Sunday, December 29, 2013

BOUND: The Albums, 2013.


rebel yell.

04/Kanye West/Yeezus

Imagine being told that you have to do this, that, and this, and then you can join us and have access. By a record company, your home country, and the world. ("Follow these few simple steps, and you too can make your American Dreams come true!") Imagine locking yourself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers just to be put on and get your dreams out. Imagine doing so and becoming a great American success story, the only rapper compared to Michael, only to be told you can't do what he did. That who you are and what you're doing is laudatory, we respect that, and we're proud of you, but please, stay in your lane. You're not good enough, you're just another rapper. Just another (BLACK) rapper trying to make a dollar out of fifteen cents in arenas where your ideas, presence, and imagery is not wanted or needed. That's a different world like Cree Summer. And it's the world Kanye West has resided in it seems since his last album was released. The world that has birthed this, his sixth studio album Yeezus, a brash and boisterous snapshot of his presently dark, twisted, reality. A reality where no one is safe from the hate and vitriol. Yeezus shouts enough is enough from point 0.01, planting itself firmly in the land of I. Don't. Give A. Fuck. "Okay", he and the album says, "You want me to be just a rapper, know my place, and just accept things as they are? Okay. I got you. It is what it is. 'Y'all bout to turn shit up? I'm bout to tear shit down. I'm bout to air shit out. Now what the fuck they gon say now?'" No artwork. Hastily put together and dumped onto a high profile producer's lap like it was just another mixtape or collection of b-sides, barely promoted. A left turn, minimalist in its approach, but smart and layered as hell. Yeezus is not perfect, nor is the man who calls himself such a Saint, but, as we see here, neither are the realms and institutions in which Yeezus walks. Yeezus is the conversation Kanye needed to have with himself at this moment, in this imperfect world, to assure himself that that that don't kill he can only make him stronger. And despite all the anger, hurdles, and obstacles thrown his way, this message bursts through, and is why he's still standing. He's in it, goddamn it, airing shit out and tearing shit down.

Now what the fuck they gon say now?

 KEY TRACKS: Black Skinhead/New Slaves/Send It Up

05/Arctic Monkeys/AM

06/Arcade Fire/Reflektor

07/Justin Timberlake/The 20/20 Experience, Pt. 1

08/Janelle Monae/The Electric Lady

09/Chance the Rapper/Acid Rap

10/Haim/Days Are Gone

11/Danny Brown/Old

12/Deerhunter/Monomania

13/Foxygen/We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic



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