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mbdtf album cover

Review Post mbdtf album cover

We have Virgil Alboh to thank for so many classic Hip-Hop album covers. A legend. https://t.co/hrnfGadYI6

mbdtf album cover done with construction paper and pastel https://t.co/n17k3FhtQK

George Condo. Aka the guy who did Kanye's MBDTF album cover... Here's one of his works... http://t.co/J3Mm70H2bb

one week into quarantine: just beat to kanye’s mbdtf album cover https://t.co/kDJ8242K50

if only Kanye used this mbdtf album cover instead https://t.co/rsuT1sQQJd

the picture from the mbdtf album cover https://t.co/abfa2ArRZx

Still my absolute favorite MBDTF album cover. http://t.co/HKnxbiQWBQ

tried recreating mbdtf album cover in minecraft https://t.co/bYFJYLwIdj

so for my art final i did the mbdtf album cover with acrylic paint @kanyewest https://t.co/zjWlQwpLLx

The live album cover for MBDTF on Tidal https://t.co/VE50yfLF7A

Review Q&A mbdtf album cover

What do graphic designers think of Kanye West's The Life of Pablo album cover?

I have some experience in graphic design but I'm certainly not a professional. A lot of people seem to forget that after MBDTF, Kanye transitioned into attempting to create more progressive things, and progression is all about defying your expectations. Yes, granted that the artwork for Graduation and MBDTF were amazing, Kanye doesn't want to stick with something that works. Progressive art wants to challenge your taste in art and visuals. There's been a lot of mock cover albums made, but the thing about those are that upon seeing them, you would simply say, "oh that's tight!", but with this album cover, there's been discussion created in every forum, and even you (a Quora user) use asking a question about it. Just look at one of the covers for MBDTF. It's weird. It makes you think what the heck is going on. Like seriously why? It's graphic and creates controversy and that's exactly what Kanye is known for. The album cover for TLOP does exactly the same. It's strange and different. So while it may be a design that can be replicated in five minutes, it's nonetheless memorable.

Why did Kanye West ditch the bear as part of his album cover work after his first three albums?

The College Dropout,, ,Late Registration ,and ,Graduation, were chapters in his Graduation trilogy, three albums that used a theme of academic success and failure as a metaphor for personal growth. To reinforce the ideas behind this theme within the music, he used the bear as a visual theme on the cover art for consistency. Once the Graduation trilogy ended, he went in a completely different direction musically and visually. However, it’s worth mentioning that he didn’t entirely ditch the bear. When Kanye and George Condo collaborated on the cover art for ,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,, they created eight total album covers. In addition to the main cover art, in which Kanye was stradled by a nude phoenix woman, there were several alternative covers that were included in the album booklet and a few more covers that were leaked to the media, but went unused. One of the leaked covers was the original bear with a surrealist spin, as it has multiple mouths. The image of multiple mouths was used on several other MBDTF album covers, a symbol of Kanye’s reputation for being a blabbermouth. Though the MBDTF bear cover was not used, it is striking artwork and a sign that Kanye didn’t completely abandon the bear, and perhaps might still return to it someday in the future. Read more about MBDTF here: ,Aaron Ellis's answer to What is the image on the cover of Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"?

What are some less commonly known hip hop facts?

