As people laugh up their sleeves at Kanye West’s grandiose statements to the BBC earlier this week, if you haven’t heard it, it is exactly what you think it is so don’t bother, it is worth keeping in mind that in at least one aspect he is right: Yeezus is a masterpiece as Kanye West is miles ahead of his closest competitor in rap, hop hop, rock and roll and rap.
You see, Kanye’s problem is he muddies he water. He can’t simply be the greatest rock star, he also has to be the greatest fashion designer and architect and, I dunno, just the greatest everything. But he only got the first part right and fortunately for him it is the only part of the equation that matters in the slightest.
Next year will make it a decade since Kanye broke through and, just for taste, let’s grade his solo album
The College Dropout – B+
Late Registration – A
Graduation – A
808s And Heartbreaks – A
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – A
Yeezus – A
OK, this is a run of excellence unlike anything we get to see. From pop masterpieces to experimental masterpieces with a break in the middle for a nervous breakdown; when Drake says Kendrick isn’t his competition, West is his competition, what he is pointing to is ten years of just about perfection. And when people smirk at Kanye’s pronouncements what they are missing is what Drake sees: six albums of insane greatness. Just pure brilliance.
Who else could have written “Hey Mama” and “Robocop” and then, in 2013 come back with the impenetrable brilliance of “New Slave”? It doesn’t take me to point this out to you, now, does it? When people fun at West, I do kinda get it because he sounds like a pompous asshole, and he sounds incredibly insecure for a man who is the top of the musical food chain.
Kanye needed whinge so much though I might whine myself if the nothing much J. Cole outsold me, really, is all America’s taste in its mouth. Yeezus is better than Holy Grail and 20/20 COMBINED. It is yet another album on a whole other level.
But no, folks, we ain’t gonna listen to him, are we? Yeezus is right, he is the greatest. He should just learn a different way to state the obvious.