F O U R T H E Y E

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you one of the great albums of our (and for Kittaan previous) generations albums. I always called this the crowing achievement in hip hop, as it transcends it. It's comparable to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club in terms of what that did for rock, this did for hip hop. Kanye fucking owned pop hip hop for the longest time, then went on to release 808's and heartbreaks, a fucking amazing album, but hated on by a lot of critics (most of which was redacted because critics are fucking idiots.) I knew Kanye was on point and different from other hip hop artists way back when he first released the video for The New Work Out Plan. As a reactionary artist I'm shocked that people we're suprised to see New Slaves on the new album, seeing how he included that poignant poem by Gil Scott-Heron "Comment No.1". As an aside this is one of the limited albums given a perfect 10 by that much maligned pitchfork, but fuck me if this isn't a perfect album.

Screams from the haters, guess it has a nice ring to it.

Definitely not a perfect album. Not sure what you means about being hated by critics, as I remember this being pretty much universally hailed as being good when it came out. Probably depends on what critics you're talking about - mainstream critics I certainly don't give any creedence to.

Personally I think the album is about a 6/10, but I'm really not one to be rendering too much judgement on hip hop albums. I commend Kanye's approach to hip hop, as he seems willing to push the boundaries of it a little, however largely the album didn't do much for me. Highlights for me were Dark Fantasy, Gorgeous, Hell of a Life and Power.

Kayne West is a fucking joke. This album isn't a classic hip hop album at all. A classic hip hop album would have been Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang 36 Chambers or A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory.

3 / 10

hellboy wrote:Definitely not a perfect album. Not sure what you means about being hated by critics, as I remember this being pretty much universally hailed as being good when it came out.

I was referring to 808's

Tool Sucks wrote:Kayne West is a fucking joke. This album isn't a classic hip hop album at all. A classic hip hop album would have been Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang 36 Chambers or A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory.

3 / 10

That's like saying Revolver is a classic album, not Dark side of the moon, deviating from a theme doesn't mean it's bad, embrace change, because hip hop is changing.

This is one such milestone.

Not Tyson wrote:

Tool Sucks wrote:Kayne West is a fucking joke. This album isn't a classic hip hop album at all. A classic hip hop album would have been Wu Tang Clan - Enter the Wu Tang 36 Chambers or A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory.

3 / 10

That's like saying Revolver is a classic album, not Dark side of the moon, deviating from a theme doesn't mean it's bad, embrace change, because hip hop is changing.

For the worse. The last good hip hop album from a new artist that was worth a shit was Tyler the Creator's Goblin and even that was cheesy at times. Hip hop is dead. There are still a few talented MCs around like Mos Def and Talib Kweli, but they are few and far between.

Tyler the Creator is horrible.

There is plenty of good hip hop out there.

Danny Brown just dropped a potential album of the year.

It's pretty pointless debating the merits of hip hop, as it seems to me no one here really listens enough for me to value their opinion. Let just stick with reviewing this album. Just because you think it sucks is not a good enough reason to try and bring down the whole genre with it.

Well, this album is very tame. I've heard this a few times before, but decided to give it a throw this morning just to see what's so "classic" about it.

It sounds very poppy, very radio friendly. Not really my kind of scene, unless that's the intention.

Still has flashes of gold, but for the most part, very average. I won't be listening to this again by choice.

5/10

The Boss wrote:Well, this album is very tame. I've heard this a few times before, but decided to give it a throw this morning just to see what's so "classic" about it.

It sounds very poppy, very radio friendly. Not really my kind of scene, unless that's the intention.

Still has flashes of gold, but for the most part, very average. I won't be listening to this again by choice.

5/10

Fair but ignorant comment, he always released radio friendly hip hop, this actually deviated from that, just as much as 808's and Heartbreaks, this album didn't even have a hit single, unlike all of his other albums. True this album is all pomp and majesty, but radio friendly? Hardly.

After you so much claimed he was a genius off one album you heard, perhaps you should listen to their entire work before commenting, not a criticism, just a suggestion.

I accept that criticism, and look forward to you schoolin' me in the future. I'm always open when it comes to this kind of thing.

Thanks brother, I was rather frank but honest, I expected my head to be bitten off, you're alright

Crow, you don't relate to this?

[youtube][/youtube]

I figured you'd sit me down and WEST me out anyway, so until then - it's a non-issue.

Okay just skip to the last 3 tracks and turn it up

hellboy wrote:It's pretty pointless debating the merits of hip hop, as it seems to me no one here really listens enough for me to value their opinion. Let just stick with reviewing this album. Just because you think it sucks is not a good enough reason to try and bring down the whole genre with it.