This list got out of control haha. *= Pretty sure is true but couldn’t verify. Jidenna applied, was accepted, and attended Stanford University because his guidance counselor said he would never get in. (1) ASAP Rocky invited a college professor who specializes in hallucinogenic drugs to observe him under the influence of psychedelics while recording ,TESTING,. (2) Ludacris’s father was childhood friends with Denzel Washington. (3) Drake wrote nice “Nice For What” during a paused match of ,NBA 2K. ,The whole song was complete in about 90 minutes. (4) P. Diddy purchased a $21.1 million painting by Kerry James Marshall, the most ever paid for the work of a living African-American artist. (5) Lil Wayne had his first child at 16 with his then-girlfriend after his mother professed her loneliness because he was often away on tour. (6) According to former professional athlete Chris Simms, Kyle Shanahan, the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers—an American football team, named his son Carter, after Lil Wayne. (7) Due the popularity of his “This Is America” music video and SNL Skit, Childish Gambino’s albums received a 419% sales increase. (8) Big Sean’s mother once shared acting classes with Denzel Washington. (9) Drake wrote “The Calm” off his ,So Far Gone, mixtape after an altercation with his uncle. (10) The Weeknd scrapped an entire album of upbeat music and released ,My Dear Melancholy, instead. (11) Lil Wayne’s favorite band is Nirvana. (12) When Elton John and his partner got their civil union, Eminem sent them two diamond cock rings to celebrate. (13) Bone Thugs-N-Harmony is the only group to work with 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Eazy-E, and Big Pun while all four were still alive. (14) YG’s ,My Krazy Life ,was originally titled, I’m From Bompton,. (15) Preme claims that Drake rewrites some of his rap verses up to 20 times. (16) Anderson .Paak originally performed under the moniker Breezy Lovejoy. (17) *Before Kanye West got signed as a rapper, he would occasionally jump on tables at label meetings and shout that he’s the next Michael Jackson. (18) Before landing on his own album, Tyler, the Creator’s “I Ain’t Got Time” was originally intended for Kanye West and later Nicki Minaj. (19) Kanye West never liked his most successful song to date, “Gold Digger”. He claims he made it because he knew it would make money. (20) Danny Brown is a quarter filipino. (21) Tyler, the Creator’s “Glitter” was originally written for Justin Bieber. (22) Before linking up with film score composer Jon Brion, who altered its musical direction, Kanye West’s ,Late Registration ,was about 75% complete by November of 2004—just 9 months after the release of ,College Dropout,. (23) Nine of Post Malone’s songs off his ,beerbongs & bentleys, album landed in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, breaking the record of six previously set by The Beatles in April of 1964 and tied by J. Cole with ,KOD,. (24) To ensure he did not have a ghostwriter, Eminem only allowed Kendrick Lamar (who showed up with some friends) in the studio to write and record his feature for their collaborative track “Love Game”. (25) Pusha T claims that Kanye West made him write and record his verse on “Runaway” multiple times, stating that he wanted him to sound like a “douchebag”. (26) When Kanye West performed an early version of his Grammy-winning song, “Jesus Walks” to a room of producers and A&Rs, he was mocked and laughed out of the room. (27) Eminem’s first big purchase was a house but he quickly sold it because fans would often pull into his driveway, jump in his pool, and knock on his door. (28) In 2010, 2Pac’s “Dear Mama” was added to the National Recording Registry in the library of Congress. (29) Joey Bada$$ originally attended Edward R. Murrow High School with ambitions of becoming an actor. He decided to focus on music after linking up with the would-be members of Pro Era, some of which were attending the same school. (30) When Kanye West’s mother, Donda West, was just 6 she was arrested for protesting by sitting in at a lunch counter in Oklahoma City. (31) In 2010, Eminem reported that his Donkey Kong arcade video game high score sat at 465,800. This would make him a world-class player, and one of the 30 or so best players on the planet at the time. (32) Pusha T’s favorite cartoon character is Space Ghost. (33) At the request of his grandmother, Common once phoned a then 14-year-old Chance The Rapper and left him words of encouragement. (34) J. Cole’s first thought when he met Jay Z was “Damn, I’m taller than Jay Z”. (35) When Vic Mensa was 17, he had a near-death experience after being struck with 15,000 volts of electricity while trying to sneak into Lollapalooza. (36) Kanye West’s ,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was originally titled ,Good Ass Job,. (37) Vince Staples enjoyed participating in science fairs when he was in middle school. (38) J. Cole attended St. John’s University with intentions of majoring in Computer Science. He quickly switched to Communications after seeing the lonely life of his programmer professor. (39) Some of Denzel Curry’s favorite cartoons includes ,The Powerpuff Girls,, ,Dragon Ball Z,, ,Samurai Jack,, ,Ed,,, Edd n Eddy,, and, Invader Zim,. (40) Kanye West made the beat to Jay Z’s “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” after Jay Z told him to imagine Biggie somersaulting down gold streets in heaven. (41) Boi-1da started working with Drake out of a rat-infested studio. (42) *Kid Cudi was expelled from High School because he threatened to punch his principal. (43) Lil Wayne, arriving to a party late, was once scolded by Stevie Wonder for talking during his piano performance. (44) Anderson .Paak was his class’s prom king. (45) Nas claims that Jay Z’s diss-track, “Takeover” left him so embarrassed that he didn’t move for three days. (46) Frank Ocean wrote the lyrics to his ,Channel Orange, album in two weeks. (47) When he was 12, ScHoolboy Q lost his virginity by having anal sex. (48) Before the success of Outkast, Big Boi planned to study Child Psychology at NYU. (49) The Weeknd wrote the lyrics to “Starboy” in 30 minutes. (50) Logic’s favorite character in ,Family Guy, is Brian. (51) It took Chance The Rapper 7 months to finish “Good Ass Intro”. (52) Eminem recorded “Lose Yourself” in one take. (53) It took Kendrick Lamar 6 months to finish “Alright”. (54) Eminem’s ,Marshall Mathers LP ,was nearly titled ,Amsterdam, because a fair portion of it was written there. (55) “I’m iller than standing in front of a gorilla holding a banana” is the lyric Royce Da 5′9 said that caught Eminem’s attention at a Detroit open mic night, leading to their friendship. (56) Eminem has read one book from cover to cover: LL Cool J’s ,I Make My Own Rules,. (57) Despite ,808s & Heartbreak, being Chance The Rapper’s least favorite Kanye West album, “Streetlights” is his favorite Kanye West song. (58) Because they share a similar tonality, Ghostface Killah initially mistook Action Bronson’s music for his own. (59) Wiz Khalifa said that he did not enjoy his first time smoking marijuana in the slightest. However, he was determined to be a “pothead” so he continued. (60) Drake believes that the best show on television at the moment is ,Ozark,. (61) Saba claims that Chance The Rapper did not remember him until the 3rd or 4th time he was introduced to him. (62) Kanye West believes that ,808s & Heartbreak ,and, Yeezus ,are better than, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,. (63) Snoop Dogg got his name from his mother: Because he watched the show ,Peanuts, so much, she once said to him that he’s starting to look like Snoopy, the dog. (64) Kendrick Lamar claims there was 3 or 4 different versions of ,good kid, m.A.A.d city,. (65) Black Thought’s High School public speaking class developed his impressive breathe control: Students would lay on their backs with an encyclopedia on their chest to learn circular breathing methods. (66) *Outkast originally called themselves “2 Shades Deep” and later “Misfits” but both names were in use. They decided on the unique spelling of “outcast” because it was one of the synonyms for “misfit” in a thesaurus. (67) Mac Miller, born Malcolm McCormick, was named after human rights activist Malcolm X. (68) Comedian Chris Rock believes that Kanye West’s ,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is the best album of the last 50 years. (69) Jay Z’s ,Reasonable Doubt, was originally titled ,Heir To The Throne,. (70) Tyler, the Creator claims he made the “Yonkers” beat in 8 minutes and the whole song was really just a joke. (71) Migos originally performed under the name “Polo Club”. (72) Kendrick Lamar was nearly signed to Jay Z’s Def Jam label when he was 17. (73) Big Sean graduated High School with a 3.7 GPA and was offered a scholarship to attend Michigan State University. He opted out, deciding to focus on music. (74) Saba skipped two grades, graduating High School at 16. (75) *J. Cole graduated High School with a 4.2 GPA. (76) Kanye West’s name originated from a book containing African names. It means “the only one” in Swahili. (An obvious nod to his 2014 single, “Only One”). (77) Inebriated, Chance The Rapper once nearly vomited on Kendrick Lamar at a house party. (78) Chance The Rapper stated that “Same Drugs” off his ,Coloring Book, project was the most difficult song to write and had about 20 versions, including one featuring singer-songwriter Regina Spektor. (79) *Outkast’s “Hey Ya!” music video is a loose parody of The Beatles 1964 performance on the Ed Sullivan Show. (80) Kanye West claims that Drake was the first artist to scare and put pressure on him. (81) The beat to J. Cole’s “Neighbors” is the beat to his “Forbidden Fruit,” backwards. (82) Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.” was the first record Drake ever purchased. (83) Logic claims he currently has several albums finished. (84) As teenagers, Black Thought and Questlove would skip school to listen to NWA’s ,Straight Outta Compton,. (85) ScHoolboy Q claims he could not read until he was nine. (86) Kendrick Lamar originally planned to have minimal, if any input on “Complexion (A Zulu Love)”. It was suppose to feature two verses from Rhapsody and Prince performing the chorus. (87) P. Diddy pays Sting $2,000 every day because he failed formally clear the sample of The Police’s “Every Breathe You Take”. (88) About 120 tracks were recorded for ,Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below,. (89) *Paul McCartney knighted Jay Z as “Sir Hova of Brooklyn” in an unofficial ceremony. (90) The Just Blaze-produced beat of Jay Z’s “Girls Girls Girls” was originally intended for Ghostface Killah. (Here’s a video of Ghostface Killah rapping over the beat: ,Ghostface Killah Freestyle 16 Bars for AOL,) (91) *To determine who appeared on each song on the Wu-Tang Clan’s ,Enter The Wu-Tang 36 Chambers,, RZA forced the group members to battle rap each-other. (92) Drake’s ,Nothing Was The Same, has not left the Billboard 200 since its release in 2013. (93) Some of Barack Obama’s favorite songs of 2017 includes “Butterfly Effect” by Travis Scott, “Chanel” by Frank Ocean, “Family Feud” by Jay Z featuring Beyoncé, “HUMBLE.” by Kendrick Lamar, and “Brocken Clocks” by SZA. (94) Guitarist Billy “Spaceman” Patterson stated that Frank Ocean has hours of unreleased ,Blonde ,and ,Endless ,recordings. (95) In a 2016 interview, Future claimed he had been going to the studio everyday for the last 5 years. Renee Rosenblum-Lowden, Jay Z’s grade-school teacher, stated that he was reading at a 12th grade level in the 6th grade. (97) *Kid Cudi planned on joining the Navy after dropping out of college. He was rejected because of his police record, being arrested for assault when he was 16. He claims he was just an innocent bystander to the assault. (98) J. Cole did not receive his College Diploma until 8 years after his graduation in 2007. He revealed the failure to pay for a library book caused them to withhold it. (99) Black Thought claims that he first met Questlove in their High School principal’s office. He was either about to be suspended or coming back from a suspension, while Questlove was bringing an apple to the principal. (100) Jidenna Talks College and New Album, 'The Chief', (About :15 seconds) A$AP Rocky talks about working with Tyler, The Creator and Frank Ocean in new interview Denzel Does a Mean Jay-Z Impression on The Queen Latifah Show, (About :03 seconds) Drake Wrote "Nice For What" While Playing 'NBA 2K' With Murda Beatz P. Diddy revealed as the buyer of the $21 million Kerry James Marshall painting The Life Story of Lil Wayne (Full Movie), (About 12:20) 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan named his son after Lil Wayne, according to Chris Simms Childish Gambino's Album Sales Rise 419% in Wake of 'This Is America' Release and 'SNL' Performance Give It All to Me: Big Sean's XXL Cover Story - XXL Drake - My Favourite Verse ("The Calm") | SoulCulture TV, (About :15) The Weeknd Talks Fame, Love, & 'My Dear Melancholy' With 'TIME' Lil Wayne Talks 50 Cent, Cocaine & Rock Music Flashback: Elton John and Eminem Unite N/A YG Interview - What he's afraid of, white people dropping the N bomb, why he's annoyed with Disney., (About 1:00) Preme Says Drake Rewrites His Verses Up To 20 Times Before Anderson .Paak - The Complete Guide to Breezy Lovejoy - CentralSauce ♫ Couldn’t verify. Tyler, The Creator Wanted Kanye West & Nicki Minaj on "I Ain't Got Time!", Both Declined Kanye West. Zane Lowe. Full Interview, (About 17:45) Who Is Danny Brown?Filipino Tyler, the Creator Wrote 'Glitter' for Justin Bieber & 5 Other Things We Learned From Jerrod Carmichael Chat Kanye West And John Mayer Collaborate But Won't Elaborate Post Malone Surpasses The Beatles & J. Cole For The Most Concurrent Top 20 Hits On The Hot 100 Eminem Tested Kendrick Lamar to Prove He Didn't Use a Ghostwriter, According to Ed Sheeran Kanye West: Project Runaway (Cover Story) Kanye West Was Apparently Laughed at While Playing an Early Version of "Jesus Walks" Eminem Interview (MTV, 2002) Tupac Shakur Honored By Library of Congress Joey Bada$$ on "Being His Own Role Model", Lecturing at Harvard/NYU + Kills the 5 Fingers of Death, (About 2:30) Kanye West: VH1 Driven (Full Episode), (About 2:13) Eminem's Donkey Kong Ambitions PUSHA T ✖ MONTREALITY ➥ Interview 2014, (About 3:40) Common left a voicemail for a young fan 10 years ago. That fan is now Chance the Rapper J. Cole Talks Roc Nation, Meeting Jay-Z & 'The Warm Up' Mixtape Vic Mensa Almost Died Trying to Sneak Into Lollapalooza Kanye West Explains Why He Dropped Good Ass Job Album Title Vince Staples gets political J. Cole's Tales Out of School - Interview Magazine DENZEL CURRY x MONTREALITY ⌁ Interview An Oral History Of Jay Z’s ‘The Blueprint’ Boi-1da Shares Stories Behind Drake's "Started From The Bottom" Couldn’t verify. Off Tha' Wall: Lil Wayne talks Skating, Guilty Pleasures & His New Shoe Line Nardwuar vs. Anderson .Paak, (About 2:05) An Oral History Of Jay Z’s ‘The Blueprint’ 17 things we learned from Frank Ocean's first interview in years SCHOOLBOY Q x MONTREALITY ⌁ Interview SPIN The Weeknd On Working On I Feel It Coming And Starboy With Daft Punk LOGIC x MONTREALITY /// Interview 2013 Chance The Rapper Speaks On Good Ass Intro (R&R) Hip-Hop Gem: Eminem Recorded Lose Yourself In One Take Kendrick Lamar Talks to Rick Rubin About “Alright,” Eminem, and Kendrick's Next Album SPIN Royce Da 5'9" Reveals The “Terrible” Punchline That Caught Eminem’s Attention Eminem: On the Road Back From Hell Chance The Rapper Reveals His Favorite Kanye West Song, (,See the Reactions to Chance the Rapper's Kanye West Ranking,) Ghostface Killah: I've Confused Action Bronson's Voice w/ My Own Wiz Khalifa Talks About The First Time He Smoked Drake on Acting, Music, His Mom, & "Triumphant Moments" | THR Saba Interview: Chicago MC & Chance the Rapper's Secret Weapon Kanye Says 'Yeezus' and '808s' Is Better Than 'MBDTF' - XXL 20 Stories Behind Rappers' Stage Names: Waka Flocka, Jay-Z & More Kendrick Lamar Says He Made Three or Four Versions of 'good kid, m.A.A.d city' J.PERIOD on Twitter Couldn’t verify. Mac Miller Interview With The Breakfast Club (9-22-16), (About 23:00) Chris Rock Says Kanye West’s ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ Is The Best Album Ever - XXL Jonathan Mannion Tells All: The Stories Behind His 25 Favorite Album CoversJay-Z, Reasonable Doubt (1996) Tyler, the Creator: "Yonkers" Was Made As a Joke These Are Migos' Real Names & Everything Else You Wanted To Know Kendrick Lamar Speaks On Previously Being Signed To Def Jam Big Sean On How He Met Kanye West, (About 4:30) Saba's West Side Story Is One Worth Listening To J. Cole Reminisces on MTV's 'When I Was 17’ - Rap-Up Kanye West: VH1 Driven (Full Episode), (About :38) Nardwuar vs. Chance The Rapper, (About 8:10) https://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/4je7ig/hey_this_is_chance_coloringbook_is_out_ask_me/d35w227/, and ,https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/740947189422272512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgenius.com%2FChance-the-rapper-same-drugs-lyrics&tfw_site=Genius Couldn’t verify. Kanye West’s La Dolce Vita [Cover Story Excerpt] - XXL J. Cole’s “Neighbors” Beat Is “Forbidden Fruit” Reversed | Genius News Drake Talks About His First Paycheck , First Kiss, and First Fight In Life! Logic Says He Has “Several Albums That Are Finished” Ice Cube Made His Son Work Hard for a Straight Outta Compton Role ScHoolboy Q Talks How He Got Kanye West on his Song, He Almost Quit Rapping + Couldn't Read Until 9!, (About 16:55) Here's How Prince Almost Appeared on Kendrick Lamar's 'Complexion (A Zulu Love)' Sting & Shaggy Come Together For Reggae Music, Talk Lifestyle Changes, Old Hits + More, (About 7:20) John Frye: Recording Outkast Couldn’t verify. Hip-Hop Gem: Just Blaze Originally Made “Girls, Girls, Girls” For Ghostface Killah Couldn’t verify. Top 200 Albums Barack Obama shares his favorite songs of 2017 Frank Ocean Has Hours of Unreleased Blonde and Endless Recordings Future Has Been In The Studio Every Day For The Past 5 Years JAY-Z's Sixth Grade Teacher Speaks On A Young Scholar Couldn’t verify. J. Cole Finally Receives His College Diploma 8 Years After Graduation Jimmy Interviews The Roots' Black Thought About His Epic 10-Minute Freestyle, (About 3:45) Cheers,.

If Kanye was asked to rank his albums, how do you think he would rank them?

