Tag Archives: kanye west

My iPod #127: Kanye West – Bound 2

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A FACEBOOK CONVERSATION MY FRIEND AND I HAD UPON OUR FIRST LISTEN OF YEEZUS
14th June 2013 (GMT)
Friend: YEEZUS LEAKED                                                                                               19:19
            OMFGODBOSBFOUSBNCONOSIC

Me: No way, where                                                                                                           19:26

       wtg
       wtf
       show me

Friend: BRO ARE YOU STILL THERE?!                                                                         19:40

            ILL SEND YOU THE LINK
           TO DOWNLOAD
           http://www.sharebeast.com/riate2ihstqp                                          (Link doesn’t work anymore)

 

Me: HOLY SHIIIIIT                                                                                                          19:44

 

 

Friend: I JUST STARTED PLAYING IT                                                                           19:44
           I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF MATHS
           MATHS IS SUCH A DICK

 

Me: I was doing biology                                                                                                      19:52
       OMDZ

 

 

Friend: HOLD MY LIQUOR AND IM IN IT                                                                    20:03
           OMDS
           AND NEW SLAVES IN GOOD QUALITY
           HALF WAY THROUGH
           IM ALMOST CRYING

 

 

Me: MATE I’M ON BLACK SKINHEAD                                                                        20:04
       THIS SHIT IS CRAZY

 

 

Friend: LOOL                                                                                                                    20:04
            I AM GOD IS SO BLASPHEMOUS
           HOLD MY LIQUOR MY CURRENT FAV

 

 

Me: THIS IS SO SICK                                                                                                     20:04
        I’M ONLY ON THE 2ND SONG

 

 

Friend: IT IS SERIOUSLY ONLY GETTING BETTER                                                    20:09
           I HAVE CHANGED MY FAV SONG 3 TIMES

 

 

Me: THIS ALBUM GOES IN SO HARD                                                                         20:09

 

 

Friend: BLOOD ON THE LEAVES                                                                                  20:09
           OMDS
           WE AINT GONNA REVISE FOR ANOTHER HOUR
           LMAO

 

 

Me: IT’S FINE                                                                                                                  20:11
       I HAVE TO SIT THROUGH THIS

 

 

Friend: WE HAVE TO, HAVE TO                                                                                   20:11

            SWEET BABY YEEZUS HAHAHAHAMe: 😀                                                                                                                              20:13

 

 

Friend: I CANT TELL WHO SOME OF THE COLLABERS ARE                                 20:14

 

 

Me: SAME
       THE GUY AT THE BEGINNING OF HOLD MY LIQUOR SOUNDS FAMILIAR        20:15
       I THINK HE’S IN DARK FANTASY

 

 

Friend: OMDS KEEP GOING                                                                                          20:15
            KID MOTHERFUCKING CUDI
            COMING UP SOON
            ITS SO PERFECT
           OH YEAAHHH
           OMDS THE LAST TRACK HAS A BEAT LIKE ITS MIXED FROM ALL HIS ALBUMS
           LOVING THIS

 

 

Me: OH MAN…                                                                                                               20:20

 

 

Me: dude.                                                                                                                         20:40
       that was an experience

 

 

Friend: im pulling an all nighter today                                                                                  20:55

           that is my fuel————-

So as you can see…. we were both very excited.

Looking at it retrospectively, I have no idea why I was typing in caps lock. Yeezus isn’t really that good of an album. That’s right I said it.

I think it was just so unexpected. I was revising for my final exam and then my friend messaged me with that, it was just so sudden.

“OMDS THE LAST TRACK HAS A BEAT LIKE ITS MIXED FROM ALL HIS ALBUMS” refers to today’s blog song “Bound 2”, which is definitely one of the better songs from Yeezus – if not the best one.

It is… kinda like my friend said, reminiscent of the many older songs where Kanye utilised his chipmunk sampling producing on his first two albums.

