After loving Kanye's first three albums, he has failed to provide me with the same enjoyment since. That makes me one of the few who don't dig MBDTF very much, so I was hoping that Yeezus would be another subjectively great Kanye West release. It was interesting to see the promotion for this album compared to his last release. With Cruel Summer, about half of the tracks were released prior to the album dropping. With this new solo effort, all we had were live versions and short snippets. Not to mention the nonexistent cover art and only getting the track list a few days out from the official release date. As Kanye has done with each album, the sound is once again different. Apart from 'New Slaves', 'I'm in It' and 'Bound 2'-the closest thing to previous Kanye productions-Kanye shares the head producing with others. Daft Punk play a part in the first three songs, while a host of other producers contribute their ideas throughout the album. It makes for a mixture of experimental/industrial hip hop, trap rap, house, and electronic music. As a side note, Daft Punk give Ye much more interesting beats here than the soft poppy stuff on their latest album in my opinion. Checking out the songs.. 'On Sight' is okay at best. I don't like the production at all and Kanye doesn't help it lyrically. The next three songs are a vast improvement without being outstanding. On the braggadocious 'I Am a God' Kanye raps "Everybody know you brought real rap back", in case we forgot. The change up toward the end of the song here works and should've gone on for longer. While I love the 'New Slaves' beat (best on the album) I'm not sure about the beat change up three minutes in though. Similarly with 'On Sight as well, only this case it's basically smack bang in the middle of the song. I'm not saying I don't like them, but do they work? I'm not sure. They don't connect together sonically at all. I dreaded Chief Keef being on this when I saw him in the track list. I still find him to be wack, but at least it's only the chorus of 'Hold My Liquor'. The last two minutes of this is just an instrumental. Not a great track overall. "Eatin' Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce" is an example of the sexual lyrics I mentioned earlier that feature in the following 'I'm in It'. The worst song so far. 'Blood on the Leaves' isn't as unconventional as the earlier production and sees Kanye going back to auto-tune at the start and the end of the song, making it feel like something from 808s & Heartbreak. Another average song with Kanye jumping on the "molly" lyrical bandwagon as well. 'Guilt Trip' is another song with auto-tune singing/rapping. This one is better though and the best song for a few with a good trap/synthy beat where Kanye raps about a failed relationship it seems.. I really wish Kanye would stop associating with Cudi though, who sings the outro. Despising his voice with a passion takes the song down a notch. The penultimate 'Send It Up' is weak, lyrically and productionally. Finally, 'Bound 2' that I mentioned earlier, feels somewhat like a weaker 'Late' from Late Registration. While vocally Kanye ain't bad to listen to and there are some entertaining lyrics, lyrically more is average than good. There's some conscious rap like on 'New Slaves', but a lot is also brag rap, with a lot of talk about sex as well at times. With the lyrics and vocals being rushed according to Rick Rubin, this isn't too surprising, and maybe Kanye should've spent another a few days on them and pushed the album back if this is true. Overall, after a number of spins nothing takes my breath away. As Kanye's ego has continued to grow, he has continued to slip as a lyricist, which was never a massive strength as it was, but he always wrote some witty lines, and was probably better than people give him credit for to be fair, even if there have been ghostwriting rumours. The beats, with a larger influence from outside producers than the past, don't feel as revolutionary as I expected them to be for a lot of the album either. Not that the start of the album is mindblowing, but particularly over the second half that doesn't feel like much new at all. Some of the people talking about how groundbreaking this is need to listen to more music. After a number of projects now of not feeling Kanye, I am starting to doubt that there will ever be another one from him again that I will put on a pedestal like I did as he rose through the ranks. Best Tracks: Black Skinhead, I Am a God, New Slaves, Guilt Trip