A2A: There are various factors to consider and this is a multi-faceted question that requires some deep-diving into Kanye’s psyche. The most important thing to consider is that West is constantly changing his musical tastes, so the best way to approach this question is to cut off a specific segment of time and try to get into his mind and think like Kanye would about what’s important to him. At present, Kanye’s evaluations of his work will undoubtedly be tinged with recency bias, as Kanye’s earnest belief is that his musical trajectory is one of constant progress. Needless to say, the public doesn’t necessarily agree with that evaluation. For the purposes of this question, I’m going to assume that at some point post-career, Kanye’s going to sit on a porch in Calabasas or Marina Del Rey somewhere, drink some Hennessy or lemonade and ask himself this very question. I must, of course, qualify this by saying that we’re assuming Kanye’s musical career ends following the release of The Life of Pablo, since we can’t know about any future projects. Without further ado: ,“Me Pretending I’m Kanye West Ranking His Own Albums if His Career Ended Today” 9. Cold Summer Yeah, no. Somewhat Notable tracks: “Mercy,” “New God Flow,” “Don’t Like Remix” 8. Watch the Throne I’m not going to make any claims about how Kanye feels about Jay Z or hint that this has anything to do with any existing personal antipathy he might feel for Jay. I will, however, advise that Mr. Carter’s relationships with his business associates tend to end on sour notes following their run (look to Roc-A-Fella for examples: Jaz-O, Amil, Beanie Sigel, Damon Dash, Kareem Burke, et al.). Given Carter’s recent tendency toward respectability politics and a seeming obsession with sliding into stuffier privileged circles, he’s generally distanced himself from Kanye and his reality T.V. family shenanigans of late. Does this extrapolate into sour feelings later in life? Who knows? Add to that possibility the fact that WTT was a side project that took on life following his recording sessions for ,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — ,and that it robbed Kanye of his chance to win Album of the Year at the Grammy’s by dividing voters — and it’s a real case this might end up being Kanye’s least favorite album. ,MBDTF ,was a prohibitive favorite to win the AotY Grammy (it completely crushed year-end lists) but his early release of WTT in a way precluded due attention on the worthier effort. What sucks is that Watch the Throne actually spawned some great tracks. In the lens of Kanye, however, its gold Ricardo Tisci-designed cover might lose a little luster given its proximity to ,MBDTF. Notable Tracks: ,“No Church in the Wild,” “Otis,”, “Paris,”, ,“Who Gon’ Stop Me,”, ,“Why I Love You.” 7. Graduation Those who followed Kanye earlier in his career (eg. the Freshmen Adjustment mixtapes) know that a great deal of the material on ,Graduation ,was recycled lyrically and re-conceptualized under a different musical arrangement. Though just about everyone loves at least three or four tracks on the album, from a Kanye perspective, it was one of his most ephemeral efforts. The Takashi Murakami-commissioned Japanese cover art is now a gaudy mid-to-late-aughts signifier, and the lyrical references haven’t aged very well (why is there a song called “Barry Bonds” [and why does it suck]? Who is Kate Moss?). The interpolation of Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger” helped to usher EDM back into the U.S. mainstream music consciousness, but that might be the single most lasting impact of the album. And disagree if you like, but the numbers don’t lie: EDM itself is already dying. Notable Tracks: ,“Flashing Lights,”, “I Wonder,” “Stronger,” “Homecoming” 6. The Life of Pablo Remember, we’re assuming his career ends on this album and this is twenty+ years down the road, and even then it’s likely Kanye doesn’t look back on this project as fondly as the next ,or previous, ones on this list (in the West canon, I’d put it WAY behind ,Graduation,). It’s the first time that West’s lyrical content seems a step behind the cutting edge of hip-hop, made stunning by the fact that “old Kanye” was the one so influential as to practically birth artists who are now his contemporaries. Still, West’s lyrical mission seems aligned behind what Kendrick Lamar is currently doing. Only now, the student Lamar completely surpasses West’s lyrical gifts and artistically impactful expressions of culture. West’s demeanor comes off like the slurred drawl of a disillusioned sybarite, whereas Lamar’s unique mix of passion and genius seems to drip from every couplet and internal rhyme. Make no mistake, ,TLOP, was well-received, kind of like a early-days Cavaliers game where LeBron James puts up 30 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. Supreme talent coasting and mailing in a brilliant performance by a lesser individual’s standards. But the implacable feeling that West was losing his grip on the game to Kendrick Lamar was cemented in this effort. The album didn’t quite jibe like it must have in his head when he was making it, especially considering the album’s well-publicized foibles in utero and the piss-poor quality of lyrical content. By the way, who in the blue hell wrote these moronic nursery rhymes? “I bet me and Ray J would be friends… if we ain’t love the same bitch… ‘Ye mad he hit it first… Only problem is I’m rich (fades and echoes/pause for canned laughter).” Or that line about the t-shirt and the model. It’s shallow and asinine rhymes like these that make me long for 50 Cent rhyming “gun” with “fun.” As for this album? So done. Notable Tracks: ,“Famous,”, “Freestyle 4,” ,“Ultralight Beam,”, “No More Parties in L.A.” 5. Yeezus Of the album processes that showed a profound impact on Kanye’s life, I’d say Yeezus is perhaps the most seminal to his following work (unless we’re assuming West particularly enjoyed the use of AutoTune, in which case, well, you know which one was more seminal). What West termed “aspirational minimalism” was the result of Rick Rubin doing a last-minute stripping of elements that he might have made room for in previous albums. This establishes a couple things: (1) West was listening to critics who were complaining about the instrumental bloat in his tracks, and (2) Until ,Yeezus,, it felt as if he didn’t quite know how to produce beats any other way. Sparse synth lines, industrial sounding guitar loops, and a crisp flow that sounds immensely polished resulted in an album that was a huge, challenging departure for hip hop fans to digest, and marked a further shift into West exploring themes of Afro-centrism. West ditches the lyrical nuance of his ,MBDTF, efforts and plunges into the void, using snippets of emotion (like the primal scream in “I Am a God,” or the ferocity of a string of nursery rhymes about the Hamptons) and re-arranging and re-contextualizing them to make a much more poignant statement about what it means to be black, rich and famous in 2013 than he did in ,WTT,. Would he consider it his best work? Well, from this point on, it’s actually up for debate. Notable Tracks: ,“New Slaves,”, ,“Blood on the Leaves,” ,“Black Skinhead,” “On Sight.” 4. Late Registration I can pinpoint the moment Kanye West became, in my eyes, a household name. It was when “Gold Digger” was enjoying a massive run atop the Billboard Hot 100 and the song was playing inside a sandwich shop. A lady looking at least 75 years old comes in, back hunched over, as “get off my lawn” as you could possibly look, and says in the most disapproving tone: “Kanye West {she pronounced it perfectly} totally ruined this great Ray Charles song.” Most Kanye fans will tell you that ,College Dropout ,was his ,Reasonable Doubt,. If that analogy holds, ,LR ,was his ,Hard Knock Life, ,the moment that (along with “George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People”) launched him into the public consciousness and made him a cause-célèbre forever and ever. What made LR so significant wasn’t just that we all loved it; it was that Kanye loved it more than all of us. He ran up on stage in defense of his album, went on ridiculous rants because of this album, and generally lost his mind about awards shows. The way Kanye reacted to the critical reception of Late Registration told us something: Somewhere, intrinsically, Kanye cares what all of us think. If what we think is not in line with what he thinks, it bothers the fuck out of him. It’s my theory that no matter how much he expresses otherwise in public at present, there’s still unsettled barbershop fodder rolling around in his head about the awards performances of his previous albums. Which is to say, Kanye isn’t necessarily an idiot savant trailblazer he paints himself to be; his musical style and his train of thought is at least partially reactionary in scope as long as those reactions pertain to something that was about him. The underrated part about Kanye’s newfound visibility was that it gave West the mainstream legitimacy and budgetary means to exploit his musical gifts and experiment with live instrumentation. ,Late Registration,’s liner notes for musical contributors reads like a phone directory. It was West at his maximalist best; at least until c. 2010. Notable Tracks,: ,“Hey Mama,” “Gold Digger,” “Heard ’Em Say,” “We Major,” “Diamonds from Sierra Leone,” “Gone,” “Roses,” “Drive Slow” 3. 808s and Heartbreak Before I start this explanation, I need every Kanye fan to put their guns and pitchforks down. I have this theory that every truly great, transcendent Kanye West album has come after a period of tremendous, excruciating personal hardship for him. Of course for 808s, it was the unexpected and sudden passing of his mother, which had a profound effect on him as an artist and as an individual. That said, there simply is no argument that ,808s and Heartbreak, was the second most influential album Kanye ever put out, aside from ,College Dropout,. Why, you ask? Because this album gave birth to Drake. It made confessional rap more than just a one-off track for the ladies or a liquor spilling tribute to ones’ homies on every gangster rap record. It made it REALLY OK to be “soft” in rap. Most importantly, it humanized hip hop as an art form in the eyes of an America that too-commonly (and subtly in a racist way) associated it with a propaganda-like promotion of gang violence, drug-dealing, misogyny, homophobia and Uncle Kracker. For those of you who weren’t around for the hip hop Medieval era we call the ’90s, there were two ways you were going to sell rap records during that decade: act like a hardened misogynistic gangster archetype (preferably one who’s had his share of drug-dealing or potentially lethal experiences), ,or, have the name “Marshall Mathers” or “Will Smith.” To be honest, that was about it, and no, we’re not counting “being signed to Rawkus” as “selling albums.” 808s was a watershed moment for hip hop because it firmly marked the turning point away from gangster rap as the dominant form in hip hop. Auto-Tune gave Kanye free rein to start expressing hip hop lyrics musically, and the resultant album was sweeping, cinematic, futuristic and altogether gorgeous and musically tenable on its own legs, without relying on the tough-guy bravado and resplendent mafioso fantasies painted by his predecessors. It also had this effect: People who didn’t necessarily like rap were able to find something they liked about 808s because things like being in love with someone and wanting them to be faithful, or bemoaning how someone could “be so heartless” tend to resonate with, you know, everyone. Notable Tracks,: ,“Love Lockdown,” “Heartless,” “Amazing,” “Paranoid,” ,“Street Lights” 2. College Dropout Oh, boy… I can already see the angry responses. If you’re reading this, you already know that a lot of the points I raised for 808s and Heartbreak are similar to the reasons why ,College Dropout, was so significant. CD sowed the seeds for a shift away from the gangster aesthetic and proved, to at least record companies who wanted to make money, that confessional and socially conscious rap could sell even if your name wasn’t Mos Def or Talib Kweli. Going back to the point about tremendous difficulty spawning Kanye’s best work, I mean, forget the car accident for a second: The actual process of getting signed to a major label for Kanye was a massive shitshow delineated in painstaking detail in ,“Last Call.” And then the car accident: Without “Through the Wire,” the trajectory of Kanye’s entire career comes into question. Does he ever sow that seed that grows into this generation’s biggest cultural force, or ever get the opportunity to prove himself right? Does he ever get one of the choice spots on the Roc-A-Fella roster and get artistic license to work on Late Registration, Graduation, et al.? Does he have his preternatural fearlessness and the stomach-churning work ethic that comes after a near-death experience? Does his only major label rap contribution end up being that unforgivably shitty feature on ,Blueprint 2,’s “The Bounce?” Even the visuals for the track were genre-bending, with little slice of life clips from around Chicago being framed into polaroid shots on a giant board. In 2003? This was some groundbreaking shit, people. The execs (cough, Dame and Jay) were going to have him rapping “Through the Wire” next to a pool surrounded by women, which would be the life equivalent of hosting your wedding reception at Chuck E. Cheese. And then you listen to the other tracks on the album: ,“All Falls Down,”, ,“Slow Jamz,”, ,“Jesus Walks,”, ,“Never Let Me Down,”, ,“Family Business,” ,and you realize, you know what? Maybe Kanye would have been alright anyway. But in Kanye’s mind, does all of this make it his favorite? Well, it depends. Do all artists look back on their earliest work fondly, or do they, like Kanye does, tend to think of their development as being a strict trajectory of evolution towards an abstract ideal? My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Out of all the rap albums that usually get cited as being “the closest to perfection,” it’s usually ,Illmatic ,that gets the first nod. Nas’ virtually perfect LP sounded like an album rapped by someone who’d been waiting his entire life for the chance to spit bars on wax, like he had spent his entire life writing rhymes into his little notebook, was found by a super-collective of the world’s most talented beatmakers all bringing their absolute A-game, and the rest was just magic synergy. MBDTF ,is of that ilk. As time passes, even with Kendrick Lamar losing his shit on records and outrapping every wannabe contemporary back into a job at Target and tucking sensitive rappers back in their pajama clothes, ,MBDTF ,loses none of its luster, its timelessness a testament to how effectively it captured and refactored the soul of hip hop. This was an album that could have only been made by a person who was psychotic enough to try it, with the resources to do it, and the exposure and appropriate context for it to succeed. In short, it was an album that only one artist could have possibly even attempted with the hope of success. And like what has become West’s life story: Against all odds, it succeeded. I’d argue that the period following Taylorgate (or as I’d like to call it, “Kanye advertising his bedroom prowess prior to complimenting Beyonce”) was the most trying period of his life. His relationship with Amber Rose had ended (Making a stripper famous by the Clinton method as a coping mechanism to deal with your mother’s loss… and then being cheated on by said stripper, only for her to go chasing a shoddy flavor of the month artist, generally leads to an egomaniac bottoming out in life.) To add to these mounting losses, Kanye’s public persona was seemingly beyond repair. All but his most ardent fans (and even some of those) saw it as the end of Kanye West’s cultural relevance. And yet when we write him off is when his work seems to exert an amazing gravitational pull. Critics engaged in self-flagellation and garment-rending over its brilliance. We all lost our shit. I still get chills when I listen to GIl Scott-Heron’s voice on loop, asking “Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America? Who will survive in America?” If not Kanye, who, indeed? Notable Tracks: ,“Gorgeous,” “Power,” “All of the Lights,” “Runaway,” “So Appalled,” “Monster,” “Devil — ,actually you get the idea. There isn’t a single dud on this album. Which is why I strongly believe that, in retrospect, Kanye will look upon ,MBDTF ,as his most complete and flawless work. And for once, every goddamn person outside of Anthony Fantano would agree with him.

How has Kanye West's music evolved over the years?

