1 No Church in the Wild (feat. Frank Ocean) ★★★☆
Pretty likable opening beat and verse from Jay, marred by Kanye singing over autotune, and never recovers.
2 Lift Off (feat. Beyoncé) ★★☆
Not feeling this one too much, again ruined more so by Kanye singing. "You can't sing bro!". The worst track here.
3 Niggas in Paris ★★★☆
A hard beat for sure. Not bad, not great. The choir change up that occurs at about three minutes is enjoyable that leads into Otis.
4 Otis (feat. Otis Redding) ★★★
I feel I could've really like this one, but there is a gross overuse of the sample, it's overpowering and becomes annoying.
5 Gotta Have It ★★★
Again the sample in the hook is annoying, otherwise it's a solid tune.
6 New Day ★★★★
The best track of the opening half a dozen. A nice soulful emotional beat.
7 That's My Bitch ★★★★☆
Finally a real banger. Good variety from the verses to the hook. Southern influenced and funky.
8 Welcome to the Jungle ★★★☆
I'm not surprised Swizz Beatz produced this, the fast keys are very him, and perhaps become a tad monotonous. Fairly solid though.
9 Who's Gon Stop Me? ★★★
Okay...
10 Murder to Excellence ★★★★☆/★★★☆
Swizz provides another solid beat. Again Kanye is singing on the hook..... One of the better tracks though, talking about the African-American murder rate. Should have been longer../The track then changes to 'Excellence' with Jay rapping about black achievement.
11 Made in America (feat. Frank Ocean) ★★★★
I don't know why Jay-Z needs to be "egghing" after every bar, it gets on my nerves, but nevertheless this is one of the strongest tunes, with Kanye and Jay rapping about their rise to fame. Frank Ocean provides good vocals.
12 Why I Love You (feat. Mr Hudson) ★★★☆
Solid...
13 Illest Motherfucker Alive ★★★★☆
I'm not feeling the first three minutes, not much is happening, but the rest of it is head boppin' stuff. A more kind of simple hard hip hop tune. Lacking the subject matter but probably the best banger here.
14 H•a•m ★★★★
A definite grower from when I first heard this.
15 Primetime ★★★☆
16 The Joy (feat. Curtis Mayfield) ★★★
A bit boring, particular on the hook, lacks that extra punch.
Overall, after a slow start, the album improves with some tracks to go back to, and this isn't too far from a 3.5/5. However, many just lack that something extra to take it to the next level, or, there is something I don't like about them. As you can see above, about four tracks annoy me in some way. If I could give some advice to Kanye before his next album, it's stop singing and overusing samples and I'll love you again.
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