“Admittin’ is the first step/Ay-ay/You know ain’t nobody perfect.” There are plenty of grade-A Yeezy-isms tossed off throughout Kanye West’s sixth LP proper, but this offhand line resonates as my favourite. I suppose the turn of phrase doesn’t really translate to written word. But it’s there.
It’s dropped during Bound 2, the tenth and final track of Yeezus. The track itself provides a happy ending to the album’s id-purging, sickly electro diatribe – calling back to Ye’s breakthrough straight-laced soul-sampling production techniques. The sonic digestif caps off a bold commandeering of electronic trend, beginning with the cauterising acid house burn of On Sight through to the post-molly-trap within Blood On The Leaves.
After putting forth a mixtape rife with posse cuts (Cruel Summer) and a gilded, self-toasting teamup with a fellow conqueror (Watch The Throne), Kanye paints himself as a deranged loner on Yeezus. The guests are many, but they are edged away from the spotlight. Frank Ocean is relegated to echoing Kanye’s autotune-garbled outgoing verse on New Slaves. On the masculine and dejected Hold My Liquor, Chief Keef and Justin Vernon’s respective vocal takes are twisted into uncanny parity. Behind the scenes, a SWAT team of production talent (Rick Rubin, Daft Punk, Hudson Mohawke, underground producer Arca, and many more) achieve an impossible cohesion of what really should be a fiery wreck. Like all great leaders, Yeezy takes comfort through delegation.
The first half of the album is defined by a mix of self-aggrandising, honest ego inflation and unfettered societal rage. I Am A God. A vengeful one at that. The ferocious Rock And Roll Part 1/Beautiful People tom rolls on Black Skinhead are garnished with cathartic shouts that would make Alan Vega shit his pants. The posturing and admonishment of institutionalised racism in modernity reaches a weird confluence on the Billie Holiday and TNGHT sampling Blood On The Leaves, turning Holiday’s civil rights anthem Strange Fruit into a soundtrack to Kanye’s pussy woes.
At its core, Yeezus is a hyper-intense, masterful angry wank for the ages. His Beautiful Dark Twisted masterpiece has been followed up with something darker and more twisted. It’s no longer a question if Kanye is one of the all-time greats (pejorative or otherwise, I choose otherwise), it’s now just a matter of where to from here.
BY LACHLAN KANONIUK
Best Track: Bound 2
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Plastic Ono Band JOHN LENNON, Human After All DAFT PUNK
In A Word: Pressurised