This is a two-pronged question that branches into Kanye West, the producer, and Kanye West, the rapper. As a Producer West was initially famous for being a hip-hop producer who looped samples of soul records and sped up the vocals to achieve a sound industry people referred to as "chipmunk soul." He got his start as an underground producer and had co-production credits including "Poppa Was a Playa" for Nas' ,Lost Tapes, album (rec. c. 1999). West would take soul records, speed them up or slow them down and add a drum loop, as was the case with "Can't Be Life" off Jay-Z's ,The Dynasty: Roc La Familia (2001) ,album where he sampled Harold Melvin's "I Miss You" and admitted to biting off Dr. Dre's drum loop from "Xplosive." Soul Sampling and Instrumentation in Early Solo Album Efforts This tendency to sample sound bites or records he's heard and combining them with other instruments or forward-thinking drum patterns was his production modus operandi. West stuck with this soul-oriented sound in all of his prior work (production only through Freshmen Adjustment mixtapes, ,College Dropout, Late Registration,) and then tinkered with live instrumentation (juxtaposing a live harpsichord with a sample of Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever" on "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" and a live orchestra for "Gone" and "Bring Me Down" on ,Late Registration,). The overall effect was a more pop-friendly sound that began the shift away from darker, more menacing "gangster-rap" beats (think of the clean bass lines on "In Da Club") and toward a mainstream that might not have listened to hip hop previously. Branching Out Into the Mainstream: Synthesizers and ,808s Though Kanye had shown signs of using synthesizers even on tracks such as "Celebration" on ,Late Registration,, it was on ,Graduation, that the synth-wave took full hold. Tracks like "Stronger," "I Wonder," "Good Life," and "Flashing Lights" incorporated a significant amount of synth work that served as the driving melodic instrument in his production. During this period, Kanye also revealed work sampling work from more pop-oriented acts, including Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" on "Champion," and Elton John's "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" on "Good Morning." T-Pain's use of Auto-Tune on Graduation's "Good Life" also seems to have had some influence on West, who used the Auto-Tune vocoder to record his guest verse for Young Jeezy's "Put On" (2008). This would influence a lot of the vocal work he did on ,808s and Heartbreak, ,which released later in November of the same year, his first solo album effort after the loss of his mother. 808s was by and large a melancholy foray into the use of Auto-Tune. Much of the instrumentation was synth-and-piano driven, with minimal use of samples, but it showcased Kanye's abilities as a legitimate songwriter and producer. The Taylor Swift Incident, Kanye basically went into hiding after the MTV VMA fiasco in which he upstaged America's favorite tall, pretty white girl for one of the cutest videos ever made. The public relations fallout was real. Most people thought Kanye's relevance as a mainstream act was essentially over. And then... My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy + Watch the Throne, ,... ,Kanye dropped an instant classic that essentially served as an amalgamation of all of the above, only to the ,n,th degree, only more bombastic, more beautiful, more troubled. The best quote I ever read about the album was that it was Kanye as a sort of musical Picasso, someone who reimagined the boundaries of form by clipping out pieces of sound and rearranging them to imbue them with new meaning. It is, to this day, a mindblowing accomplishment in sample-centered production, the closest thing to a perfect rap album since Nas' ,Illmatic, in 1994. Writing about his production techniques in MBDTF will take longer than my attention span will permit, so we're moving on. ,Watch the Throne, saw some of the same maximalist production cues from MBDTF albeit with less polish and some pretty lazy sampling (see "Who Gon' Stop Me"), but it was some of the lyrics and the fact that it so closely followed what will be judged as one of the best albums of this generation that ultimately doomed ,WTT. Yeezus, Kanye continues into art-house territory, incorporating industrial rock (Marilyn Manson, for fuck sake) and more electronic synths, but as opposed to the sound on all of his previous records, it's incredibly sparse. West himself referred to it as "aspirational minimalism," but Rick Rubin's hand in stripping down elements and undoing what must have been the considerable bloat of a Kanye track resulted in his darkest, most challenging production work yet. As for what's next in Kanye's production style? No one can really say, which is part of what makes it great. Rumor has it another 808s is on the way, but I think West is far from finished when it comes to producing music. Kanye's greatest asset throughout his entire career is his remarkable taste in music. Sure, he makes tacky comments every once in a while (like how Beck beating out Beyonce was in some way disrespecting artistry), but all things considered Kanye's treatment of genre, re-contextualization and unique, near-perpetually-relevant juxtapositions of musical forms will be his trademark. The sky is the limit for Kanye; here's to hoping he doesn't get swallowed up by his own sense of self-importance. As a Rapper, I will be treating Kanye's lyrics as his own in spite of rumors and suggestions that he employs ghostwriters or that he does not deserve all of the credit in his raps (cough, Drake). Kanye's raps have, from the beginning of his career to present, seemed far more personally involved and confessional in nature than his initial counterparts'. This has, in turn, influenced a new generation of rappers who eschewed the brash "overdog" persona of the hip-hop artist in favor of something far more emotionally involved and vulnerable (cough, Drake). The subjects of his lyrics have evolved from simplistic treatises on materialism and some strong Afrocentric themes to far more nuanced and focused social commentary on the two topics while incorporating his musings on fame and some of his personal struggles and public controversies. Kanye did, in all likelihood, write some of his earlier raps, and even went so far as to perform parts of his verses from "All Falls Down" on ,Def Poetry Jam,. Themes of materialism as a form of imprisonment (or "new enslavement") and the struggle of the successful black American's finding his/her place in America is a common thread in West's work, though most noticeable in albums such as ,The College Dropout,, ,Late Registration, MBDTF ,and ,Yeezus., West's personal philosophy is probably best summarized in the third verse from "All Falls Down," where he raps, "Fuck the police that's how I treat 'em You buy your way out of jail but you can't buy freedom We buy a lot of clothes but we don't really need 'em Things we buy to cover up what's inside And they made us hate ourselves and love they wealth that's why Shorties holla 'Where the ballas at,' Drug dealer buy Jordans crackhead buy crack, and the white man get paid off of all of that, But I ain't even gonna act holier-than-thou 'Cause fuck it, I went to Jacob [the Jeweler] with 25-thou Before I had a house and I'll do it again, Because I wanna be on 106th & Park pushin' a Benz I wanna act ballerific like it's all terrific I got a couple past due bills I won't get specific I got a problem with spending before I get it We all self-conscious I'm just the first to admit it." [Sorry if I misquoted/improperly inserted breaks, I'm going off of memory] Note the proliferation of Afro-centric themes, including the references to whites as "they" and a reference to N.W.A.'s "Fuck the Police." Kanye was never a lightweight with the pen, but "All Falls Down" aptly captured his humble beginnings as a rapper. This is especially in consideration to what I believe to be his technical zenith as a rapper, on the track "Gorgeous," where he addresses similar themes but on a completely separate plane of complexity and with some humor mixed in. "Penitentiary chances, the devil dances, and eventually answers to the call of autumn, all them fallin', for the love of ballin' you caught with 30 rocks the cop look like Alec Baldwin Inter-century anthems, they spark inner city tantrums Based off the way we was branded, but face it, Jerome get more time than Brandon, and at the airport they check all through my bags And tell me that it's random, But we stay winnin', this week has been a bad massage I need a happy endin', and a new beginning, and a new fitted And some job opportunities that's lucrative, This the real world, homie school finished They done stole your dreams you don't know who did it I treat the cash the way the government treats AIDS, I won't be satisfied until all my n---as get it. Get it?" [Sorry again if I misquoted/improperly inserted breaks, I'm going off of memory] Here, Kanye sounds far more jaded, far more clever and just chock full of witty one-and-two liners and superior internal rhyming. There's a rumor that it wasn't written by West himself. If it was, it's a testament to just how much he has evolved as a rapper. Vocally, his flow (or command of the rhythm with his voice) sounds much more confident in syncopation (he absolutely nails the opening quintuplet on "penitentiary," where he would have struggled or sounded more chunky before, usually due to noticeably poor breath control on his earlier albums that led to him developing a trademark over-emphasis on rhyming vowels). With ,Yeezus, ,West "evolves" into a more simplistic, visceral form of rapping that was met with mixed reviews (some critics said his lyrics sounded rushed in comparison to his efforts on ,MBDTF,, which might have some truth to it, but it got the message across). On the track "New Slaves," West engages with his most important topics armed with a newfound emotional zest. I'll move my family out the country So you can't see where I stay So go and grab the reporters So I can smash their recorders See they'll confuse us with some bullshit Like the New World Order Meanwhile the DEA Teamed up with the CCA They tryna lock niggas up They tryna make new slaves See that's that privately owned prisons Get your piece today They prolly all in the Hamptons Braggin' 'bout what they made Fuck you and your Hampton house I'll fuck your Hampton spouse Came on her Hampton blouse And in her Hampton mouth Y'all 'bout to turn shit up I'm 'bout to tear shit down I'm 'bout to air shit out Now what the fuck they gon' say now? [This was copy and pasted] Here Kanye tackles actually a very specific concept that illustrates one of the key problems facing black Americans: The prison industrial complex, which systematically takes advantage of imprisoned males to perform menial labor for American corporations. It's a serious allegation with some very real implications, and yet he didn't need too many words to get it across to us. His vulgar diatribe involving the Hamptons is just dripping with angst and ferocity, but on paper just looks repetitive. West channels emotion with his lyrics and gives it a stage, letting his production (a sparse combo of plinking synth patterns and a menacing, grinding bassline) take a backseat. As West continues to evolve as a musician and lyricist, he seems to extrapolate into even more minimalism. I don't think he'll ever push the envelope production-wise quite as hard as he did with ,Yeezus,, but I think the days of the Kanye West from ,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, are also behind us. Where Kanye goes from here? No idea, but then again, after this many changes in his career, it should be kind of easy to see why we're still fans.

Why are some people on Quora so concerned about Kanye West?

TLDR: ,Kanye West is arguably the most captivating and frustrating figure in pop culture. The questions about him reflect the many ways in which the media and the public at large struggle to fully understand him. I write many answers about music - particularly rap - and I have written several posts and answers about Kanye. Until reading this question, it never occurred to me that there was too much Kanye on Quora. My assumption is that you're someone who doesn't like Kanye, so seeing just two questions about him is two questions too many. Fair enough. He's not for all tastes. To answer your question, Kanye West is the most complex, controversial, talented, bewildering, fascinating, and unpredictable person in pop culture. Unlike many other musicians, actors, politicians, and other public figures who act in understandable ways, Kanye seemingly acts without reason and always speaks without a filter. His motivations are always unclear, whether it's ranting on television about George W. Bush hating black people, punching a paparazzo, declaring himself to be the greatest man in the world, or marrying Kim Kardashian, Kanye has a public WTF moment at least once a month. It's quite a paradox: his albums are smart, socially conscious, meticulously planned, and innovative, yet he acts dumb, oblivious and reckless. He is one of the rare celebrities who warrants questions about his behavior because, well, how the hell else will we understand him? But I can't speak for others. I can only speak for myself. So here are a few of the answers and posts I wrote about Kanye, along with my reasons for answering them. ,Why did Aaron Ellis answer...?,: In the Kanye West song 'Flashing Lights', he talks about feeling like "Martin with no Gina". Who is he referring to?, Rap music is full of lyrics that require explanation. The people who get the most out of the music are the ones who bother to decipher the metaphors, allusions and pop culture references. The question asked about the "Martin with no Gina" reference in the song, "Flashing Lights." That line refers to the characters of the hit television series, ,Martin,. How much would it cost to book Kanye West and Jay Z for a performance?, As someone who worked at a music venue for two years - and answered this question while working there - ticket prices for concerts have always fascinated me. In pop music, Kanye West and Jay Z are two of the highest paid live performers, both individually and as a duo. This question was asked by a college student hoping to book them for a show, so I offered some information about what I knew. What is the image on the cover of Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"?, The artwork on ,MBDTF ,has a fascinating back story that I really wanted to share. Kanye and artist George Condo collaborated to nine paintings that could be selected for the album cover. From there, they chose the most controversial of the bunch, one that eventually got banned from stores. Bear in mind that most musicians put almost no effort into their album artwork. ,Kanye and George Condo made nine paintings!, And as you can see in the answer, they were all interesting works of art. Why was Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" not nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy?, Another superb question. MBDTF was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the year, yet it failed to receive an Album of the Year Grammy nomination. For context, understand that three of Kanye's previous four albums received Album of the Year nods (if you still aren't sold on the quality of his music, then let that little bit of trivia serve as proof that his albums really are that good and are worthy of deep conversation). My personal thoughts were that he had fallen so far out of favor with the public that he was deliberately excluded. ,Why did Aaron blog about...?:, The Leonardo DiKanye Connection , What do The Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby have in common? 1. Both star Leonardo DiCaprio 2. Both feature songs from Kanye West in the trailer. Everyone knows point number one. Not many people knew point number two. Kanye West - Graduation , Another example of the insane amount of effort that Kanye West puts into his album covers. On ,Graduation,, he hired Japanese artist Takashi Murakami to create one of his signature colorful surrealist paintings for the cover. The bear and the school theme are both consistent with Kanye's previous two album covers. The Hangover Trilogy: The WolfpacKanye Connection , Musically speaking, did you notice a connection between all three Hangover films? No? Then let me be the one to tell you that all three films prominently feature at least one song by Kanye West. The way they are used, I would argue that Kanye's songs are the unofficial theme songs of ,The Hangover, films. Single Spotlight: Jay-Z & Kanye West - "Niggas in Paris" , The artwork for this single offered a revisionist take on the French national flag, placing a black stripe in place of the blue, symbolizing African Americans taking over France. Great use of minimalist symbolism. I have writen many answers about celebrities, including Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Michael Jackson, and many others whose names begin with letters other than "M". Kanye West is easily the most interesting.