When I was starting to get into hip hop Kanye's music was important to me and I loved most of what he did. As time has passed, I find his rapping less interesting just like his lyrics, even if I go back to what I loved, and this changes none of that. In some ways this is probably lyrically better than some of the bars we got on things like Yeezus, and being short may help that. As with any post Graduation Kanye project, the gushing over this from fans isn't something I understand. I mean, people are calling this progressive... This 24-minute album is just decent at best. Similar to The Life of Pablo for me, there is no brilliant song here and with two minute songs you're still getting into them, which a couple of these are. I listened to the live stream which went through the album twice and have given this another couple of tries but nothing has grown on me much. See my brief thoughts on the songs below: 1 I Thought About Killing You - An interesting way to start the album going almost acapella. I find his intonation a bit annoying at the beginning. Only gets replay value worthy when the beat kicks in. 2 Yikes - The best song here. Thumping beat and nice contrast between the verses and hook. 3 All Mine - Ehh. The beat is a minimalist trap like beat. The extra hits in the final verse are dope but the chorus isn't very catchy and overall it's not a great song. 4 Wouldn't Leave - Decent song about Kim staying with him through the shit they both cop when he speaks his mind and airs an opinion, that he apparently isn't entitled to. 5 No Mistakes - The Slick Rick sample is cool but I don't really like Charlie Wilson here. A short song lacking anything inventive in the production department at all. 6 Ghost Town - The production is better here but the singing of the horrendous Cudi (I still don't get how people like this guy's voice) and the way Shake sings in the outro is garbage. 7 Violent Crimes - Cloudy beat. The subject matter has been done many times before though about how a father feels about having a daughter and wanting to protect her from males, etc. The way he does it isn't boring but as I said, it's been done. Still the second-best song.

If you're like me and your favourite time period for hip hop is '93-'95, I can't see you not getting something out of this album. So many artists were imitating great music and this is another example. Fat Joe got some dope producers on the boards (including Diamond D who produces most of the tracks) and the production is above average for '93 which is a huge compliment. At times Joe's bars leave something to be desired and the featuring artists do give more memorable lines but it's not too much of a negative. Recommended if you love east coast boom bap from the golden-age of rap with some jazz-rap flavour. Best Tracks: Livin' Fat, Bad Bad Man, You Must Be Out of Your Fuckin' Mind

I've been going through the charts and checking out acclaimed albums that I have ignored, and after album after album saying "what is all the fuss about", here is one that I'm feeling. Bangin' beats with some nice variation on the hooks by Polo mean the production is great, and while G Rap sounds very much like Scarface sometimes (or Face sounds like him), the man can spit and narrate. The only thing that lets this down is that on a few of the storytelling tracks, like 'Train Robbery' for example, the beat could do a little more. Nevertheless, if you like artists like Scarface, Geto Boys, Big Daddy Kane's early stuff and so on, you should love this. Best Tracks: Crime Pays, No. 1 With a Bullet, Operation CB, Two to the Head

A Creative Follow Up Following up Illmatic was always going to be a challenge. Although a critical success, Illmatic was not a great commercial success which may explain the change of direction with this project. Nas changed it up lyrically and musically, getting a whole new team in (Dr. Dre, Havoc, L.E.S., Live Squad & Trackmasters), with DJ Premier returning, and what you have is a fairly different album with a lil' more of a mainstream sound and some gangsta based lyrics. At first I underrated this album, but now every time I listen to it I like it more and more. If there was one thing to be negative about regarding this album, it's that despite its consistency, it doesn't have the supreme Nas tracks that most of his others have. There is brilliance but I don't think there is something at the quality of his absolute best like 'One Mic', 'It Ain't Hard to Tell', 'Nas Is Like' or so on present on this album. It is also let down from track 9 to 11, whereas every other song is quality. You get the feeling though that if Illmatic wasn't released and this was his first album it would almost be regarded as highly. Beats: ★★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★★★ Hooks: ★★★★ Best Tracks: The Message, I Gave You Power, Take It in Blood, Shootouts, If I Ruled the World.