rapper replied, "It's not a fetish. I just like information."

"I don't like the word 'evil' next to Nazis," Ye later said, undeterred by Jones' discomfort. "I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis." Later in the interview, Ye reiterated that it's "time to promote love" by declaring, "I do love Hitler. I do love the Zionists."

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Kanye West Praises Hitler in Alex Jones Interview: 'I Also Love Nazis'

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Kanye West joined alt-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his InfoWars talk show, where he shockingly admitted that he likes Adolf Hitler.

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West's 2022 was filled with controversy and hateful remarks and this was another one of many. This shows a direct change in West's image as speaking up for racial injustice instead now supporting the institutions that he was once critiquing in his earlier, better received, work.

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The mother of George Floyd's daughter, Roxie Washington, has sued rapper Kanye West for $250m (£221m) after the artist alleged that the 46-year-old man died from drug abuse rather than being murdered by a police officer.

Last Saturday, on the Drink Champs podcast, West, who legally changed his name to Ye, alleged that Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose. In the same interview, which has since been taken down by YouTube, West also made antisemitic comments.

Hennepin county chief medical examiner Dr Andrew Baker testified that Floyd's immediate cause of death was "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement's subdual, restraint and neck compression", or rather the stopping of Floyd's heart and lungs that prevented him from breathing.

In May 2020, Floyd's death sparked international outrage and sparked a global conversation about police brutality in the US after white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against the neck of the unarmed Black man for a total of nine minutes and 29 seconds during an arrest outside a Cup Foods grocery store.

In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty on three murder and manslaughter charges and is now serving two prison sentences concurrently of more than 22 years. Three other officers involved in the incident received lighter sentences.

Attorneys representing Washington from the Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon & Dixon Attorneys at Law also filed a cease and desist order against West.

It said: "Mr Floyd's cause of death is well-settled through evidence presented in courts of law during the criminal and civil trials that were the result of his untimely and horrific death. Nevertheless you have maliciously made statements that are inaccurate and unfounded, causing damage to Mr Floyd's estate and his family."

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George Floyd's family sues Kanye West for saying he died from drug abuse

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Rapper alleged Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose on a podcast, sparking a $250m lawsuit

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West's refusal to conform to society's expectations of him or his music has resulted in most of West's albums becoming critically acclaimed and influential as a result.

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West's collaborations and association with other stars and celebrities

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West's collaborations and association with other stars and celebrities

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Kanye West collaborates and associates with stars and celebrities at the top of their respective fields especially in music. In doing so, especially for the first part of his career, associated him with the legends of hip-hop, and in the present day West's status as a cultural nexus gives him his cultural power.

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West's ever-changing star image is reflected in his ever-changing fashion choices throughout his career which also coincides with West's strive for intersectionality through his own clothing brand "Yeezy"

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West's refusal to conform to expectations

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West's refusal to conform to expectations

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West's image is defined by a refusal to conform to expectations place on him and this manifests itself through a constantly changing sound and image from year to year. THis has also positioned West something bigger than hip-hop, an artist that transcends genre

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Controversy has always defined West but how that controversy has been defined has changed over time. What was once provocative, cutting, and humorous morphed into hate speech and spouting lies about situations West pretends to understand but doesn't. In the second half of his career, these controversies could also be seen as West saying whatever will keep him in the headlines, no matter what it is.

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West's strive towards diversifying and intersectionality

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West's strive towards diversifying and intersectionality

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Throughout West's career he has made a conservative effort to incorporate different artist, art works and art mediums as influences. West had made a point of collaborating with people outside of his musical field and himself to create things other than music.

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West's public appearances sometimes show a self-aware side to him which was important to uphold during the first half of his career. However as his career has gone on West has shown progressively less self-awareness in his actions

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West's self-confidence has been ever present in his star image but in the later half of his career there has been an over indulgence in the self and what once was self-confidence has turned into blinding arrogance.

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West has always been outspoken whether that is politically or has resulted in controversy, West hasn't been afraid to say what's on his mind for better and for worse. This outspokenness has led to, in equal parts, calling out racial inequalities as well as reinforcing them.

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West has been politically outspoken since the start of his career which has usually been paired with controversies. West's politics again see him not conforming to expectations but West can also be seen as moving from calling out racial inequalities to siding with leaders who uphold them.

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Kanye West's lyrics also showed an introspective artist commenting on and critiquing hip-hop, the music industry, further education, racial inequalities, religion, family, and materialism in a stylistic shift hegemony of 'gangster rap' within hip-hop.

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Coinciding with his withdrawal from the public in 2016 and his subsequent diagnosis with bipolar disorder West's music has dealt with mental health and opioids much more closely. It is also important that question to do with West's mental health are bought up in regards to most, if not all, controversies allowing him to say radical things and get away with it.

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Whilst not as much of a radical shift in sound as his other albums, West does still have an ensemble of the biggest artists at the time collaborating on the album; Kid Cudi, Chance the Rapper, Rhianna, The Weekend, Frank Ocean, Young Thug, Ty Dolla $ign and Kendrik Lamar.

This aims at reinforcing West's position at the center of culture.

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West's ex-wife and one of the most iconic women of all time who brings her own star image and power,, Kanye West and Kim Kardashians relationship would have only heightened the two stars status. For West this association bought with it the associations of "Yeezus" in its maximalist aesthetic.

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West's fashion in 2002 reflecting Roc-A-Fella studios and the jumper and baggy jeans combination associated with hip-hop

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West's European Music Award outfit after the release of "The College Drop Out" (2004) showing his distinct style at the time - middle class dress wear.

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West at the 2005 Grammy awards wearing angel wings and a white suit. Whilst the angle wings weren't standard for West's style his move towards suits and formal wear was

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A continuation of the heavy suit usage into 2006 with sunglasses appearing that will become the norm

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Kanye in 2007 moving into his "Graduation" (2007) style characterized by rave aesthetics and shutter glasses.

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West's look for"808s & Heartbreaks"(2008) reflecting the pop influences on the album as well as the themes of loneliness and heartache in West's minimalism.

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West at the 2009 VMAs where he crashed Taylor Swift's award ceremony. West style throughout 2009 was similar to 2008 but this outfit saw a marked change as he began to fill a rock star-type role in the creation of his new album reflected here in the work attire as well as his revealing shirt

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Kanye West's performance in 2010 after the release of "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" shows him fully embracing the garish excess of his life and music

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West saw a return to a more restrained style in 2011 and 2012

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2013 and the release of "Yeezus" saw Kanye begin to wear more industrial colours and less form-fitting clothes such as the kilt that he was seen in often throughout the year

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West's look in 2015 would be a precursor to his style during "The Life of Pablo" as he moved towards earth tones, cargo pants and baggy tops.

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"Life of Pablo" (2016) was released alongside the third season of West's clothing brand "Yeezy" and West can be seen in a lot of the brand during the promotion and release of "The Life of Pablo".

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After West took a step back from the public in 2017 he returned with dyed hair and natural colours, apart from this suit West was seen in similar clothes to the previous three years.

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West in his "Make America Great Again" hat showing support for Trump in 2018 and his political turn.