What is the image on the cover of Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy"?

Short Answer:, The image on the cover of Kanye West's ,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is a naked Kanye straddled by a nude phoenix woman. Long Answer,: Kanye West has always been an ambitious musician. For ,My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,, his sweeping ambitions expanded into his cover art as well. Similar to how he worked with Japanese surrealist painter Takashi Murakami on his third album, ,Graduation, ,Kanye teamed up with American artist George Condo on this project. Where Kanye's showed his ambition for ,MBDTF ,was that he and Condo created multiple album covers. Though there is only one cover in stores, there are five official MBDTF album covers, along with three or four other covers that were created. This means that, Kanye West and George Condo created a minimum of eight paintings for this project,. The 5 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy covers: ,The Portrait The artwork here is a portrait of Kanye West, depicted with four mouths. I believe that the multiple mouths symbolize Kanye's reputation for being a blabbermouth who constantly says things that upset people. This is a grotesque exaggeration of what the evil blabbermouth looks like. The King Another portrait of a crowned Kanye, decapitated and impaled. Perhaps this is the fate of someone who constantly offends people? This painting was also used as the cover art for the single, "Power." The Remnants Long after King Kanye has been killed, the crown and the sword remain. This fact that the sword and crown are still in place seems to be a Jesus reference. The King of Men was killed, but then rose from the dead in the spirit form. Though this is a rough interpretation, it takes on an interesting meaning when viewed in relation to Kanye's next album, ,Yeezus,. ,The Phoenix Kanye described this photo as himself on a couch with a phoenix. This phoenix. This is his most deliberately provocative cover, as it depicts him engaging in a sexual act with a white woman. Granted, she has wings, a tail, leg fur, no arms and a monstrous face... but still, he's about to get it on with a white chick. Because of the nudity and sexuality, this album cover was ,Banned,. It appeared in stores like Walmart with a pixelated artwork. The Ballerina Another controversial image, this one is a petite, mustachioed ballerina holding a wine glass. The obvious facial hair on a woman makes a statement about our understanding of beauty. The ballerina became a recurring image for Kanye. There were ballerinas in the video for "Runaway," and a similar ballerina was featured on the cover of the "Runaway" single. ,Some of the alternative covers ,King Kanye The connection between the Portrait and the King, this is where we see the blabbermouth King Kanye. Olive Oyl Yeah, that's the same Olive Oyl from the Popeye television series. She has a mustache similar to the the Ballerina, so my guess is that there was a connection there. The Priest George Condo described this in New York Magazine as follows: “[Kanye and I] talked about paintings in the early baroque era depicting religious figures, and wanted to push that out into the open in today’s world. It mirrors the ‘paranoid’ riff on one of the tracks.” ,The Bear A nod to Kanye's early albums, this cover offers an alternate take on Takashi Murakami bear from the ,Graduation ,cover, but it adds the four mouths, just like the Kanye/King Kanye portrait.

Is To Pimp a Butterfly or My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a better album?

A2A It really boils down to what you like in an album, but though there are those who prefer one over the other, the superiority of one over the other would require a discussion on what constitutes artistic merit and how it’s quantified. So I’ll answer your question with a handful of questions (and my answers). 1. Which album is likely to have a greater cultural impact? The track “Alright” alone became the anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement. Merits of the movements’ methods and associations notwithstanding, it captured the voice of a group that has too often been marginalized or ignored by mainstream media. On the other hand, Kanye West’s perpetual cultural relevance enjoyed a huge resurgence following the release of ,MBDTF,, so the answer to this question hinges on two things: Will Kanye ever become a cultural icon that brings about any significant change as a result of his contributions to society? (This means he hasn’t, yet, and no, launching a clothing brand with sneakers that lead to people getting killed over them isn’t necessarily a noteworthy contribution to society). If so, the resurgence he enjoyed as a result of ,MBDTF ,becomes all the more significant. However, since West is primarily an entertainer and has dedicated himself to insisting upon his own relevance, he’s done fuck-all with that cultural clout — aside from selling things, a ton of lip service and ,a godawful organizational chart of loosely associated ideas that got him laughed out of every boardroom in Silicon Valley. Will the Black Lives Matter movement result in law enforcement reform legislation or have far-reaching consequences? If it does, Kendrick Lamar immediately becomes the voice for that movement and that generation, the way Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” was for the Civil Rights Movement (though I would argue Cooke had a couple orders of magnitude more significance by default). I’d say ,TPAB ,is more likely to have a greater cultural impact as a result of the foregoing. 2. Which album has better writing/lyrics/rapping? If you’re a fan of wordplay, it’s actually really close — some of the lines on West’s “Gorgeous,” or even the guest verses are truly memorable and instantly quotable (Who hasn’t been pimping on top of Mount Olympus, or quoted “No one man should have all that power?”) If you’re a fan of lyrical depth and density, obviously Duckworth has forgotten better lines than West has ever thought of in that department. Duckworth also completely outclasses West as a storyteller. Where as West’s stories tend toward terse little couplets of scene-setting (“All of the Lights,” “Hell of a Life”), Duckworth’s “How Much a Dollar Cost” is a master class in shifting between internal monologue and event descriptions. That said, West’s vocal dexterity is pushed to the absolute limit in ,MBDTF. ,The album marked the moment where West had fully harnessed his capabilities as a rapper and he exhibits a cocksure poise that wasn’t necessarily evident in his earlier efforts. Is it comparable to Duckworth? No, not really. But is it really fair that one artist was born to be a rapper and the other is a master at finding ways to make his rap fit his overall musical vision? No, not really. 3. Which album has more listenable production? This entirely depends on your musical tastes. I’m personally partial to jazz and grew up playing it and listening to it, so hearing Kamasi Washington whale the fuck out on the tenor saxophone gives me similar vibes to, say, hearing Nicki Minaj’s verse on “Monster” the first time. The resultant emotion is that face you make when you watch someone dropkick their own baby (I do not advocate dropkicking babies). That said, ,MBDTF ,has probably the best hip hop production work in West’s musical canon (that’s an impressive fucking canon, by the way) — from everything from hard-assed East Coast boombap to celestial tribal chants, it’s all brilliantly layered, impossibly maximalist, a classic Kanye meltdown to the next order of magnitude. This man took a sample of a folk rock cover of “She’s My Baby” by the Mojo Men, slowed it down, added some massive bass kicks and turned it into one of the nastiest beats hip hop has ever heard… and it was probably the sixth or seventh most impressive produced beat on the album. That is fucking sorcery. If we’re judging by popular appeal, ,MBDTF ,wins hands down. Heck, I’m inclined to give it to ,MBDTF ,regardless of my jazz bias. Overall? ,I’m inclined to say ,MBDTF ,is a more listenable record and a career-affirming magnum opus for West, something that transcended popular appeal and became the standard bearer for hip hop records moving forward. It’s not as influential as people would like it to be because it’s just about impossible to emulate in any form. It’s entirely Kanye and only Kanye can pull it off. That said, if ,TPAB ,ends up being the high watermark of Duckworth’s career (highly unlikely that this is the case), it would also have been a worthy one, but slightly disappointing insofar as it lacked the wide appeal (or even managed to fashion a new ideal) of ,MBDTF,. I will say that ,TPAB ,is more likely to be studied as a culturally significant piece of history and be preserved in the Library of Congress by the National Recording Preservation Board. Both are in the class of ,Illmatic,, ,It Takes a Nation of Millions,, ,Enter the Wu Tang, Paid in Full, ,and ,The Marshall Mathers LP ,as examples of mastery of the hip hop album format.

What are the best hip-hop albums from 2009-present?

