...and if you guys were expecting some radio-ready jams for your hot and heavy summer... well...

It is pretty epic though. Kanye finally said "fuck the radio" and started making the music he wanted to make. It's extremely experimental as far as rap music goes. Nothing mainstream sounds like this right now, but then again nothing mainstream sounded like My Twisted Dark Fantasy, or 808s either until a year or so after it came out, so I don't know what I was expecting. If this is what's on hip-hop radio next year I'm all for it.

Post script: Is it possible for a song to be my favorite and least favorite song on the album simultaneously? Fuck yeah it is when you're talking about Kanye West.

Best songs: Black Skinhead, Hold My Liquor, Blood On The Leaves, Send It Up
Worst songs: Blood on The Leaves, I'm In It Bound 2 (shit quality vocals. It's like bro.. you're worth in excess of $100 million and you can't pay for good quality production? YOU'RE A FUCKING PRODUCER. It sucks because it's such an epic beat. I'm sure he must have thought it made him seem rustic or something...)


1 On Sight: n/a /10
2. Black Skinhead 10/10
3. I Am A God 8/10
4. New Slaves 9/10
5. Hold My Liquor 10/10
6. I'm In It 6/10
7. Blood On The Leaves 7/10
8. Guilt Trip 8/10
9. Send It Up 10/10
10. Bound 2 6/10

No album since Late Registration has "sounded like Kanye" really... He's always switching it up, that's what makes him Kanye West.

As previously stated he's always switching it up. When I think of "Kanye" I don't think of a specific sound... His first two albums were soulful and all about his insecurities, then he started messing around with electronics and was officially considered a god-tier producer at the time so he had a lot to be proud about (Graduation), then he started experimenting and making all the indie kids love him just because he could, (808s), then he fucked up and called some lame pop singer lame and had to start doing hyper-mainstream projects that people loved because he's a taste maker (even if he didn't really want to...) (i.e. My Twisted Dark Fantasy, Watch The Throne, Cruel Summer) (the sound he essentially perfected on those three albums has been copied by every single mainstream rapper since... + having 7 or 8 people on a single track hasn't been cool since the 90s and he brought it back. Even though Dark Fantasy had no real radio hits it solidified Kanye as "The Best" or at least presented a very, very valid argument as to why he might be. Something he was trying desperately to do with Graduation... Watch The Throne only pushed the legend further. Cruel Summer was a money ploy imho, most of it was just okay. Some of it was really good. I mean, you take 20 okay artists and producers to paris and you get a really okay sounding record. *shrug*) then he turned into a feral dog and started screaming about racism and unleashed his true narcissist.

To say that any Kanye album "sounds like Kanye" is an oxymoron in and of itself. Every one (besides Late Registration and College Drop Out... Late Registration is basically a better sounding version of College Drop Out on every level) sounds different.