New Kanye Video : Heartless

[The Voice]

Kanye is the best rapper in the game imo.

I disagree, but will say I agree he's the best main stream rapper in the game.

 

[the_chief]

Other than making me laugh my ass off when he said George Bush doesn't care about black people, here is what I think about Kanye: http://www.mamapop.com/mamapop/2008/11/the-top-ten-rea.html?cid=1

thats funny stuff.....i just saw it on digg a couple hours ago.

 

[camakazee]

I've listened to the album a few times now, and although I originally thought I'd hate it, it isn't all that bad.

Reasons I thought I'd hate it/still hate it:

- Autotune is turning into a plague. The whole idea of this technology is to correct the human voice when it signs out of tune, so the singer knows when they're out of tune. With this information, the singer knows where he/she ****ed up and the equipment can smooth it over. By using this to record and singing out of tune so poorly (I'm looking at you, originator, T-Pain ), it is a direct misuse of the technology. It's actually like saying "yeah, I can't sing, but listen to this cool robot-like voice it makes when I sing like a 4 year old." For this reason, I detest autotune and recording with voicoders (it makes anyone singing out of tune the same, I could take T-Pain's place and no one would know). My hatred for this misuse of technology actually led me to write about it for one of my critical essays last year in a media criticism class based around popular music :chuckles:

- The whole album is admittedly pop and every song is sung by Kanye. If you're not a singer and have to rely on autotune to do an r&b/pop album, you probably shouldn't be doing it. Once again, I could put out a pop album where I sing every song using autotune. Blah.

Reasons I actually like the album:

- Kanye isn't the worst singer. Although I hate the autotune it isn't as bad as in most T-Pain/Lil Wayne songs with autotune, meaning he is actually singing in tune the majority of the time. This whole album has a pretty tight vibe, despite being sung. I still don't know if I'd refer to it as "pop," although Kanye has. Regardless, it is actually a decent mellow album to listen to and just relax.

- I'm really feeling the 808 drum machine. I actually wrote another paper in the aforementioned class about how sick the 808 is and had various classic producers talk about how it was a link between African music and Hip Hop, yadda yadda yadda. But I feel this is exactly what it accomplishes. It takes Hip Hop (once again, pop?) back to the 80's when the 808 was huge, making a distinct connection to the past. It's actually fairly ironic considering Kanye is widely known for sampling, yet the 808 allows the producer to make unique beats and move further away from the oversampling trend representative of Hip Hop today (note: he still has samples in a few songs, but not like usual Kanye samples where he jacks the beat, snares, and all). Either way, the Roland 808 is really what makes this album listenable to me, creating a nice rhythm in nearly every song.

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

SIGH...

I convinced myself to just move on and get ready for Common on Dec 9th and then you drop your review and I have to Que this cd back up at work again tomorrow now. I posted the video hoping somebody would talk me into listening to his cd again.

Thanks Camakazee, I keep trying to have an open mind when listening to this but all I keep thinking is how much I hate TPain.

I cant believe that just a few years ago, Ye dropped that College Dropout. Man that disc was necassary at the time, especially for me when I was considering taking on even more debt to start graduate school.

We'll see.

 

[Splitz]

Listening to his new album and must say that this is complete overuse of autotune. I love the way the songs are constructed and produced but the filter is killing it for me.

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

Yeah, I've been listening for the past two days since I went and bougt it yesterday.

I feel a little better about it after seeing the packaging and reading through the production credits, but still... theres that something missing.

Like, I'm loving the song Awesome with Jeezy in it. But theres that something missing from Kanye and his lyrics. I think what catapulted him was how he would make fun of himself. I mean, he was always unapologetic but you could sorta relate because he was saying it like he was thinking it.

But now, it comes off kinda like he is disattached from the music, like he is trying to portray something or be concious of what he's saying too much or something. It starts off with Ye talking about "His friend showing him pics of his kid, and Ye could do was show him pictures of his cribs" now in the past Kanye would follow this up saying something deep about that or kinda ridiculing himself for being maaterialistic, but on this song he keeps moving on like... oh well. Like, he's not actually condemning being materialistic, he's almost, like just cool with it and kinda just pointing it out.

Those kinda instances keep occuring throughout the cd, he's spending more time taking shots at Alexis Phifer than pouring out his heart about his mom. And all his shots at her are kinda hollow and unapologetic too.

Now I love when a etertainer or even just a normal joe (like me) can tell people to kiss off and keep on their mission, but on this disc, it sounds like Ye may be smelling himself even a little too much for me.