Warning: this is a long and intricate answer. There are thirty different albums listed in this answer, each accompanied by a single choice track off of YouTube. Suffice to say, a lot of work went into this list. If you would be interested in learning about this later but are short on time right now, I encourage you to bookmark this answer and come back to it when circumstances permit. But maybe upvote it first because I promise that this right here is a magnum opus. This is the work of someone deeply in love with this style and era of music. This answer intends to be nothing but constructive. My primary intention is to dive into a period of musical history whose beauty I have seen for myself, and to extol it for those who might not know the glory that mine eyes have seen. If you love Rap music, then read on. If you have never gotten Rap music but you think my takes are something less than boring, then read on as well. I promise that there is an abundance of beauty ahead, even if you just skim for it. Okay, let’s do this. What a monumental question this is. I love it, though, because it gives me a chance to share some great music. So buckle up, and let’s take a dive into the last little-more-than-a-decade of Hip-Hop music. I am going to approach this question on a year-by-year basis, selecting a few albums from each year (with one exception) that I consider to be the outstanding albums of that particular year. Because the quality of albums released has not been consistent throughout the years being covered, this naturally means that there will be a variable level of quality. Some of the albums below would not be on this list had they been released in a different year with more outstanding releases. I should also be clear that in this list, I am trying to provide something more than just personal opinion. Naturally any such list is inherently subjective, but this list will include both my personal favorite albums from each year with those that I consider to be historically important and influential, even if they aren’t totally my personal cup of tea. That said, I’m not including a single album that I dislike. In case you are just looking for a brief, single-shot answer—and because I know that the first picture in an answer is the one that becomes the thumbnail—I will say that the single greatest album from 2009 to present at the time of writing is this one: Indeed, you will find Kendrick Lamar highly represented on the upcoming list, along with Run the Jewels, as pretty much all of the albums those artists released during this time period were among the strongest of their respective years. If that seems right to you, then I hope that this answer can introduce you to some more great music. If your list would include a lot of Drake albums then I predict that you will probably not agree with mine. My list absolutely does reflect my personal preference for what now gets called “lyrical rap.” As a result, Trap, Drill, and “Mumble Rap” more generally will not be featuring on this list, though that shouldn’t be interpreted as my saying that it’s worthless. I think that the diversification of the Hip-Hop sound that took place over the past decade is an important aspect of its history as a genre, and a lot of the gems below wouldn’t be as innovative as they are without the influence of the Trap movement within the genre. So without any more delay, lets get started on this list. The easiest way to begin is to take a trip through time back to 2009. 2009 To be perfectly honest, 2009 wasn’t a great year for Hip-Hop music. It was the final climactic peak of “the Bling Era,” and was marked by a lot of flat-out bad releases. Paul Wall and Mike Jones, both of whom I regard as emblematic nadirs of the Bling Rap era, both released albums. The five top-selling albums of the year by first week sales were Eminem’s ,Relapse,, Jay-Z’s ,The Blueprint 3,, 50 Cent’s ,Before I Self Destruct,, Rick Ross’s ,Deeper Than Rap,, and Young Money’s ,We Are Young Money,. Spoiler alert: I don’t consider this a particularly impressive selection. Em and Jay are both legends to be sure, but these are not their best albums. As for the rest of them… eh. Despite this being an off year in my book, we got a few real gems this year, and foremost among them is where we will go first. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II,, by ,Raekwon It really is a testament to the staying power of the Wu-Tang style that 16 years after their Earth-shaking debut album, the Wu-Tang crew were still putting out the best music in an industry that had largely absorbed their sound and continued to move on. This album keeps the classic Wu-Tang style as sharp and fresh as ever. In order to properly appreciate Wu-Tang solo albums (and this will not be the only one on this list), it is important to understand them in their proper context. I often think of these albums as essentially soundtracks to movies that only play in your head while you listen to them. They are action movies with a heavy comic-book and kung-fu-flick influence. There is certainly a sort of generic character to them and they tend to follow a formulaic structure. The lead rapper is playing the character of a drug-dealing crime-lord trying to pursue his ambition while dealing with the treachery of the snakes and rivals around him, facing betrayal and pursuing vengeance. There isn’t a huge amount of variety to this lead role, and I see how that can make some people feel its played-out or unoriginal. But for those who can appreciate the cinematic nature of this style of music and aren’t grated by the “done before” nature of the epic saga in which the album is positioned, it’s a definite classic. Just in case people think that I am blinded by my preexisting love of the Wu-Tang Clan, let me say that music critics seem to have liked this album even more than I did. According to Wikipedia, it was the not only most critically-acclaimed hip-hop album of the year but also the fourth-most critically-acclaimed album on Metacritic in any genre that year and somehow sits in their top-50 most critically-acclaimed albums of all time. I’m not sure I would rate it quite ,that ,high, and as you will see in the entries ahead I don’t always fuck with the critics, but I feel that the utter acclaim this album received is worth noting, especially in the context of my own personal love for the Wu-Tang Clan (I am literally wearing a Wu-Tang t-shirt as I write this, so… maybe not totally unbiased). All I really mean to say is that you don’t just need to take my word for it, other people agreed this album was fucking fire. Also, this album is like a the hip-hop-production equivalent of a Rock supergroup. With contributions from the likes of Dr. Dre, J Dilla, RZA (of course), Marley Marl, Pete Rock, Mathematics, and more, this is a free-for all of great beat production, and every song holds up on its own. So here is “House of Flying Daggers,” one of the leading tracks off this monster of an album: Okay, on to the next cut. … Man on the Moon: The End of the Day, by ,Kid Cudi This is admittedly something of a subjective entry. I realize the Kid Cudi isn’t for everyone, and I realize that this album has serious weak spots. But let me lay out why I think that this album absolutely belongs on this list. Part of it is admittedly nostalgia. 2009 was the year I graduated from college and found myself no longer a weird kid but now a weird adult trying to stumble into the world of professional life and figure out my identity within it. In that context, it was a deeply-resonant album for me. Were it to come out now instead of in 2009, I’m not sure exactly how I’d feel about it. Nonetheless, it marks the launching point of a career of an artist that—love him or hate him—would change the rap game and influence a huge swathe of the rappers to come. While it may not be a perfect album, I think this release is a laudably ambitious project and a stellar debut. If it wasn’t obvious to everyone at the time, the career that would follow it has taught everyone that this always was an album worth watching. The fact that I listened to it obsessively for months after its release has helped to frame the entire decade of music that would follow for me. Here’s “Day ’n’ Nite,” which was both the biggest hit from the album and one of those songs that still stands to define the period of time in which it was written. And with that, I think we’ll close out 2009. On to a new decade. 2010 The turning of this particular year was not just the start of a new decade, it marked the beginning of a truly new era in Hip-Hop music, only hinted at in echoes underground before. The Bling Era was officially over. No more would generic flows about how many diamonds you had on your wrist be enough to capture the imagination of rap fans. People were starting to want something new, and the market was shifting to adapt to that desire. The experimental foundation had been laid already, and was just waiting for expression. Part of this would be a return to the foundation and part would be groundbreaking and new. The most commercially successful album of the year was once again Eminem, but still just an echo of his prime. Rap music was still trying to figure out where it was. While some may disagree, I think that 2010 was another off-year in the grand scheme of Hip-Hop, but the seeds were being sown for a lot of great shit that was just around the corner. My personal top album from the year is highly reminiscent of the top pick from the previous year, though. Apollo Kids ,by ,Ghostface Killah Much of what I said about Cuban Linx 2 also applies to this one. For those who don’t know, within the greater scope of Wu-Tang’s music Raekwon and Ghostface form something of a two-man unit. Their lyrical chemistry and personal friendship has led to them both featuring heavily on each other’s solo albums. That said, ,Apollo Kids ,is a different sort of album than the Raekwon joint that preceded it. Far less cinematic in its scope, it demonstrates Ghostface at his street-stream-of-consciousness best. Instead of paining an epic narrative it aims to build the scenery for an extraordinary existence defined not by superheroes but rather by individuals trying to get by. It’s lyrics and production are on par with the greater trend of Wu-Tang music, and stand as testament once again to the enduring power of the Wu-Tang style. Here’s “Ghetto,” which weaves a beautiful (and possibly freshly-recorded) soul sample with gritty street rap by a lineup of classic Gods who interact with it beautifully to form a coherent conversation, both between individuals and between divergent wings of Hood Culture: But there is another album that was released this year that—while it is admittedly not my personal favorite—any list like this would be incomplete without. … My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, by ,Kanye West So, as I have mentioned, this album isn’t totally my favorite, but it is undeniably one of the most important Hip-Hop albums ever made. In it, one of the most influential artists of all time would begin his turn away from his more traditional beginnings and start leaning into a truly new era and sound. For all its weaknesses, this album has some real shining bright spots. Kanye is, as always, a true virtuoso producer who links up extraordinary samples to make a continually-gripping substrate of sound. It also marks some historic moments, like Nicki Minaj’s game-changing closure on “Monster,” which—because I am not choosing it as my example track—might merit some brief reflection. “Monster” comes across as a generally generic-to-disappointing track before Nicki’s entry. It has a great and classically-Kanye beat, but Rick Ross opens it poorly in my opinion. The man has his moments, but this just isn’t one of them. Kanye comes in with some decently-engaging lyricism, but still manages to disappoint me a bit, given the potential he has built with his exquisite production. After that, Jay-Z manages to drop one of the more boring Jay-Z verses that I have ever heard. By the time that MIA is dropping her four-or-so brief lines, I will admit that I am a little dismayed by the fact that they managed to get Rick Ross, Kanye West, Jay-Z, and MIA on a track and have it still be boring. Like everyone just seems to be coasting with minimal effort. And then Nicki Minaj comes in and utterly destroys all the big-name rappers that came before her. Her verse on that song is genuinely one of the stand-out features of the entire decade, so you should check it out. Its timing alongside the release of her first big-label solo studio album ,Pink Friday ,would help to launch her career as the uncontested top female rapper of the new era, and help her name to become a national phenomenon instead of just a Queens underground thing. But like I said, that’s not the track I am picking for this album. That’s because this album also contains the single greatest track that Kanye ever released, in my view. To understand this track, I need to lay down a bit of context, but I promise that it’s worth it, especially if you want to better understand the value of Kanye West, in all his troubling complexity. This album was preceded by what was—at the time—definitely the low-point of Kanye’s career. After releasing three celebrated albums in the previous decade, Kanye’s life and public persona took a turn for the chaotic, culminating in the embarrassing incident of him drunkenly taking the mic from a young Taylor Swift to shout about Beyonce having been cheated. It was reminiscent of ODB’s famous “Wu-Tang is for the children” interruption at the 1998 Grammy Awards, but not nearly as endearing. It was also reminiscent of his “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” exclamation during the fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina, but this time it was snotty and overprivileged rather than woke. Barack Obama called him “a dumbass” the following day. Out of this embarrassing low-point grew what I still rate as Kanye’s single greatest track. It perfectly exemplifies the “show me, don’t tell me” rule of great writing. It doesn’t bother with description, it dives right into the meat. In the first verse, we see the old Kanye who was dominating my iPod freshman year of college play out. We hear the hunger, the fervor, and the earliest iteration of the Power that gives the song its name. In the second verse, we hear egotism begin to subvert artistry as what was woke lyricism only seconds ago shifts into self-centered pettiness. In the final verse, we see egotism spill over into idiocy and insanity. No longer even pretending to be moored to any dock, the SS Kanye West drifts into the hurricane of reality unabated. Even as the narrator continues to unabashedly venture forth into a world where self-image starkly contrasts with reality, with his confidence in his own badassery undiminished. The satirical voice of the composer is lost completely in the self-satisfied peacocking of the apparently-separated artist. The interplay results is the hands-down most beautiful use of sampling by the greatest sampler of the 21st Century thus far. Appearing to be in his self-centric egotistical mode, Kanye delivers the following seemingly-unwoke series of lines: And how ‘Ye doin? I’m survivin’ I was drinking earlier, now I’m drivin’ Where the bad bitches? HUH? Where y’all hidin? I got the Power to make your life So excitin’ The lines, on their own, are not extraordinary, but they provide Kanye with his single most powerful sample ever. He says the word “excitin’” without really pronouncing the hard /k/ sound in the word, so that it comes out sounding like “so essitin.’” Kanye then takes the snippet of “so essit-”—which becomes a homophone for “suicide”—and loops it into an orchestral scale. In this moment, we see his human awareness and self-consciousness overtake his egotism as his narrator—like his public persona—spirals down from the upper echelons of high-society to the darkest catacombs of public shame and worthlessness. The fact that I find this album fairly boring in general but have expended this many words already on its best tracks is evidence of just how unbalanced this album is. Before I dig myself any deeper, here is my favorite song from Kanye’s entire discography, which I see as encapsulating his greatest strengths: If you are still with me, then thank you. Let’s advance our timeline another year. 2011 This