“Ain’t nobody cold as this/Do the rap and the track/Triple-double, no assist,” he raps on “Monster.” West at least matches him, maybe bests him. But on the two songs here where Jay-Z appears, Mr. He’s currently working on a collaborative album with Jay-Z: even a couple of years ago that would have only been conceivable with Mr. (His flow pattern on “Monster” recalls Juvenile’s “Ha,” a surprise.) In a couple of places he’s vulnerable: “The plan was to drink until the pain over/but what’s worse, the pain or the hangover?” he raps on “Dark Fantasy.” Mostly, though, he’s boastful or piqued, modes he wears well. He’s a better rapper than he’s ever been, as good as anyone he’s previously blatantly idolized or emulated. Similar feelings motivate many of the best songs on “Fantasy,” but his approach has changed: rather than wallow in the feelings, he’s running roughshod over them, hoping to stomp them out. West’s previous album, “808s & Heartbreak,” which was a consistent and unnerving meditation on personal loss. In part that’s why it can feel bloodless compared with Mr. That patchwork gnaws away at this album’s emotional impact. West likes collecting, and what good is a collection if it’s not on display? That explains the most amusing bit in this album’s liner notes, from the credits for “All of the Lights”: “Additional Vocals: Rihanna, Kid Cudi, Tony Williams, The-Dream, Charlie Wilson, John Legend, Elly Jackson (La Roux), Alicia Keys, Elton John, Fergie, Ryan Leslie, Drake, Alvin Fields & Ken Lewis.” Maybe three or four of these people are audibly identifiable on the song. West isn’t scared of collaboration, in part because, like anyone who runs a good salon, he understands one can be measured by the depth of one’s guest list. West, about as surreal a tableau as has been created in the making of any pop album this year.įor an egotist Mr. The spooky indie folkie Justin Vernon from Bon Iver spoke of smoking marijuana with Rick Ross on one of his three sojourns to Hawaii to work with Mr. Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Nicki Minaj - they all made the trip. West’s gravitational pull is such that he can import talent. To work on this album he retreated to Hawaii, as he did during the making of his previous album. West controls all of the major elements of his songs, unlike other artists who have to rely on their taste (or their record label’s taste) in outside producers or songwriters. All of his fiddling is within recognized formulas. His music is ornate, ostentatious, curious and vivacious. He’ll never have an idiosyncratic period.Įven at his most extreme Mr. Every Kanye West album, until the cancer of the world around him begins to encroach on the parts of his cerebral cortex that control his musical ear, will be excellent and huge.
What’s more, for him to make something other than a universally accepted smash would be a thing that his ego couldn’t bear. He’s committed to pop, and savvy and talented enough to make it great, every time. West seems virtually incapable of making a bad record. “As a celebrity, as soon as you become a star, as soon as it pops off for you, at that point you stop growing,” he admitted. Funkmaster Flex on the New York radio station Hot 97. When he’s comfortable, and not feeling cornered, he can be thoughtful, as he was during an extended visit this month to the D.J. And while they’re mostly uncomfortable to watch, they’re motivated by a consistent, if peculiar, internal logic: that Mr. West’s televised outbursts and outlandish statements over the years. The Web site Jezebel recently compiled a five-minute video stitching together several of Mr. West’s words will be represented in full, without intrusion or interpretation. What all of these outlets have in common is that Mr. West speaks until he is done, and only then does someone ask another question. On everything from radio shows to record-label-sanctioned conference calls simulcast on the Internet, the pattern has been pretty much the same: Mr. That’s why, when he’s been in the news media lately, his interlocutors have largely stayed out of his way. KANYE WEST prefers his narratives linear, uninterrupted, undistressed.
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