Kanye West: What the hell? | The Hooded Utilitarian

I haven’t paid a ton of attention to Kanye West; I’ve heard a couple of productions and been like, eh. So I finally thought, well, maybe I should try to figure out what I think of this more thoroughly.

So I listened to Stronger on YouTube. Jesus Christ what a turkey. The beat is totally whack, it’s got a kind of whiny electro-nineties thing, the lyrics are incredibly stupid (what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger — thanks Kanye. I’ll write that down). And his voice is whiny, his flow is — he sounds like a slightly more ept Kid Rock, really; it’s dumb and thudding.

Love Lockdown at least sounds a little weirder I guess. I’m supposed to be grooving on the minimalism, is what all the critics tell me. But I hate that fucking whiny Akon male R&B shit. And the fact that it’s minimal can’t really change the essential lameness of the lyrics. There is a good beat on the chorus; why not run that through the whole song? It could totally be Beck if the singing weren’t so crappy.

It is totally a white aesthetic. It’s like Devo or something, if Devo really sucked. It’s punk even. No wonder they love him on Sound Opinions; it sounds like it was done in a shed by a completely useless poseur with a trust fund and that sense of entitlement that says, “Hey! I’m a guy with skills! I should get accolades even when I’m not trying, just for being so special!”

Yeah, it really pisses me off. What a pile of crap.

All right, I’m done. No more music blogging for a while, I promise.

0 thoughts on “Kanye West: What the hell?”

Exactly. I’m with you on this one. Contrived in every sense.

“Stronger” is really bad, but you can’t blame Kanye for the lyrics/beat – it’s a really blatant Daft Punk sample! Surely everyone knows that?

Nope; never heard Daft Punk; don’t make a habit of researching samples from songs that suck…but thanks for the info, as now I can avoid Daft Punk like the plague. Also…he can’t be blamed how? Someone held a gun to his head and forced him to sample a shitty song? It’s kind of even more embarrassing than writing it yourself; puts him in MC Hammer territory….

Are you implying Super Freak is not a great song? This seems like an egregious claim.

dude you’re really out of your element here. i like kanye a lot, but i’m not even really that into either of those songs. you should try listening to more of his stuff before you write him off, the whole college dropout album is really great, and a lot of the stuff after that is too.

ULAND on January 4, 2009 at 6:15 pm said:

Exactly. I’m with you on this one. Contrived in every sense.
Simon on January 5, 2009 at 1:54 am said:

“Stronger” is really bad, but you can’t blame Kanye for the lyrics/beat – it’s a really blatant Daft Punk sample! Surely everyone knows that?
Noah Berlatsky on January 5, 2009 at 4:10 am said:

Nope; never heard Daft Punk; don’t make a habit of researching samples from songs that suck…but thanks for the info, as now I can avoid Daft Punk like the plague. Also…he can’t be blamed how? Someone held a gun to his head and forced him to sample a shitty song? It’s kind of even more embarrassing than writing it yourself; puts him in MC Hammer territory….
eric b. on January 5, 2009 at 12:18 pm said:

Are you implying Super Freak is not a great song? This seems like an egregious claim.
Anonymous on January 7, 2009 at 9:11 am said:

dude you’re really out of your element here. i like kanye a lot, but i’m not even really that into either of those songs. you should try listening to more of his stuff before you write him off, the whole college dropout album is really great, and a lot of the stuff after that is too.