was another year in which the market was largely dominated by some of the leading figures of the last decade. Lil’ Wayne’s ,Tha Carter IV ,was the most commercially-successful album, followed by Drake’s ,Take Care,. This year also saw Kanye, high off his success with MBDTF, team up with Jay-Z to release ,Watch the Throne,. But none of those are the albums that define the year for me. I will admit that this analysis is partially colored by what came later, but 2011 also saw the emergence of two new artistic voices in the Hip-Hop game, both of whom would go on to help redefine the genre. One was Kendrick Lamar, and the other was Death Grips. Section.80 ,by ,Kendrick Lamar While it wasn’t his first-ever release, ,Section.80 ,represents the first major studio album from the man who would shortly thereafter rise to be the most important musical artist in the world. And while this album may not have topped the market when it was first released (or even been in the top ten most commercially-successful albums of the year), ,Section.80, rings with the voice that would bring so much to the decade ahead. It is different than Kendrick’s later work, to be sure. It isn’t as focused or structured as some of his later releases would be, but it is still unmistakably Kendrick. On “Hiiipower,” we hears the first shades of that voice that would do so much to define the industry in years ahead. For fans of his who haven’t listened to this album yet, it absolutely merits your attention. Viewed in the light of what his career would become, it is an album so clearly full of promise and potential that everyone really should have seen his rise to stardom coming. The other group that first emerged in this year is not for everyone, but absolutely deserves a spot on this list just the same. … Exmilitary ,by ,Death Grips There is no doubt that Death Grips are a polarizing group. People tend to either love them or hate them. While I am firmly on the love side of the equation, I recognize that not everyone might be there with me. It’s a little bit difficult to explain to those who are not fans what exactly it is I find so compelling about the style of Industrial Hip-Hop that they make, but I think a lot of it comes down to this: I think that were you to plumb the depths of these artists souls, you would find that they really do not give a single solitary fuck what you think of their music. They aren’t making music for you, they are only making music for themselves, exactly the way they want it. If you like it then cool, but they seriously don’t care either way. I think a lot of artists try to maintain an air of this sort of nonchalance, but from what I can tell, Death Grips actually exemplifies it. Throughout their time as a band, they have shown no regard whatsoever for marketing. None of them have profiles on any type of social media as far as I am aware, and they make no effort whatsoever to create buzz. They just create music, and many of us find it so compelling that we make the buzz for them. Regardless of whether or not it’s your cup of tea, there is no denying that Death Grips took Hip-Hop music in a new direction with this album, and expanded the scope of what the genre could be. Here’s “Guillotine,” their first major single: And with those new emerging voices having been noted, lets move on to what was really an amazing year for Hip-Hop music. 2012 This is the first year that requires me to pick three albums to highlight, which alone is testament to its quality. Two of the artists are the same as from the previous year, and the other is one who will help to define the years ahead. Given all that beauty, let’s jump right in. And since we were only just talking about Death Grips, that seems a solid place to start. The Money Store, by ,Death Grips After the solid start they made with ,Exmilitary,, this album was where the trio really found their stride. Everything about this album, from the deeply chaotic production to the not-always-decipherable intricacy of MC Ride’s lyrics, was revolutionary and game-changing. Those who dislike Death Grips more generally will likely see little to appreciate here, but there is no doubt that this album expanded the scope of the Hip-Hop game, and pushed the limits of what it could aspire to. Despite some of the other tracks having been bigger hits, I like how the video for “Hustle Bones” manages to capture the wild energy of MC Ride’s performance style that makes this band’s live concerts so wild and exciting. Next, we will revisit our other artist who emerged in 2011, and watch him rise to a new level of focus. … Good Kid/M.A.A.D. City, by ,Kendrick Lamar While his sound and structure are still less refined than they will be on his masterpiece next album, this record was the one that demonstrated that Kendrick Lamar’s ultra-intricate writing style and penchant for layering levels of meaning and sound could also be made into commercially-viable music. Indeed, this was the second-best-selling album of the year, and would get Lamar his first Album of the Year Grammy nomination (though he would lose out to Daft Punk). In this album we see the central message of Kendrick’s music—that gangsters are people too, and that Gang Culture is in many ways a quintessentially American social ecosystem—play out as never before. The whole album documents how it is that a good church-going Jesus-believing Christian boy who avoids drugs can get caught up in a quagmire of crime and alcohol despite his best efforts to avoid it. Its aim, as with his later albums, is to give a new and human face to a people who are dismissed again on the news each night as a problem to be solved. Throughout, we hear Kendrick’s voice—cracks and all—reaching out into new territory. Like the albums that would follow it in his discography, it is well-structured, with the order of songs serving to form a narrative arc that keeps the album cohesive. This means that to remove any track from the greater structure of the album is to remove part of its meaning. Nonetheless, the tracks can stand on their own just the same. Here’s “M.A.A.D City,” one of the two title tracks, and itself bifurcated into a two-part narrative style reflecting on the brief ceasefire that took place between the Bloods and Crips during the artists childhood, and the violence that would follow it. It includes one of my favorite single phrases of Hip-Hop poetry ever penned: When you hop on that trolley, make sure your colors’ correct. Make sure you’re corporate, or they’ll be calling you mother collect Simple lines like that exemplify just how much Kendrick is able to convey in just a handful of words. Now on to our third and last album of the year, and one which also foreshadows greatness ahead. … R.A.P Music ,by ,Killer Mike While this is not his first album, it was on R.A.P. Music that we first really saw one of the most compelling voices of the past decade of rap come into its own. Killer Mike’s style of often irreverent and generally revolutionary political rap stepped up to fill the void that had been left by Immortal Technique since his last album. On this one, we see Killer Mike’s woke and politically informed brand of radical rap really come into its own. This new woke political style is perfectly exemplified in “Reagan,” which serves as both analysis and commentary on the Iran-Contra Scandal and the dawn of the age of mass incarceration: And with that we close out what really was an awesome year for Hip-Hop. That said, I can’t believe I’m only through 2012, so i will try to write less going forward so we can finish up on time. On to the next year! 2013 This was another really solid year for Hip-Hop music, and one from which I will pick three albums yet again. Without further ado, let’s jump right into the first one. Doris, by ,Earl Swweatshirt While not all of the artists in the collective that called themselves Odd Future would have the staying power to make much of a mark on Hip-Hop music, it brought three major artists to the forefront of the game in the form of Tyler, the Creator, Frank Ocean, and Earl Sweatshirt. Of the three, there is no question that Earl’s flow would be the most important to lyricism going forward. Earl’s layered-and-folded rhyme schemes are reminiscent of some early Wu-Tang affiliates like Killa Sin, and he creates a textured substrate of rhyme that makes his flow incredibly cohesive. This intricacy is juxtaposed to his generally bland and often monotone lyrical delivery, subverting all emotion in his voice into a blanket of sound. The track “Hive” exemplifies this interplay perfectly: The next album on the list bears a great deal of similarity to another that has already been discussed, so I’ll keep it short. … Twelve Reasons to Die ,by ,Ghostface Killah Wu-Tang just keeps the cinematic albums coming and, for those of us who are into it, they just keep being awesome. Much like ,Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II,, we see another iteration of the crime lord following ambition and facing betrayal only this time its Ghostface in the leading role and the narrative is even more dramatic. I will keep it short, but this is about as cinematic as albums get, and really compelling throughout. Here’s “Blood on the Cobblestones” Okay, on to the first of another run of albums that will dominate this list. … Run the Jewels ,by ,Run the Jewels The pairing of Atlanta rapper Killer Mike and New York rapper El-P was a match made in heaven. Together they bind the spectrum of East Coast rap together in a new ass-kicking hybrid sound. El-P’s abundant sense of humor also paired well with Killer Mike’s personality and helped to make their natural edginess more appealing. While, like Kendrick Lamar, their albums would also improve with practice and repetition, they really came out the box swinging, and this remains a remarkably impressive debut album. The video for “36” Chain” exemplifies their natural pairing of humor with badassery from the start: And with that we go on to the next year! 2014 But we don’t have to go too far because, as great as this year was for Hip-Hop, it starts much like the last one ended. Run the Jewels 2 ,by ,Run the Jewels Having just introduced RtJ, I’ll keep this part short. On this album, we see their style continue to grow and solidify, and we see the political preaching that helped to bring them together crystalizing even. more. To exemplify this, let’s look at their socio-political anthem “Lie, Cheat, Steal” And with that, we turn to one of the true gems of the past decade and one of the most impressive collaborative albums ever made. … Piñata ,by ,Freddie Gibbs ,and ,Madlib What an album this is! I realize that Freddie Gibbs isn’t for everyone. I know some people find his endlessly gangster coke-dealing style of rap tiresome and occasionally uninspired. But regardless of how you feel about the man in general, this pairing is another match made in heaven. Madlib has consistently been one of the most outstanding beat producers of the era, but his beats aren’t always easy to rap over. It takes an energetic rapper to really ride a Madlib beat the way it deserves, and Freddie has the energy seeping out of every pore. Just listen to the dynamic between the grand cinematic foundation of strings and the bumping vocals on top of it on “Shitsville,” which is one of the more banging songs I’ve ever heard: Another year down, but stay tuned because we are really in the sweet spot of this list right now. 2015 This is the only year that gets just one pick on my list. That’s not because it was a bad year, but rather because that one album was really so good that nothing else can stand beside it, and I would rather spend all of my words on it than on any of the other admittedly-great albums released in 2015. To Pimp a Butterfly, by ,Kendrick Lamar The only words sufficient to describe just how brilliant this album is are the lyrics that make it up. I will suffice to say that ,I consider this the single greatest album of any genre to be released in the 21st Century thus far, and count it as one of the very few albums that is able to stand alongside the likes of ,Illmatic,, ,Ready to Die,, and ,Wu-Tang Forever ,as a serious contender for the title of Greatest Hip-Hop Album Ever Made. Every single track on this album is a masterpiece, but so is the way they are woven together. In between tracks, Kendrick weaves together a poem, line-by-line, adding a new line of verse with each track, and the subject matter of the songs reflects the course of experience in the poem. We dive into issues of depression and victory, hope and despair, with a voice so personal that we really experience it all with him. This is at once the most humanly flawed and the most flawlessly perfect album of… well pretty much ever, and that’s really not hyperbole. Again, to remove any single track from the greater structure is to devalue it slightly, but I think the full cinematic scope of the album can be glimpsed from the remarkably-well-produced video for “Alright” If this answer only gets one more person to experience the beauty that is this album, that will have been enough. There is nothing else that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with in, so lets move on to the next year. 2016 At this point, the new age of Post-Bling rap is riding high and flourishing with creativity. The marketability of deep and complex Rap music was well established, and the art was thriving. This year would be marked by a lot of really top-quality esoteric and experimental artists continuing to push the art in new and unprecedented directions. So let’s get to it. The Impossible Kid ,by ,Aesop Rock While Aesop Rock had been around and making his own esoteric style of music since the turn of the century, it was on this album that he really fully hit his stride. Long noted for his verbose and abstract lyrical style, Aesop managed to focus his craft more on this album than on its predecessors to produce something that was both imaginatively engaging and compellingly focused. I think the track “Rings,” in which he reflects on his past training as a graphic artists and the course of his path away from that field remains one of the greatest songs Aesop has ever written, and one of the most beautifully poetic bits of lyricism in the whole of the popular musical canon. As such, I’m opting to put in a lyric video so that you can really catch everything that he says: Such a gorgeously written track! Okay, on to another experimental and semi-underground Hip-Hop entry. … 3001: A Laced Odyssey ,by ,The Flatbush Zombies The Flatbush Zombies came to the table with a new style of psychedelic rap that combined diverse influences and the different styles and voices of its three members in a way that was somewhat reminiscent of Wu-Tang’s stylistic diversity. At the end of the day, though, the conceptual innovation is more than matched by outright rapping ability on this one. On the monumental closing track, aptly titled “Your Favorite Rap Song,” the three of them demonstrate both their versatility and endurance, with each of them flowing for extensive stretches without ever toning down their quality or intensity for a moment. and with that, we return to something that we have seen before, back in yet another iteration. … Run The Jewels 3 ,by ,Run the Jewels Look who’s back with another hot album. The third release from this monumental duo shows their continual refining of their cutting sound an the beautiful choreography of their team dynamism. In the interest of brevity, I will say that this album is fucking hot and leave it there, with “Legend Has It” to play you out: On to the next year, which is another big one for the culture. 