On June 18, 2013, music fans argued over if J. Cole, Mac Miller, or Kanye West had the best hip album released that day. Nearly universally, music fans declared Kanye West’s Yeezus as the least favorable of the 3 albums. Fast forward a month later, critics universally acclaimed the experimental album, calling it "noisy, gripping, maddening, potent” according to Alexis Petridis of The Guardian. This review, along with other positive acclimations of the album, seemed to be driven by the well produced sonic direction Kanye took as a main stream artist. This is considering that 3 years prior, he released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy which is not only his highest acclaimed album, but is one of the highest acclaimed albums of all time…but also
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Leading up to the release of the album, Kanye premiered the song “New Slaves” on buildings across the globe. New Slaves set the tone for the album’s assumed political thematic approach. He outright calls out corporations stating “Fuck you and your corporations y’all can’t control me”, a line he admits may have caused the lack of promotion for “Black Skinhead”, another quasi-politically driven song that’s composed to be a radio smash hit. Both of these songs on their own are fantastic. Both songs are not only politically driven, they’re entertaining to sing along to. The album, albeit seems to be taking an aggressive but entertaining direction, until the album is …show more content…
Each song starts to have it’s own purpose in relation to the album’s questioning of who a god, or Yeezus, is. “I am a God” continues the sonic aggression that On Sight set, with I am a god boasting of almost god like confidence. Yeezus is powerful on I am a God. While later in the album, “Guilt Trip” becomes the complete antithesis of I am a god, filled with apathy and self-loathing. It’s emotionally well balanced. He groups his most confident songs together (On Sight to New Slaves), while his most apathetic songs are also grouped together( Hold My Liquor to Guilt
Leading up to the release of the album, Kanye premiered the song “New Slaves” on buildings across the globe. New Slaves set the tone for the album’s assumed political thematic approach. He outright calls out corporations stating “Fuck you and your corporations y’all can’t control me”, a line he admits may have caused the lack of promotion for “Black Skinhead”, another quasi-politically driven song that’s composed to be a radio smash hit. Both of these songs on their own are fantastic. Both songs are not only politically driven, they’re entertaining to sing along to. The album, albeit seems to be taking an aggressive but entertaining direction, until the album is …show more content…
Each song starts to have it’s own purpose in relation to the album’s questioning of who a god, or Yeezus, is. “I am a God” continues the sonic aggression that On Sight set, with I am a god boasting of almost god like confidence. Yeezus is powerful on I am a God. While later in the album, “Guilt Trip” becomes the complete antithesis of I am a god, filled with apathy and self-loathing. It’s emotionally well balanced. He groups his most confident songs together (On Sight to New Slaves), while his most apathetic songs are also grouped together( Hold My Liquor to Guilt