A.Tico.Take: Listen.To.Yeezus

Yeezus

From The P.O.V of A Progressive Ninja

Thoughts Before Listening

First and foremost- the unofficial cover art and name (the fake crucifix or Y-thing) pissed me off. I'm like "Kanye- ninja CHILL,".Then Yeezus was leaked- I stayed away from vultures picking it apart before it was officially dropped. I feel like since I don't buy music like that the least I can do for artist is not contribute to their bootleged music BEFORE it drops. That is like sneaking in a gallery before its opened. Just no- haha.

It Dropped

So it dropped on June 18th, 2013. I heard it was critically acclaimed. Upon further inspection it was. Metacritic, USA Today, and Spin (along with others- see wikipedia) all loved this album. The twitter-verse however and the street (my friends and hip hop blogs) felt like this album was sh*t. So I walked in mixed.

Thoughts While Listening

On Sight- "Kanye what the freak man, NOOOO. Nicki made this same mistake. You sound like you had Scrillex produce this sh*t. NOOO. You can make your own beats! I WASN'T READY."
Black Skinhead- "I'm confused. I can't even hear the lyrics. My only actual constructive comment would be production could've found a better way to have his voice match the beat. DID HE JUST SAY C**N???"
I Am A God- "The samples finally sound cool. IS THAT BEENIE MAN?? OH SH*T TURN UP. Wait what? You are not a god. Your massage? Ninja whats Kim for? You brought rap back? You on Michael's level? YOUR CROISSANTS?? So Kanye has no chill- okay, WAIT YOU TALKED TO JESUS?? AND ALL YOU HAD TO SAY WAS YOU 'STACKIN MILLIONS'???"
New Slaves- "First beat I can find solace in- thank Yeezus... lol; There are leaders and followers- this will be the new twitter/instagram-anthem. Kanye is on his 22-offs flow right here, HE MOVED HIS FAMILY WHAT?? He just called out the government- and the upper one percent. This song has converted me to Yeezus. Ehhhh what is this? THIS SAMPLE AT THE END?? Nah- I'll stick with regular Jesus..."
Hold My Liquor- "His vocals are scary ha. Mmmm its vibey enough. Oh ha- I thought he would go the whole song drunk like haha. I've noticed that Kanye has made more 'ho-references' or sexual references in this album than as of late. I mean all artists do it he is directly saying it like 'these b*tches and ho's' This song is sad, its as close to Drake as anyone can ever say Kanye came lmao. Kanye on his 'no-more-hos' status or something. Damn that beat just resonated in my head"
I'm In It- "Kanye, Kanye, Kanye.... EWWWWWW HE SAID HE WHAT? Ahhh I see. Okay the I like the rasta-voice influences. Okay I'm done. This song is extremely graphic. Is this supposed to be his version of the ratchet anthem? You can't twerk to this, he should've had Juicy J on the beat- ha. I kid. The beat is legit. I feel like I shouldn't say that though. ITS OVER??"
Blood On The Leaves- "Oh he's singing.... or Yeezus-ing. I feel like he is being extremely real on his album and I feel bad that I'm sitting here like blah blah blah. I like this song- everyone can relate to that person changing or not being in your life like they were. Is this about Phifer? Rose? Nah not about Rose... GOOD SONG"
Gulit Trip- "Another vibe beat. I see. *Listens with no comments* I fell asleep with my eyes open. Not necessarily a bad thing (shout out to drug users)
Send It Up- "He said play it in the club- this is the only place this belongs I think. It won't vibe anywhere else, unless you are in your house getting READY for the club. LMAO Kanye with the random samples again...."
Bound 2- "This beat/sample is sick. This is innovative. This is Kanye. This is the staple song. I hope to Yeezus the radio don't kill it. AND BY YEEZUS THE SAMPLES ALL FIT TOGETHER. That 'when a real n*gga hold you down' line was tough. Lyrics on here are straight. DANG THIS IS FIRE. He said "Jesus wept!!!" John 11:35!!!!"

Thoughts After Listening (Conclusion)

Kanye West does what he wants. So we can all rest assured that this was not him being squeezed and scrutinized by music execs- he is Yeezus after all. So I applaud him for takig the reigns and doing whatever it is he did. For some of you- I know you will not mess with this album at all. Some of you will try really hard to like it because you like Ye; others will lie and say they love it- knowing nothing about how or who he is even sampling. (I got one wrong, Beenie is not on the track I thought, he's on Send It Up as a sample). And then there are people who will appreciate Ye for his talents and what be has brought together. This is not a trap album, this is not a alternative album, its def not Late Registration, The College Dropout, 808s, etc.... This is Kanye West doing what he does best- doing the most. If you appreciate when he does that this album is 5/5 if you don't then its barely worth a listen-through. I personally dig the album as a whole for reasons I don't fully understand yet (BOTL got to me) and I think Kanye did his thing. *High fives Yeezus*