2017 The year that began with Trump’s inauguration was another turning point for Hip-Hop. The optimism and hopefulness that had sprung up during Hip-Hops glorious summer of the past few years now sunk into a winter of discontent and anger. The year saw Q-Tip and Busta Rhymes shouting “RESIST!” at the Grammy’s and gave us two of the most profoundly dark and powerful political rap albums of all time. DAMN ,by ,Kendrick Lamar Coming off a truly legendary album that rung with hope and optimism, the Rap’s king of allegory, satire, and metaphor came through with another utterly classic album. ,DAMN ,is not merely discontented, it is a battle between religious escapism, nihilism, and outright rage. We follow Kendrick through his own personal crisis of faith, as he comes to terms with the fact that the world he’s been praying so hard for hasn’t been praying for him. It’s not as perfect an album as TPAB, and it has a couple of weak spots, but make no mistake that this album is still likely the second best thing to have come out of this whole decade. It is another that really ought to be viewed as a single composition rather than a collection of different tracks. He also waits until almost the end to provide the context of the curse with which he fears his people have been damned, and it comes in one of the most profoundly moving tracks of the decade. On “FEAR” we see Kendrick walk through three different stages of life—ages seven, seventeen, and twenty-seven—and examines how his life has been defined by fear in a different way at every stage. I don’t think that there is another artist out there who can match Kendrick’s ability to get profoundly personal. If you haven’t done so yet, you should find a time when you can listen to this whole album straight through without interruption, as it truly is a masterpiece of continuity. … All-Amerikkkan Badass, by ,Joey Badass This year also saw a new Black star shining bright in Brooklyn. At a moment when a lot of people were becoming worried about the New York rap scene due to the growing influence of Brooklyn Drill music, Joey Badass stomped back into the limelight with a furious passion, releasing one of the most iconic albums of the decade, ready to take his place as the Brooklyn redeemer. Of all the adjectives you might use to describe this album, “happy” and “hopeful” likely wouldn’t be among them, though it certainly shimmers with a vision of a better world. As the nation coming to terms with the reality of the Trump presidency, he put out this album that’s two parts scholarly sermon, two parts social essay, and five parts Black rage. We hear Joey brought to the verge of ters more than once as he oscillates between impassioned shouting all the way to spitting spoken word over beats. This album is not only an excellent listen, but it’s also one that I would call historic. It’s place as a partial catalyst in a Black Lives Matter movement that would rise to ever greater prominence in the years ahead gives it added weight on top of its abundant beauty. The closing track, called “Amerikkan Idol” stands in my view as one of the most important bits of pop social commentary from the whole Black Lives Matter Era: What a year that was. Both of those albums are probably in my top 5 of the whole decade. Oh well, on we go. 2018 Getting close now. I feel like with each passing year my inclination to write long paragraphs diminishes. Let’s get into it. Oxnard ,by ,Anderson .Paak This was easily one of the most delightful albums I have ever had the chance to discover. Despite having been around for a minute, I had never heard of Anderson .Paak until about two weeks before this album dropped, when a friend of mine who was hanging out at my apartment played “Suede” for me. The moment I heard this man’s music, I knew it was my jam. This man is not only a genre-bending artist who is likely to be remembered as one of the most important of his era, he’s also literally the most charismatic motherfucker alive. I am totally straight, but I maybe have a little bit of a crush on Anderson .Paak. He mixes Funk with Hip-Hop with Pop and Punk brilliantly. Having come from a punk-rock background he has carved out an entirely new niche for himself that doesn’t sit completely in any genre or category. This album saw him move defiantly out of the niche underground and on to centerstage, all without toning down his vivacity for a moment. When this album came out, I called it an instant classic, and almost three years later that call is still holding strong. It’s hard to pick just one track to give you a taste, but—aside from the brilliant two-part composition of Who R U -> 6 Summers—the opener, “The Chase,” is a track that never ceases to uplift me in one way or another. In particular, the line “time has no weight without hands to imply” serves as about the best opening statement for the album that you could find. It’s not what you would choose for a single, but it opens up the album very well. I’m hoping that will make you want to listen to the rest of the album, because it’s another that should really be consumed entire. … K.O.D. ,by ,J. Cole J. Cole is an artist that tends to polarize fans to an extent. His die-hard fans will insist that he’s the greatest rapper of all time, while his detractors will call him corny. It’s my view that, while J. Cole doesn’t necessarily hit the target every time, this album really brings out the best in him. This album should also be understood in the greater context of the growing anti-drug movement in Rap, which some people may be surprised to learn is a major force. Several of the top artists of this period have taken a very strong stance against drug use and incorporate those values as a central element of their rap. I have mixed feelings about this movement overall. A lot of it is kinda corny, if you ask me, even when I agree with some of what they are saying. This album, however, manages not to be corny by being deeply personal. It is J. Cole’s ability to make himself vulnerable by sharing his own personal doubts and fears and shortcomings that allows his accounts to be compelling. A perfect example of this is his profoundly intimate “Once an Addict,” in which he documents the turmoil of dealing with his mother’s alcoholism, and manages to walk the narrow path of real relevance beautifully: And now for something completely different. … DAYTONA, by ,Pusha T Don’t worry, America. There are still people rapping about drugs. And with that we go to Pusha T. I find Push to be another polarizing voice. Some people find him boring, and I understand that, as his songs all tend to be about generally the same thing (though he is not alone in the world of “mostly rapping about selling coke”). For me, it’s Push’s wordplay that wind me over, along with a hefty dose of nostalgia from all the Clipse I listened to in high school. But far more impressive even than Pusha T’s mostly-solid verses on this one is the utter masterpiece of Kanye’s production. At some point, I plan to do a whole post just diving into Kanye’s sampling on this album, but suffice to say it’s beautiful how he does it. As the track for this album, I might go against my better instincts and share “Infrared,” which was a song that should be understood in the greater context of Pusha T’s beef with Drake and Lil’ Wayne. This song is the jab that sets up the most devastating one-two combo in the history of rap beefs and utterly flattened Drake, not to mention that really nobody can do a diss track quite like Pusha T. I really need to do a post just on that beef as well. It’s legendary. Ah, well. Home stretch now so let’s keep moving. 2019 I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, so lets jump right into a year that will bring us more of the good we’ve just had and a bit of new and exciting beauty as well. Let’s gooooo! There Existed an Addiction to Blood ,by ,clipping. And now we have gotten to clipping. This group is, in my view, easily one of the best things to happen to hip hop these past few years. They have managed to redefine “experimental hip-hop” and revitalized the entire Horrorcore sub-genre, even while having their lead rapper need to take a break to play the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson as part of the original cast of Hamilton. On this album we see Daveed Digg’s utterly exquisite lyrical skill go toe-to-toe with the disturbingly-moving-in-its-dynamic-minimalism production of his bandmates. All of this pairs with a growing social revolutionary movement and roots in the post-Wu-Tang Horrorcore scene to give us an unbelievably compelling and enjoyable album. “Nothing is Safe” manages to take a single note being played continuously on a piano and may it feel orchestral and haunting. It is truly a masterpiece of minimalism: Damn, my spine is tingling. It’s wild how it still does that. … Bandana ,by ,Freddie Gibbs ,and ,Madlib Guess who’s back? It’s Freddie Gibbs and Madlib comin’ atcha with another hot album. Perhaps I should also say “guess what’s back?” because this album is also a return to the grand narrative saga style of album that we saw in Raekwon and Ghostfaces earlier albums. While there was definitely also a narrative arc to ,Piñata,, ,Bandana ,sees it become even more cinematic. Like, literally. The music videos become essentially a short film documenting the saga of a hungry drug-dealing crime lord as he navigates treachery, much like we saw in ,Twelve Reasons to Die,. If this kind of album isn’t your thing, I can assert that you will likely still find this one worthy of a listen, as it continues to pair Freddie Gibbs’s outstanding ability to rap with Madlib’s incredible mastery of beat production. About half of the video for my chosen track “Giannis” (from the delightful line “real g’s move in silence like Giannis”) is given over to the non-rapping side of the filmmaking, but I still enjoy it because of Freddie Gibbs’s abundant Hood Charisma and genuine talent for humor, not to mention the outstanding pairing with Anderson .Paak for a dose of funk. I’d watch this film: Not gonna lie, I think Freddie could have possibly made it as a comic actor if he wasn’t also an awesome rapper. Okay, let’s take a closer look at my boy Anderson .Paak before we move on to the next year. … Ventura, by ,Anderson .Paak I have mixed feelings about my inclusion of this album, as it seems to oscillate between hit and miss, and some of its misses are ,bad,, but it’s hits are still more than enough to make it one of the stand-out albums of its year. Like I said before, Anderson .Paak is about the most high-potential artists out there right now—aside from Kendrick, of course—and I am hoping to watch him conquer the world in the coming years. In ,Ventura,, this Afro-Korean West-Coast sensation continues to raise his voice as a social activist, with social movement anthems like “King James” and genuine funk/dance classics like “Jet Black.” But the track I have to choose to showcase the album has got to be “What Can We Do?” The track is structured as a duet between Anderson and Nate Dogg, the single most defining voice of mainstream melodic rap for more than a decade. The only thing is that Nate Dogg died of a stroke in 2011. In an unbelievably ambitious move that he executes with total perfection, Anderson .Paak—presumably through his relationship with Dr Dre—manages to get ahold of some unreleased Nate Dogg vocals from a studio session that never made it onto an album. ultimate team player that he is, Anderson turns this recording into a beautiful duet that can’t help but feel reminiscent of Kendrick’s legendary conversation with Tupac at the end of TPAB. If you don’t enjoy this track then something is wrong with your ears: So close. Let’s finish this! 2020 This is a hard year for me to narrow down because I have already done another answer laying out the top ten albums of 2020. And mark my words: ,2020 was a fucking ,brilliant ,year for Hip-Hop Music. As such, I am going to give myself four albums for this year, especially because that brings me to thirty, which is a nice, round, even number. So also that. But I will try to keep these entries short, especially because I have already talked about all of them here: Okay, let’s go, only this time in super brevity mode. All My Heroes Are Dead, by ,R.A. the Rugged Man R.A. has been around forever and has been one of the brightest stars in the New York underground scene. I don’t feel the need to say much about this guy aside from that he’s one of the greatest rappers of all time and that’s not even a controversial statement for those who know him. Don’t believe me? I fuckin’ dare you to listen to “First Born,” his song for his daughter, and not be moved. Seriously, listen to this and if you aren’t sold then you literally have no soul: What a legend that man is. And what an album he gave us there. Nothing else quite like it. But we have to move on… … RTJ4 ,by ,Run the Jewels Guess who’s back `(back, back) Back again! (gain, gain) Run the Jewels (jewels, jewels) Tell your Friends (friends, friends) Seriously, though, this is—in my view—RtJ’s best album yet, and they are the only artist aside from Kendrick to feature four times on the list (and Killer Mike technically beats out Kendrick at five, not counting… wait, I haven’t gotten there yet). Seriously, I have already explained how awesome Run the Jewels is at this point, and this answer is already too long for anyone to read so what the hell, here’s “Walking in the Snow” for your listening pleasure: Stop-motion animation at its finest. Onward! … Miles ,by ,Blu & Exile Sadly, this duo’s 2007 album ,Below the Heavens ,was released two year to early to make this list, but I am glad to be able to include this beautiful composition on my list here. On this album, one of the most compelling voices in LA’s underground rap scene checks back in with an album about the unsung side of the American Dream. It’s a tale of hard work and loss and insufficient reward, but it is deeply relatable and personal and the artist bleeds himself all over the libretto. Even though it’s not my single favorite track, I think that “The Feeling” provides the best glimpse of what this album really has to offer. If you think that rap music talks too much about crime and drugs and hoes or whatever, I present to you the following rebuttal: And that brings us to the last featured album! … Visions of Bodies Being Burned ,by ,clipping. I have already built my case for clipping., so I won’t talk much more on it here. For what it’s worth, I see this as their best album yet. This album is so hot that I don’t totally have the words for it. Just listen to this shit, because it’s totally fire. Here’s “Say The Name,” which is one of those tracks that doesn’t give a shit about what you were looking for because it’s gonna punch you in the face anyway: And with that we are done!!!!! Oh wait, there’s still another year. 2021 So what will most likely be the definitive album of this year? Obviously too early to say for sure, but how about predictions? I’m not going to pretend that this is a profound or prescient prediction on my part. This is about the easiest call that I will ever make, but at the same time I think that it merits discussion: If Kendrick Drops, that will be the album of the year. Like I said, that’s not an insightful prediction to make, or is it the least bit reaching. I think that pretty much everyone knows that whatever the next thing Kendrick Lamar releases might be, it is set to be a monumental album, based on the evidence thus far. And he is due for a new album right about now… At the same time, I worry that Kendrick may be suffering from a serious case of “too brilliant too fast.” There is literally no other artist in the whole of the pop music sphere who has as much pressure riding on their next album as Kendrick has on his. He has been so consistently brilliant up to this point that were he to release an al bum that was “pretty good” or even “one of the better albums of its year,” that would still be interpreted as a monumental failure. I really hope that the pressure doesn’t blind him, though I know it has to be intimidating. The man has essentially caught lightning in a bottle three times in a row, and the potential has to be overwhelming. I will say that I alsi think it’s possible we might see the first great Kanye album in a decade this year. I have no intention of piling on, but evidence suggests that the quality of Kanye’s solo music is inversely proportional to how much the general public likes him. At his lowest and most hated moment of the past, he gave us “POWER.” Maybe the combination of his Trump support and his divorce will create a scenario in which he is sufficiently hated to make truly great music again! Regardless of any of that, thank you for reading, if you’ve read this far. This is a pretty solid dive into one of the most formatively important eras of Hip-Hop music, and I hope that this answer can be a jumping-off point for further engagement. Have a great day, or night, or whatever it is where you are! And keep your ear to the street, because there is a lot of beauty yet to come! Peace!

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