Truth. He essentially elevates himself to a rap God on this record, and it actually works.

LMAO!

you literally answer your own question right there eh

so I listened to the new album and... well I think it's really good. All of the Lights and Monster are my favorite tracks. The King Crimson sample is cool too lol.

I actually laughed when, in the bonus track 'See Me Now' he says "I'ma let you finnish but I got Beyonce on the track"

I think I will be a Kanye fan from this album forward.. for some reason I get the feeling I will still hate his old stuff. Mainly I hate 'Stronger' and I hope I don't need to explain why.

Stronger is a nice track, so yes, explain.

It repeats one bar of an epic Daft Punk Song over and over and Kayne raps horribly over the whole thing

Disagree, but to each his own.

Actually he raps fairly amazingly. And that Daft Punk song is pretty bad, he improved it 10 fold.

Love this album, was a bit disappointed most of it was released as G.O.O.D. Friday tracks.

:clap::clap:

I really disliked his last album, but I must admit this one is a masterpiece. He's really outdone himself and that whole Taylor thing (yea I know "get over it") has helped in my opinion.

I voted good although 'really good' would have been ideal as it isn't great and it's better than good. Err. . . anyway 'POWER' is great, 'All of the Light"'s chorus is almost ruined by all the distorted noisiness, Chris Rock's skit already irritates me and John Legend sounds fine and dapper.

Surely some of you peeps are kidding when you suggest it being better than College Dropout, yeah?

I love that "All of the Lights" chorus even though he's just naming off different lights lol

Who voted poor? I'm pretty sure whoever did didn't even listen to the album.

I would have to 2nd that. You can not like an album personally, and still respect it.. I would really love to hear why anyone would think this is poor.

He's being educational. :laughing:

damnn.. this album gets better with every listen, can I change my vote? lol
this is true alternative hip-hop! .. I might even say the most mainstream alternative/progressive album since the 70's?

but truthfully, are his other albums this good?

College Dropout is a great album. But non of his other albums are as mature as this one. That being said I am still a big Kanye fan and love each of his albums.

haha same here, i may have to go out and get this

4 unexplained Poor votes = 4 one word post newbies who didn't listen to the album

I agree. You should see it on RYM, so many metalheads downrating it just so Agalloch can overtake it in the charts. I don't know how anybody could hate this album.

Eh, I am currently running through this album again. I've listened to it once already, and I think my first vote was accurate in my taste at least. A good album, though I do not believe I have the type of background in R&B, Hip Hop, alternative rap (whichever genre you choose), to accurately rate it for the masses (i.e. peers).

Power does catch me off guard though with the King Crimson cut, ha...thought my computer was on the fritz at first. I would probably recommend this to a friend with my taste of music, though oddly enough I wouldn't recommend it to someone I know who likes rap...wierd. I think this album transcends what one of my buddies would want to "bump" out of his car, if that makes any sense. Can't really compare it to Nelly - Nelly 5.0 for instance.

I guess I am trying to say this album is a little more serious & musically diverse than I give it credit for, now that I'm listening to it for a second time. Haha...funny by writing this post I've seemed to have changed my mind, and as for the rating, I suppose I would would bump it up to the next tier then. Odd. :confused:

Can't stop listening to it.

I've heard bits, and pieces of it(my brother plays it a ****load when I go over to his house, and hang out with him). I'm not 100% sure what everybody is cumming their pants over here. Am I not listening hard enough, or is this something that I have to take in in entirety?

What I've heard so far sound very shockingly unspectacular to my ear.

on the second playthrough of this, and i'm loving it more the second time.

Excellent :)

Ok, we need to talk...

People (and the musical press too)! What on earth is the matter with you. Sure, the beats on this record are impeccable. But the rhymes are f'kcing TERRIBLE. This is some of the worst lyricism I have ever come across in hip hop. Total amateurs make slicker rhymes than this. I mean, seriously. This is a guy who rhymes "ballin" with a cop who looks like "Alec Baldwin", "rollin'" with "Kelly Rowlands", and just throws in "a$'s" a whole bunch of times when feeling it too much effort to bother rhyming at all.

