Ye is Kanye West's seventh album. I revisited his 2016 album The Life of Pablo yesterday and I thought that there were great moments but it was also a bit of a chaotic mess. This is the third of Kanye's 7-track G.O.O.D. Music albums and after how much I loved Pusha T's album, I was very excited for this. In 2018, Kanye West came back to Twitter and started a shitstorm of a rollout that makes The Life of Pablo's look smooth in comparison. He took his normal shit-stirring personality to an all new level as he posted a picture of a Make America Great Again hat signed by President Trump. Then he said something about him and Trump having dragon energy. Then he called into Ebro's Hot 97 show just to say he loved him a bunch of times. Then he praised the thinking of Candace Owens, a known black alt-right spokesperson. Then he dropped two singles, one the complete joke that is "Lift Yourself" (POOPITY SCOOP) and then a song explaining his point of view in the Trump situation called "Ye vs. the People," which features T.I. playing the role of "The People." Then he said in an interview with Charlamagne that slavery was a choice. Then he went on a tirade about going on liposuction and his opioid addiction at the TMZ studio. Regardless of what Kanye says or does, I think he is one of the greatest artists of our time and I was looking forward to what he would do on this album.
Positives
One thing I love about Kanye is his self-awareness. During the spoken word portion of the album's opener, "I Thought About Killing You," Kanye says that he loves himself more than he loves you. He also opens up about his mental health problems on the song "Yikes" and addresses his past controversy and having a daughter on "Ghost Town" and the album's closer "Violent Crimes" respectively. At 40 years old, people would expect an artist like Kanye to decline, but he has found a way to include aspects of his music, such as his singing. His singing sounds really good on this album. I also think it picks up quite a bit toward the end.
Negatives
Once again, Kanye puts out an album with many high-profile features and doesn't show them on streaming services. It's not that big of an issue since you can see them if you look up the lyrics on Genius, but why should we have to go through that trouble? What usually is the highlight of a Kanye album is his production, but it wasn't nearly as good as it was on TLOP and on Pusha's album last week. His flow has clearly declined as well and listening to his off-beat rapping on "Ye vs. the People" should have been an indication. This album was a short 7 tracks and 23 minutes and felt more consistent than The Life of Pablo, but it was more consistently boring than anything. I was hoping for a more angry Kanye to snap on this album but he gave off a more mellow vibe and there was way less experimentation and sampling on this project. It just felt dry and bare.
Sow how were the features?
Kanye featured 8 different artists on ye.
1) Valee (All Mine) - I've never been a huge fan of Valee and don't understand what G.O.O.D. Music sees in him. That chorus was such unintentional comedy and his voice is hilariously awful.
Verdict: Disliked
2) Ty Dolla $ign (All Mine/Wouldn't Leave/Violent Crimes) - The most featured artist on Kanye's last two albums doesn't do much on any of his tracks. On "All Mine," he does a short bridge that was very forgettable. On "Wouldn't Leave" and "Violent Crimes," he shares both songs' second choruses with another guest and some background vocals. His voice at least sounds good like on every feature.
Verdict: Ehhhh
3) PARTYNEXTDOOR (Wouldn't Leave/Ghost Town) - His chorus on "Wouldn't Leave" is pretty short and it doesn't really improve or drag the song down in any way. He also sang the intro of "Ghost Town." It's nothing special.
Verdict: Ehhhh
4) Jeremih (Wouldn't Leave) - His bridge was probably the best part.
Verdict: Ehhhh
5) Kid Cudi (No Mistakes/Ghost Town) - He was so underutilized it's not even funny. On "No Mistakes," he shares a chorus with Charlie Wilson where they both sing one line a bunch of times. And then he's only given two lines for his chorus on "Ghost Town." I thought this would be a better preview of what's to come on their upcoming Kids See Ghost collaboration next week.
Verdict: Liked but Kanye seriously underutilized him
6) Charlie Wilson (No Mistakes) - His contribution was a shared chorus with Kid Cudi that was just one line repeated a bunch of times.
Verdict: Ehhhh
7) 070 Shake (Ghost Town/Violent Crimes) - She sang the outro of "Ghost Town," which got insanely repetitive toward the end and it dragged on for longer than it needed to. However, her chorus on "Violent Crimes" was by far the best feature on the whole album.
Verdict: Disliked on "Ghost Town," Liked on "Violent Crimes"
8) Nicki Minaj (Violent Crimes) - She doesn't even have a verse. It's a phone call at the end of the song. She could have been utilized more. Fuck you, Kanye.
Verdict: Invalid
Favorite Tracks
The good stuff on this album can be found toward the end.
1) Ghost Town (feat. PARTYNEXTDOOR x Kid Cudi x 070 Shake) - I could have done without the long drawn out outro but this was definitely one of the better cuts on here. I thought Kid Cudi was a great contribution even though he was given just a couple short lines. Kanye's contribution was also rather short, but he touched on his past controversies and you could feel some sort of sympathy for him.
2) Violent Crimes (feat. 070 Shake x Ty Dolla $ign x Nicki Minaj) - This was probably the most enjoyable track on this album. In this song, Kanye says that guys can be absolute monsters, savages, or pimps until they have a daughter. It's his best verse on the entire project and also features the best guest appearance, which is 070 Shake's chorus.
Least Favorite Track
All Mine (feat. Valee x Ty Dolla $ign) - Jesus tapdancing fucking Christ this song was terrible. Valee's chorus was laughably awful and on top of that you have to endure two lines that you could debate for hours as to which one was the worst on the album:
"I love your titties, 'cause they prove I can focus on two things at once"
"Ayy, none of us would be here without cum"
This might be the worst song Kanye has ever made.
Conclusion
No, I didn't like this album. It was one of my most frustrating listens this year. It didn't feel like a Kanye album at all. It lacked the uniqueness and hunger that usually comes with his albums.
Score: 3/10
I don't know if this is one of those albums that will make me do a complete 180 after a few listens but for now, I hate this album. This is Kanye's worst without question.
This concludes my tenth review. There weren't other notable releases this week so this will be my last review for a while. I will post my Playlist Additions article on Monday.
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