It’s basically Kanye yelling at us over a sample about his, apparently everlasting love with Kim Kardashian but with similes and metaphors all over the place which I’m not able to explain to you.

Yeezus is a very loudly mixed album – it’s partly produced by Rick Rubin so there’s the explanation, so on a lot of the songs there is clicking and crackling everywhere. This song is no exception. Especially in the first few seconds where you can literally hear the cut and paste of the sample. The way it ends is quite abrupt and anticlimactic with the “UH-HUH HONEY” part. Nevertheless, it is a standout on an otherwise standard album.

Oh yeah, it also features vocals by the man who sings “Ooh wee” in “Signs” by Snoop Dogg ft. Justin Timberlake. Charlie Wilson, that’s his name. What a G.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #110: Kanye West ft. John Legend – Blame Game

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Built upon a well-chosen sample of a track by Aphex Twin is “Blame Game”, the eleventh track from Kanye West’s fifth album from 2010.

If you wanted a song that depicted Kanye at his most vulnerable- if you can ever describe him as that – it’s probably this one. For the background, he had split up with his girlfriend – who then went out with Wiz Khalifa – and was feeling all these emotions that he could only put into song.

Firstly, he raps about ‘gripping’ the girl in question up, ‘fucking’ and ‘choking’ her and then the next minute he’s broken down singing ‘I can’t love you this much’. I put that in a rather simple way but I can’t go through it all with you. That would take too much time. You’ve got rapgenius for that.

The song also features a skit about five minutes into the song, spoken by the one and only Chris Rock. The things he says are very funny, but in context with the song it’s quite tragic.

Surely you can spend seven and a half minutes of your time for this? Surely?

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #106: Kanye West – Black Skinhead

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“I just talked to Jesus, he said “What up, Yeezus?”
I said, “Shit, I’m chillin’, tryin’ to stack these millions.”
I know He the most high, but I am a close eye
Mi casa es su casa, that’s our Cosa Nostra HUH?!
I am a god.”

That’s probably one of the funniest verses I’ve heard in a long time. Kanye West, at the moment, feels like he cannot be touched. He’s got a hot wife, he’s a father. Things are looking up for him.

What better way to show his good life off to everyone then, by writing about that (amongst other topics that interest him) in his new album, “Yeezus“?

I like Kanye West’s music. Seems like forever ago when he first came out with “Through the Wire” and seemed like a modest man who, after surviving a life threatening car crash, wanted to show the world that he wasn’t just a great producer but could handle his own material. With an album title such as “Yeezus”, we now see how far this ‘modest man’ has come.

“Yeezus” came as a real surprise to me. Let me tell you why. I knew it was his next album title, and then found reports about his new song “New Slaves” being shown on the sides of buildings around the world. That was around Springtime/early Summer. So I thought, “Well, it must be next year that the album will come.” That was until my friend told me that it would be released in only a few days time. Oh…. SHHHIIIIIII-

No way! The new Kanye album’s coming! Ah man. I couldn’t wait. That was until the album leaked, and the same friend sent me the link through Facebook. I was all over that shit. I couldn’t handle it!

That’s where “Black Skinhead” comes in. After being impressed by “On Sight”, “Black Skinhead came in with those thumping tom-toms and I knew that some hard stuff was about to go down. One thing that struck me about the album was how loud it was, but it came to good effect on this song. This song has to be played loud. It’s Kanye’s theme song.

After listening to it multiple times now, it doesn’t feel the same as it did on that first listen. It’s definitely a highlight though.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #19: Kanye West – All of the Lights

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WARNING: This video has been identified by Epilepsy Action to potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

Please take heed of that warning, seriously.

‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’, the fifth album by Kanye West. The one which received positive reviews from every music magazine and website you could imagine. The one with the controversial artwork. The one which had a film released along with it. The one that gave rise to memes such as ‘Yeezy taught me’, ‘No one man should have all that flour’ and ‘Let’s have a toast to the douchebags’. What made it so good?

Well, it was his first album after 808s & Heartbreak, for a start.