Much of it just comes across as childish: "Tell ‘em Yeezy said they can kiss my whole a$'s, More specifically, they can kiss my a$'$hole". And so on and so forth. It sounds like a 12 year old kid just starting out in his bedroom, and not only from a lyrical standpoint but conceptually too. There is really little worse than somebody who comes across as being of limited intellectual capacity playing 'pretentious'. It makes you wince.

A great hip-hop record? Do me a favour. Best album of 2010? Really? It's barely the best album of November.

Lovers, tell me please: just what is so brilliant about this CD?

well i'm taking this more as a whole rather than just the lyrics. maybe i'm doing it wrong, but honestly if i can't listen to the music aspect of it, it kind of ruins the song for me, even if the lyrics are impeccable. and seeing as Kanye produced this record as well as rhymed on it, i'm taking into account his abilities as a music maker and not just the lyrics.

and tbh while it's not the most cleverly written stuff ever, i still think alot of the lines are memorable and fun to listen to. and if you're saying this is the worst set of rhymes you've ever heard then have you heard alot of other lyrics permeating the hip hop atmosphere today?

I'll rephrase: worst rhymes by somebody who is supposed to be a very major hip-hop artist. I mean, Jay-Z at his very worst rhymes better than this.

I'm totally with you with regards taking music as a whole rather than just focusing on one aspect. But surely, where it comes to rap, bad actual rapping and rhyming must detract from the final product? I can understand this being "fun", but it is also childish and empty. Most the time it almost feels as if West doesn't really care about the rhymes.

On the plus side, the record is hook-laden and is catchy. But I'm sorry, the words are truly garbage.

This is a simple case of "no they aren't" so... No they aren't.

He is rapping on top level here, what's the problem?

On top level of what? Of producers who are not actually rappers, e.g. Timbaland etc.? Or are you honestly going to stand here and compare Kanye's Emcee skills to real rap pros like Jay-Z, Big Boi, Ghostface, Eminem and so on? Because West only continues to demonstrate here that he shouldn't even be included in the same sentence with such artists. And this ain't no case of "yes they are, no they're not". I have provided examples here of his ineptitude and childish attempts at rhyming. See above. What's your honest view on throwing in something so inane and absurdly fictional as a "cop who looks like Alec Baldwin" simply so he could rhyme something (anything!) with "ballin'"? What else have we got. Mount Olympus with, um, "pimpus"??? WTF? Or, if there's nothing else to rhyme with "past", just insert "kiss my a$'S" for no good reason at the end of the next line (Monster). Doesn't seem too hard to be Kanye West. Perhaps I could make it as a top level rapper in your estimation.

Excerpt from my MB journal review of MBDTF:

Here ill post the lyrics to gorgeous, bolding my favorite parts :O

Every single rapper ever, i gurantee it has had rhymes like "ballin and alec baldwin" your stupid if you think otherwise. Rapping takes writing a decent amount of lyrical content, not every rhyme is going to be an awe inspiring punchline.

verse 1
Penitentiary chances, the devil dances
and eventually answers to the call of Autumn
all of them fallin’ for the love of ballin’
got caught with 30 rocks, the cop look like Alec Baldwin
inter century anthems based off inner city tantrums
based off the way we was branded
face it, Jerome get more time than Brandon
and at the airport they check all through my bag and tell me that it’s random
but we stay winning, this week has been a bad massage
I need a happy ending and a new beginning
and a new fitted and some job opportunities thats lucrative

this the real world, homie, school finished
they done stole your dreams, you dunno who did it
I treat the cash the way the government treats AIDS
I won’t be satisfied til all my n-ggas get it, get it?

