Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Taylor's Choice:

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Hipster Review:

To this day, I still don't get it.
Everything about Kanye West should make me hate him. He's an arrogant, self-idolizing asshole. He knows it too, and seems not the least bit ashamed. And he constantly keeps us this image of douchery as if his life and career depended upon it.

And yet...
Kanye is unlike any rapper in recent memory. He doesn't have a pseudonym or rap name, unlike essentially EVERY other artist in the genre's history. He creates music with the highest ambition in mind, not settling for anything less than his artistic vision, which distinguishes him from most other mainstream rappers: he views his music as art rather than commodity. He is, above all else, for better and for worse, true to himself. And despite his less than savory image, he's made some pretty damn good music.
His first two albums (especially his sophomore release Late Registration) are among the best albums of the 2000's; their sprawling yet focused scope provided the decade with some of it's most captivating music, and to this day sound unlike anything else in the genre. And while his recent electro-pop detours were less thrilling, people who worked with West on his latest album began to talk excitedly, including DJ Premier who stated that West was "totally done with electro. You're gonna be surprised by what you hear."
Then "Power" leaked.
Built on a beautifully-used sample of "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson, the song was a surprising sudden comeback; it managed to be both self-aggrandizing and self-effacing, showing off both West's strengths and shortcomings. And that is essentially what the entirety of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is like; it's Kanye's love letter and roast to himself. He's been known in the past to write a few humble songs as a contradiction to his image, but never as much as he does here. He identifies himself as a "Monster," and still finds himself "addicted to the hood rats," even when he can find himself a "good girl." Kanye knows he's a fuck up, and he either doesn't know how to change or doesn't want to. In any case, Kanye has never been this open in his music before, and that's saying a lot about a guy who's constantly talking about... well, himself. Just look at that album cover; it says more than words ever could.
The production on these songs is brilliant; not a single one chooses to feed into the notion that the mainstream is stuck in a musical stasis, and each has it's own distinct feel and vibe that makes it stand out on it's own. All the subtleties and pokes at minimalism are completely shattered; Kanye goes after the biggest, grandest sounds on here. The guests pairings are pretty head-spinning, too: Raekwon and Kid Cudi? Jay-Z and RZA? Somehow even the craziest moments on this album come together as a whole and seem to make sense, which speaks to Kanye's talent as, if I may be so bold, an artist.
Alright, this is officially the longest review I've ever written, so I'm going to wrap this up: In essence, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the most grandiose, most flawed, most perfect album of Kanye West's career. It's not his best album, but it is his most defining and thematically consistent. It opens up Kanye for the world to see, and how much you care affects how you enjoy the album. But you and I both know that you do want to look, if even just a little bit.

Hipster Rating:

9.0

Friend Review:

Happy New Year! I hope you are doing well.

Hip-hop has always been more of Taylor’s thing than mine. However I was excited to listen to this album after seeing all the hype it got on /mu/. This decade’s ITAOTS, whodathunkit? Then I saw Kanye West perform on Saturday Night Live. HOLY FUDGE. That was seriously one of the greatest SNL performances I’ve ever seen them. If you didn’t catch it, YouTube it right now. No seriously, open up a new tab and watch it right now, he performed “Power” and “Runaway”.

The only real contact I have with hip-hop is the shit that gets played on the radio, usually heard when I’m bumming a ride off a friend. The biggest fact I know about hip-hop is that I hate that crap. There are moments in this album that very much resemble the hits that all the kids are singing out there today. Rihanna’s part in “All of the Lights” is straight up painful to listen to. The greatest moments on MBDTF are when West is aggressive and has his own distinctive sound. Listen to “Dark Fantasy”, “Power”, “Monster”, “So Appalled”, and “Runaway”. These pieces are straight-up MOVING. I know this is probably the most hyped album of the year, and when I listen to these tracks I completely understand and at some points agree, but seeing as it only comprises about half of the album, I don’t think it makes up for the slower parts of the album which just feel like filler to me.

Friend Rating:

7.4

Coming up next, Belle & Sebastian Write About Love by Belle & Sebastian!

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

Taylor's Choice:

Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

Hipster Review:

Since their fifth release and double-album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, OutKast, the southern Hip-hop duo of Antwan "Big Boi" Patton and Andre "3000" Benjamin, has been something of a split force. However, this divisiveness gave the two rappers the opportunity to explore their creativity separately and to further discover themselves as artists. Although it can be argued that the two parts of the aforementioned double album were in fact their debut solo efforts, both are coming to a point to release their first official solo albums respectively. Big Boi's is the first one up, and after years and years label disputes and whatnot, Sir Lucious Leftfoot is finally here. And it's better than I could've imagined.
Big Boi uses this debut as an opportunity to show off his explosively creative musical mind, drawing from both retro and modern-day influences (that's not Auto-tune you're hearing on "Shutterbug," its a talk box - yeah, that talk box). Make no mistake, this album is firmly rooted in the mainstream Hip-hop sound; however, rather than using the cliched and dull-natured tools that rappers like Lil Wayne uses, Big Boi uses his mainstream position as a challenge to invent rather than stay the course, which is just what OutKast is known for. The tracks here are unusual and full of tricks and treats, and even the songs that stroll through the waters of modern rap are done in a way that distinguish themselves from any other artist's work. Big Boi is a fantastic rapper; his delivery is incredibly versatile and constantly changing from song to song, and his lyrics are thoughtful and sharp; even during moments when he's saying stuff that many have before, he says it in such a way that no other rapper could, using double entendres, puns, and various other tools of the english language that few rappers have the audacity, or even talent, to use. The music backing his rapping is fresh and exuberant, and while it is a mainstream sound, Big Boi is more sonically creative than your average MC. And his guest list is as dizzying as it is fitting; I'm not exactly a fan of Gucci Mane, but his spot on "Shine Blockas" (arguably the album's best track) is perfectly fitted for the song, and his quick, molasses-dripping lines finely contrast Big Boi's smooth, darting delivery. This is a rap album for the ages, and perfectly shows that while the mainstream may be dry, it nevertheless has its diamonds in the rough. Now all we need is Andre...

