Misc. Day – Yeezus Just Rose Again

The self-proclaimed genius/god, was once a single man named Kanye West. Kanye made a name for himself as just a kid from Chicago that had a dream of making it big and leaving behind a totally different life than what he lives now. What was once a life of pain, sadness, and over all melancholy, has now become a life of pleasure, luxury, and ultimately, the life of a god.

Yeezus is the project from Kanye West that totally changes up his style and adopts a more industrial sound. The beats are toned low, grimy, and have a beaten feeling. The opening track “On Sight” has these synth chords and progression that sound like a borderline war within a track. The synths appear crunchy at first, then frequently change between loud and aggressive to a more poppy and cheerful feel. This mixed with the interesting beat change where a child chorus comes in creates an overall interesting first track.

West has always been known for his incredible and unmatched production, Yeezus is no different as he is able to simultaneously change the beat up from song to song, each track adapting to West’s changing attitude. West at certain points in tracks like “BLKKK SKKKNHEAD” and “Blood On The Leaves” has these screams that show just how he progressed from his past releases. There will be no tracks like “Homecoming” or “All Falls Down.” West has changed his entire style and Yeezus sounds more primal. This is a new Personally, I thought Yeezus was one of West’s better releases as it has such interesting production and while the verses are not the most amazing, they are still earth-shattering as Kanye West drops some great knowledge about his surroundings. The track “I Am A God,” while I was not entirely a fan of, was still interesting to hear West compare himself to this god of rap music. I liked where the song was going, I just could not fall in love with the cornier lines in this track.

Then Yeezus moves onto one of the best tracks that I think West has ever done,
“New Slaves” has such a catchy and interesting beat, which then switches up to a full symphony of voices that echo behind the instrumentation. West rattles off some interesting verses about “Leaders and Followers,” to then “Rather being a Dick than a
Swallower.” Every time I hear West say this line, it continues to make me laugh as it is just such an insane thought and it always seems to catch me off guard. The track then has this amazing switch-up in the beat to a sample of Hungarian Rock Band, Omega. This is easily the greatest part of the entire song as Omega has these great string ensembles, that Kanye pairs with a woman’s vocals and it makes the entire track.

When most people ask me why I like Yeezus, I can reply simply as, “It is the album where Kanye West let his creative juices flow and really sounds like he went into a deep insanity.” There is only one track that I could do without and “Hold My Liquor” takes that prize. I just really did not think it was overall a great track and it sounded like a side project. It was not nearly as fleshed out as I would have hoped, and it does not match the rest of the album as well as the other tracks.
Remaining tracks like “I’m In It,” “Blood On The Leaves,” and “Send It Up,” all have these great industrial breakdowns and while “Blood On The Leaves” is able to have an overall beautiful sound, the theme behind the track is actually quite horrid. I just loved to hear how West was able to convey his ideas and change his sound up into a totally different direction. It was unexpected, and if you compared this to the Kanye West albums that came out over ten, even five years ago, it would sound like a totally different artist.

The final track “Bound 2” has become synonymous to what I would call one of the more comedic tracks of West’s. While I do love this song, I still think the beat change up and the overall lyrics are, well interesting to say the least. It was the perfect send off to one of the best albums Kanye West has ever released. He may not be a god, or a king, he might just be a psychopath, but you just have to respect Yeezus.