verse 2

Is hip hop, just a euphemism for a new religion
the soul music for the slaves that the youth is missing
this is more than just my road to redemption
Malcolm West had the whole nation standing at attention
as long as I’m in Polo’s they think they got me
but they would try to crack me if they ever see a black me
I thought I chose a field where they couldn’t sack me
if a n-gga aint running shootin a jump shot running a track meet
but this pimp is, ar the top of mount Olympus
ready for the World’s game, this is my Olympics
we make ‘em say ho cause the game is so pimpish
choke a southpark writer with a fishstick
I insisted to get up offa this d-ck
and these drugs, fans cant resist it
remind me of when they tried to have Ali enlisted
if I ever one of the greatest n-gga, I must have missed it!

that whole verse was good.

verse 3

need more drinks and less lights
and that American Apparal girl in just tights
she told the director she tryna get in a school
he said “take them glasses off and get in the pool”
it’s been a while since I watched the tube
cause like a crip set, I got way too many blues for anymore bad news
I was looking at my resume feeling real fresh today
they rewrite history I don’t believe in yesterday
and what’s a black beetle anyway, a f-cking roach
I guess thats why they got me sitting in f-cking coach
but God said I need a different approach
cause people is looking at me like I’m sniffing coke
it aint funny anymore try dipping jokes
tell ‘em hug and kiss my ass, x and o
kiss the ring while they at it, do my thing while I’m got it
play strings for the dramatic
and end all of that wack sh-t
act like I aint had a belt in two classes
I aint got it I’m going after whoever who has it
I’m coming after whoever who has it
you blowing up, that’s good, fantastic
that y’all, its like that ya’ll
I don’t really give a f-ck about it at all
cause the same people that tried to black ball me
forgot about 2 things, my black balls

so he doesn't say to much in this, but its good bravado and sounds right when you hear it. Maybe it comes down to whether or not you like kanye's delivery, which i do a lot.

yeah, it's definitely this for me too. I don't know what it is about the delivery, but it just works, heh.

hmm, this is an interesting argument.. I have always thought Kanye should stick to producing and not rapping his own records, that is the main reason I stayed away from him until this album (and Stronger)

I never enjoyed his voice very much (along with Jay-z, lil Wayne, 50 cent and a few others) but I didn't seem to mind his rhymes so much on this album. I love this album for the producing and because it is one of the most creative and progressive album ever so far. I really think it will encourage more mainstream hip-hop artists to become more alternative which I seriously cannot wait until the game looks like that.

As for the lyrics, I will have to pay attention to them more on the next listen. Lyrics are always second to me behind the actual instruments and tune(singing and rhythm in rap count) so even if some of his rhymes are childish, it wouldn't ruin the album for me.

edit: creative flow is one of the things I look for most in rappers

I still haven't voted on the record. I think ultimately it's a hard call to make.

illuminati puppets make good albums

Worst verse of the entire album goes to Jay-Z:

This has done nothing but perpetuate the horrible interpretation I have of him already.

In general, while good on a musical level, this album says nothing that hasn't been said before. The music is actually stunning at points, I will give you that, and some couplets really hit home, but justifying it on a lyrical level is really not that easy. While it occasionally flourishes, much of its hype and love has to come from the music, and the delivery of the lyrics rather than what they're actually saying. That whole part of it can be great at times (title track, "Gorgeous", "Runaway"), and at other times I wanted to skip ahead ("Blame Game", "Hell of a Life").

Overall, it's good, but in terms of lyrical and emotional innovation it really does not budge. The music is actually quite expansive at times, though.

I'm not sure what's with all this discussion over his lyrics. He has always been weak in that area.

I agree with you on that part. I'm the same way, I'm more into the production and the arrangements then comes lyrics but I don't let the lyrics ruin what I'm hearing going on in the background. This goes for any music I listen to.

Lyrics are a big part of the genre; if he continues to be mediocre in that field it's not as though it's not worth mentioning.

What do you guys think about POWER's lyrics? The lyrics are the main reason why I love that song, even if it's entirely self-promotional. They're just so damn amusing.

I love everything about POWER. Lyrics included.

I think the lines

sum up Kayne exactly. Sure he's an egomaniac but it's impossible to ignore he's good.

yeah, the song in general pretty much defines badass