Hipster Rating:

9.1

Friend Review:

So it’s 12:20 a.m. the morning before I leave for orientation at A&M and I’m watching this really weird movie on Netflix. Ladies and gentlemen, can you imagine a better time to write a music review?

So before listening to “Sir Lucious Left Foot”, the closest I’d ever gotten to Big Boi was shaking it like a Polaroid picture in middle school. And even then, he wasn’t involved with “Hey Ya!” at all, as far as I know. This just goes to show that I was venturing out into uncharted waters with this dude. The first thing I have to say is, if you’re going to make an album, spell check is your friend. Heck, if you’re going to make anything, spell check is your friend. I’m of course referring to the fact that “Luscious” is misspelled on the cover of this album. I’ve been informed that this is because Big Boi pronounces “Luscious” as “Looshus”. Big Boi, this is no excuse. Get your spelling together. Your 7th grade English teacher is disappointed. I don’t even mind that Big Boi is spelled with an i, rather than a y, but the “Luscious” matter has got to be stopped. So, on to the stuff that really matters: the music. Overall, I was very pleased with the sound of the album. I listened to it while running and it had good flow. “General Patton” was one of the best tracks I’ve heard all year, full of energy and I felt like I could’ve run for miles while listening to it. While this album did sound good overall to me, it was not short of some major flaws. The lyrics become very bland throughout the album as one of the common topics is drugs. Alongside this there is a lengthy dialogue between Big Boi and a female which gets boring very quickly is absolutely unnecessary to the rest of the album. These two things just sounded like major clichés which resulted in a much lower rating than the album could’ve had. Big Boi is capable of producing a much better sounding album, he just needs to stick to his sound and fall away from everything that is overused and typical.

Friend Rating:

8.2

Coming up next, Jenna Fischer and Pam Beesley!

The Roots - How I Got Over

Taylor's Choice:

The Roots - How I Got Over

Hipster Review:

The Roots have quite a musically expansive career. Since the early 90's the group has been mixing hard social politics and diverse musical influences to create a volatile blend of Hip-hop, one that is in rare supply these days. And after their 2002 masterpiece Phrenology, the group began taking a more somber and angry tone; their politics rang with more conviction than ever before, and the music that accompanied the frenzied, hardcore rhymes was raw and powerful, like being hit in the face with a brick. In particular, their 2008 effort Rising Down had a certain darkness that was as worrying as it was captivating, and it further established The Roots as one of Hip hop's most unique acts. Then in 2009, the group became Jimmy Fallon's house band for his Late Night program, during which they began preparations for their follow-up.
And here it is, their ninth studio album. The first thing one will notice is that it's considerably uplifting in tone; while their passion and and fiery political mindset is far from absent, the group focuses less on the hopelessness of one's circumstances and more about him or her getting over them, hence the album title. The record's climate is more hopeful and celebratory, and it's definitely a good change of scenery; while their previous two albums were undoubtedly fantastic (partly BECAUSE of their dark overtones), it's nice to hear less doom and gloom this time around. While some tracks are more effective than others (sometimes the price of optimism is cliches), the album triumphs because of it's steady balance between slow-burning and pep. The album's most surprising and interesting tracks are built upon collaborations with indie acts of the past decade; "Dear God 2.0" is a reworking of Monsters of Folk's track from their debut last year, and "Right On" samples Joanna Newsom's "Book of Right-On" from her 2004 debut The Milk-Eyed Mender. Hell, the girls from Dirty Projectors sing a melodic, wordless harmony on the intro track. It's an album full of surprises, twists and turns, and while it's not their best it's nevertheless a unique addition to their canon.

Hipster Rating:

8.6

Friend Review:

Hellllloooooo loyal readers. Do we have loyal readers? I certainly hope so. How do you like the new layout? I think it’s pretty nice, the three columns are definitely helpful and everything’s more organized… I’ll mess around with it later.

Okay, so this is my first experience with The Roots in any form, I don’t think I’d ever heard a single song from them before this listen. My first impression with this album was, “Jeez, this is pretty groovy.” The entire album has a very swinging vibe to it. While it does sound great at first, there’s not really much variety throughout the album. The album is only 42 minutes long, but it really seemed a lot longer than that to me. After the first few songs on the album everything starts to get repetitive (how many times can you repeat the song title in one song?). While the album was still pretty enjoyable, these were definite setbacks. Besides that, all songs have great flow, the lyrics roll off the rappers’ tongues like butter and every distinguishable bass line is danceable with a nice groove. All in all, I can see The Roots’ talents shining through in the album, but it’s just not organized well enough to keep me interested. The Roots’ musicianship is amazing, but the structure is lacking in this work. I think that The Roots are capable of much more than this album and I’d be interested in hearing of more from their collection.

Friend Rating:

6.8

Coming up next, Serotonin by Mystery Jets!