Um yeah fuck off with your dismissive bullshit. I guarantee I have listened to more hip hop than any other member on this forum. I am fully qualified to discuss this and any other hip hop album. Furthermore, being that this is a Classic album of the week thread, a debate on the nature of what would be considered classic in said genre is ABSOLUTELY on topic.

I was fairly bored with this. I think there are moments, but it's just not my thing. Kanye is very creative, but I'm just not that into what he's creating.

Two things that you should be ashamed of, Not Not Blowhard:

1) The fucking YouTube ads between each song - you should be banned from AOTW/CAOTW for that alone.
2) How the FUCK is an album from 2010 a "Classic"? - The nerve of you crawling up my ass for Beat. Kanye isn't fit to wipe Fripp's ass.

Kittaan wrote:I was fairly bored with this. I think there are moments, but it's just not my thing. Kanye is very creative, but I'm just not that into what he's creating.

Two things that you should be ashamed of, Not Not Blowhard:

1) The fucking YouTube ads between each song - you should be banned from AOTW/CAOTW for that alone.
2) How the FUCK is an album from 2010 a "Classic"? - The nerve of you crawling up my ass for Beat. Kanye isn't fit to wipe Fripp's ass.

Ok, so believe it or not, I've never listened to Kanye, so this is more like an AOTW for me. Other than his big singles which I'd imagine I've come across a few times over the years (though I couldn't tell you what those were). It's got nothing to do with his douchiness (which by the way, is probably an act, a damn good one too), it's just one of those things.

As for the whole "genre" knowledge conversation going on up there, who gives a shit what genre it is. A good album is a good album.

Anyway, this album is solid, but unspectacular. Kanye is ok at best as a rapper and most of the time gets overshadowed by the seemingly thousands of guest appearances (though to be fair this seems to be the norm in hip hop nowadays). The music, for the most part, is pretty good. I dug the out of nowhere King Crimson sample, even though (GASP) I'm not a huge fan of 21st Century Schitzoid Man.

So yea, solid stuff. "Runaway" is probably my favorite track on here.

6/10

I hate to defend Tyson, but really...

Kittaan wrote:
1) The fucking YouTube ads between each song - you should be banned from AOTW/CAOTW for that alone.

Adblock ftw

Kittaan wrote: 2) How the FUCK is an album from 2010 a "Classic"? - The nerve of you crawling up my ass for Beat. Kanye isn't fit to wipe Fripp's ass.

There are plenty of "Classic" albums released since 2010. For the sake of this thread, classic means the album is popular and critically acclaimed, rather than being of a particular age.

This first song is a parody.....right?

Kanye is over-rated ... he might as well be the media pushed popped princess of current times ... there is nothing classic, what-so-ever about any of his work ... maybe not quite a flash in the pan, but in 20 years, no one with any taste is gonna give a shit (anyone remember eminem or marylin manson? Do you still listen to them?) ... yeah, he'll be them in ten years save for the fact he'll probably own a label and an apparel company or two.

Plenty of people still listen to Eminem, are you crazy?

He sells out stadiums.

Yeah but he's complete shit now but the point still stands.

Also in regards to Kanye being pushed by the media, that's crazy as well, he's being pushed by hipsters at pitchfork and other noted music critics of our time. The last few albums haven't even produced a hit radio single and the album sales haven't been that generous compared to his pre 808s and Heartbreak album.

But you know what, Kanye don't give two shits about sales, he's an artist, one that's improving his artistic talent each and every album.

I understand you don't like the album, that's fine, I'm not defending the album, I'm defending your perception of him as someone pushed by the mega corporations to create hits, which is patently false.

Anyway.

MOG wrote:

hellboy wrote:It's pretty pointless debating the merits of hip hop, as it seems to me no one here really listens enough for me to value their opinion. Let just stick with reviewing this album. Just because you think it sucks is not a good enough reason to try and bring down the whole genre with it.

Um yeah fuck off with your dismissive bullshit. I guarantee I have listened to more hip hop than any other member on this forum. I am fully qualified to discuss this and any other hip hop album. Furthermore, being that this is a Classic album of the week thread, a debate on the nature of what would be considered classic in said genre is ABSOLUTELY on topic.

ummmm... OK ... to the first part ... I do concur on the latter, 'classic' portion of this statement

petemasterpete wrote:Kanye is over-rated ... he might as well be the media pushed popped princess of current times ... there is nothing classic, what-so-ever about any of his work ... maybe not quite a flash in the pan, but in 20 years, no one with any taste is gonna give a shit (anyone remember eminem or marylin manson? Do you still listen to them?) ... yeah, he'll be them in ten years save for the fact he'll probably own a label and an apparel company or two.

None of this makes any sense.