Like Prince twenty years ago, Kanye West’s sanity is somewhat questionable. Gone are the days where you could listen to Yeezy’s albums in the car with your Mother. That died out with 2010’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ which was in large quantities vulgar and testing in equal measures, despite it being his ‘masterpiece’ in many eyes (not that your Mum would care, it was very rude) and ‘Yeezus’ certainly goes no way to changing that. Think ‘MBDTF’ and amp it up by about five.
Those who took solace in the racially charged ‘Black Skinhead’ and ‘New Slaves’ and thought this may be the album where all his views, opinions and his disagreement of what he feels wrong with the world come together are sadly going to be sold short.
Sure on ‘New Slaves’ he speaks of “Doing clothes you would have thought I had help, but they wasn’t satisfied unless I picked the cotton myself” but the song song fluctuates wildly to later scream “F*ck you and your Hampton house/ I’ll f*ck your Hampton spouse…” but at times it’s damn questionable. While plain misogyny isn’t really a problem it is a bit embarrassing from the self-confessed ‘lyrical genius’ especially when such explicit and vulgar teenager remarks confuse the message of this album.
Thankfully there are moments where Kanye thinks with his heart and not his dick as he bawls out on the colossal ‘Blood on the Leaves’ “Please wait, because I ain’t got the money right now” and “We could have been somebody” before the TNGHT produced beat drops like a ton of bricks. Largely it is the production that makes this album the album it is. Musically it is a flawlessly accomplished minimalist collection of songs only let down by Kanye’s lazy lyrical delivery.
Of course there are moments where the two come together in musical harmony (if such a word can be applied to this album) as ‘I Am A God’ ferociously explodes like a car colliding with a wall of sound, and it is simply a statement that Mr West just doesn’t care anymore.
While Kayne’s message maybe confused, and at times ‘Yeezus’ can be un-listenable, his talent can certainly not be questioned. There is a fine line between ‘genius and madness’, you’ll have to make your own decision on which side ‘Yeezus’ stands.