This is starting to piss me off, first Lupe now my boy Ye. When I went to Lupe's concert at the HOB last year, he came out talking about "whats good Cleveland, how ya'll like my new rolex and all my grammys" My wife was with me and she was like... What happened to our introspective, humblesque Lupe from before Food n Liquor.

I might just have to get like Smooth and go only underground until these dudes come back down to earth man. I'm holding out hope for Common

 

[camakazee]

Like, I'm loving the song Amazing with Jeezy in it.

Fixed!

But theres that something missing from Kanye and his lyrics.

I blame some of this on the style of the album. The whole singing/autotune thing has changed the style of his delivery which has seemed to trickle-down and affect his content as well.

But now, it comes off kinda like he is disattached from the music, like he is trying to portray something or be concious of what he's saying too much or something. It starts off with Ye talking about "His friend showing him pics of his kid, and Ye could do was show him pictures of his cribs" now in the past Kanye would follow this up saying something deep about that or kinda ridiculing himself for being maaterialistic, but on this song he keeps moving on like... oh well. Like, he's not actually condemning being materialistic, he's almost, like just cool with it and kinda just pointing it out.

I agree. Seems like a far cry from the All Falls Down days (cuz we all self conscious!).

This is starting to piss me off, first Lupe now my boy Ye. When I went to Lupe's concert at the HOB last year, he came out talking about "whats good Cleveland, how ya'll like my new rolex and all my grammys" My wife was with me and she was like... What happened to our introspective, humblesque Lupe from before Food n Liquor.

Wow, this might be the worst thing I've read this week (including the LeBron bolting to NY rumors running rampant). I saw Lupe at Pitt last year and it was a great show. The tickets were $5 for students which is ridiculous to be right by the stage, but it was right after The Cool came out and he really put on a show. The energy he brought was amazing and he wasn't clumsily high like Nas was the year before (forgot his lyrics, believe it or not). It's a shame to see that he started the show like that, though. Definitely not his style.

 

[JJ Smooth]

I put in a lot of time with "808s and Heartbreak" and like the majority of you I too dislike the Autotune. This album is necessary for Kanye though for two reasons. The first is as a recording artist, this is his "creative album". He could've made another "Graduation", labeled it "HITS" and be done with it. Even if it doesn't compare to the first three albums, Kanye should be applauded for taking a risk with his creativity. His musical prowess and production on these tracks still make up for the use of the robot voice. I almost compare this album to Radiohead's "Kid A", in which the premier alternative band said screw it and made a techno rock cd (or "blip rock" as it was later called). "Kid A" was blasted of course because it was so radical, but is now held in high standard; maybe down the road the same can be said for "808s".

Secondly, this was the breakup album in which introspection is evident and heavy in every song, little room for the bragadocious behavior. This is Kanye to the bone, and he uses this album to get over the breakup with his fiance and the loss of his mother. To channel those feelings into songs as strong as "Welcome to Heartbreak" and "Coldest Winter" shows how talented West is at his craft. Those that are confused on the purpose of this album just need to check the inner poster of the album cover.

The album so far has been getting positive reviews, but not quite to the level of the other three discs, as it should. Personally, I think this is it for Autotune, it has to be as I feel this album is the pinnacle of everything that device can be used for. West did it the best, it can't be topped, so it's time to retire this vocal cheat. I even seem to recall having my own Autotune during my youth, I think it looked like this:

 

[3 Da Hard Way]

I'm not happy with Kanye and his love to do a whole album in the alvin and the chimpmunks voice thing. Hopefully he snaps out of it and puts a real album out soon.

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

Camakazee... of course I was typing this at work and I didnt have my itunes open to check the song name LOL

That Lupe concert still ended up being fly. Just saying, from the very beginning it was a "lil" different than what we were expecting from him. It was in February/March, so the cool wasnt out yet, and it didnt help that we had just went to see Common a few weeks in advance and he came out break dancing, playing the piano and freestyling acapella about Cleveland so... I guess I was extra critical of Lu

I was so close I was basically up Lupe's nose and he had this big ass pimple jumpin off that night LOL

<a href="http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=58446096&albumID=647575&imageID=5808151"><img src="http://hotlink.myspacecdn.com/images01/48/4ca86dd54118ac13933a406efd55ce30/m.jpg" alt="" /></a>

See pimple LOL

<a href="http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=58446096&albumID=647575&imageID=5808171"><img src="http://hotlink.myspacecdn.com/images01/59/3c31f6fbab8be1816df13d11202a9c28/m.jpg" alt="" /></a>

 

[Splitz]

I hate this album the more I listen to it *hits delete*. Sorry Kanye.