But real talk, it was the return of a Kanye (the rapper) that the world had never witnessed before. Remember what he did to Taylor Swift at the 2009 VMAs? Yeah, well no one liked him after that. Beyoncé was shocked, Pink was outraged, even the President had a few words to say about him.

So what did Kanye do? He only went into some sort of exile to Hawaii and recorded his, arguably, best work of ALL TIME. ALL TIME.

‘All of the Lights’ is preceded by its short interlude, a cello/violin and a piano play the melody of the intro. Then the main song starts, “ALL OF THE LIGHTS”, triumphant horns set up the scene, a crescendo of strings build up the mood, Rihanna sings the post-chorus, “Turn up the lights in here baby etc etc.” Then the beat kicks in, and it’s just awesome from then on.

The song kicks arse. It’s a highlight for me from the album. It’s just the rapid drums and bass, the horns, Kanye’s rhymes and delivery. It’s such an adrenaline rush, I don’t think anyone could sit calmly in a chair and bob their heads. No! You’re headbanging, you do a forward roll and you flail about when there’s no one else in the room with the lights flickering on and off. That’s what you do!

Another thing that’s great about the song is also the number of guests he gets on it. No, this song doesn’t just feature Rihanna. You’ve got Kid Cudi in the first bridge, “Getting myyyyyyyyyyyyy eh, you should go and get your oowwwwwwwwwwwwn,” Fergie-Ferg from the Black Eyed Peas in the second bridge, Alicia Keys AND Elton John at the end, and even La Roux. La Roux! How? Why? When?

The song just gives off a sense of glory. “Lights, Cop lights, flash lights, spot lights, strobe lights, street lights, ALL OF THE LIGHTS ALL OF THE LIGHTS, fast life, drug life, thug life, Roc life, every night, ALL OF THE LIGHTS.”

If you don’t have ‘MBDTF’, I suggest you get it. It is probably one of the best hip hop albums released in the last five years.

Who even likes Taylor Swift now anyway?

Until next time.

Jamie.

My iPod #9: Kanye West – Addiction

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You may not have thought that this would happen due to the types of songs that I have blogged about already…. and because of the fact that he can be quite the douchebag.

But you have to admit, that douchebag can make some good hits. Mhm mhm.

‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ may be the people’s favourite of his work; for me ‘Late Registration’ and ‘The College Dropout’ remind me of those good times when he wasn’t that egotistical, and when I liked music that played on the radio and Top of the Pops.

That was only 5 or 6 years ago, so what the fuck happened?! I barely like anything that’s in the charts now.

My sister got Late Registration around the time that it had been recently released. She really liked ‘Gold Digger’, so she went to Woolworths and got it one day.

I didn’t like hip hop so much when I was ten. All of my albums that I actually owned were mostly indie stuff, and Green Day was the band that I was really into then. American Idiot was the shit, man. Especially when I was ten.

‘We Major‘ and ‘Drive Slow‘ aren‘t on my iPod, but my sister would blast those songs out of the computer speakers endlessly. The singles, ‘Diamonds from Sierra Leone‘, ‘Gold Digger’, ‘Touch the Sky‘ and ‘Heard ‘em Say’, I had obviously already seen or heard.

It was when I started my YouTube channel that I really paid to all of the songs on Late Registration. Hardly any of the songs by Kanye West were on the site, (this was back in 2008), so I took it upon myself to upload the album onto the site.

‘Addiction’ is about well…….. what do you think?

“Why everything that’s s’pose to be bad, make me feel so gooood?
Everything they told me not to is exactly what I woooould.
I tried to stop, man, I tried the best I could but yoooooou (make me smiiiiiiiiiiile)”

That‘s another thing too. It‘s got a great sample. Kanye is known for a lot of sampling. A lot. And this is one out of a million that works really well. And sampling can go baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

Until next time.

Jamie. 

P.S. Don’t be afraid to share with friends on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social network. I will love you if you do. Need more recognition for no money whatsoever.