Kanye West - GOOD MUSIC - The Album

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Pouring one out for James Blake because he was supposed to be on this and would have been a way better feature than a good (get it) number of people that made it onto this version.
 
BigJiantRobut said:
The more I listen to this, the more I feel like this is a collection of some good songs that just don't flow as a cohesive album. There's nothing I completely dislike (except maybe Higher) but the overall package just feels so inconsistent. CyHi's verses are all pretty dopey, Big Sean is alright but doesn't really do himself any favors by basically just delivering joke lines in between actually good verses. The Cudi song is pretty good but it feels really, really weird sort of plooped at the end of the album with just one MC on it. For better or worse, most of the album is clearly a G.O.O.D effort, and then there's just a Kid Cudi song.

I don't hate it, but I certainly don't love it yet.
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but.... but....mitt ronmey don't pay no tax?

I feel the same now that I think of it
 
album is a 2.5/5 for me


the content is just boring and tiresome at this point, just non stop I'm so rich/fashion name dropping/you only dream of my wealth/I'm so rich and drive lambos....


a couple tracks ok, but and entire fucking album? and the beats are mediocre to above average. WTF with Common only given 1/2 a verse but garbage Big Sean and Chyi having multiple features? No Mos Def or Q tip?


Kanye starting to fall off
 
Ken Masters said:
album is a 2.5/5 for me


the content is just boring and tiresome at this point, just non stop I'm so rich/fashion name dropping/you only dream of my wealth/I'm so rich and drive lambos....


a couple tracks ok, but and entire fucking album? and the beats are mediocre to above average. WTF with Common only given 1/2 a verse but garbage Big Sean and Chyi having multiple features? No Mos Def or Q tip?


Kanye starting to fall off
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To be fair, Kanye is pretty much the only one on the album that doesn't focus on that 100%.
 
Still haven't listened yet, but I'm sad that there's not as much Kanye as I was expecting. I just want another solo rap album from him, in the same style as the College trilogy.
 
After not really anticipating this a whole lot, I gotta say this thing was pretty underwhelming. I was bored to tears and really struggled to finish this. For perspective, I found MBDTF and WTT great and decent, respectively.
 
Just picked it up today. I think it's pretty decent after listening to it once. It's funny cause if it came out in 2005 no one would believe it was from Kanye.
 
Just for the hell of it, my favorite Ye albums:

1.) Graduation
2.) 808's
3.) Dropout
4.) Late Registration
5.) Twisted Fantasy
6.) Watch the Throne

And, I gotta say I love all of them. Especially all of his solo albums. Graduation is just rap perfection in my eyes, and 808's is basically just...I don't know, it's just amazing to see something so different. 808's really hit home for me, especially when it just came out. Those songs all hit me on an emotional level that I can't begin to describe. Just was amazing. I want to even put it ahead of Graduation, but I feel Graduation is just rap perfection.
 
Bleh... I picked this up and I am really not impressed with it. His weakest one yet at least in my opinion. I will give it more time but I swear it feels like it is someone else's album and he just comes in from time to time.
 
Overall, I am pleased. It tides me over until Pusha T's solo album comes out, as well as Kanye's next album.

Thoughts:

  • Pusha T's (way too short) verse in The Morning was worth the price of admission. He's so on these days it's not even funny. That is the best non-previously-released song on the whole thing as far as I am concerned.

  • I like Cruel Summer a lot more than the population here appears to. It has exactly the mix of stuff I had anticipated. And I anticipated being disappointed, and to a degree I am but so far I haven't cried or sulked because Cruel Summer wasn't good enough for my earballs.

  • Expecting Q-Tip on here is understandable. He's officially on G.O.O.D so I don't know why he was excluded. I would have happily exchanged some of my 2 Chainz for at least one frikking Q-Tip verse.

  • I actively hate "I Don't Like". I don't know what Kanye saw in that generic sounding bullshit enough to remix it and put his best students on the track. I can't get that ignoramus going "bang bang" out of my head.

  • I am really surprised the version of New God Flow with Ghostface wasn't on this. He adds a really excellent verse to an already great song. Too bad.



Ashhong said:
so....no difference in the release than the leak?
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Nope. The leak was legit.
 
these trap style beats from Kanye and his army of producers need to stop. The vibe of the beats from GOOD Friday were so superior to Cruel Summer I try not to think of them when listening to this album


how anyone doesn't cringe at Kanye screaming "don't talk about fashion/clothes, I'll muthafucking embarrass you" I won't understand. Especially coming from how diverse the tracks were MBDTF. But now it's back to back (WTT to CS) albums this bullshit corny boastful raps)

"It's a cruel (cruel) cruel summer, leaving me here on my own." No? Well for a child of the 1980's, the words "Cruel Summer" will always bring Bananarama to mind first. If Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music compilation takes off, then "Cruel Summer" will evoke memories of 2012 for a whole new generation, and it won't even matter if they've seen his movie of the same name (starring Kid Cudi) or not. Curiously there's no song by that name featured in either one, but there's no shortage of cruelty found on songs like his hit "Mercy." A trio of emcees join Kanyeezy to express the heights of materialism the song is named after - the expensive Lamborghini Murciélago car:


Big Sean: "Finally got paid, now I need shade and a vacay
(And niggaz still hatin) So much hate I need an AK
Now we out in Paris, yeah I'm Perrier'n
White girls politickin - that's that Sarah Palin"
Pusha T: "Check the neck, check the wrist, them heads turnin, that's exorcist
My Audemar like Mardi Gras, that's Swiss time and that's excellence
Two-door, preference, roof gone, George Jefferson
That white frost on that poundcake so your Duncan Hines is irrelevant"

2 Chainz: "Spit rounds like the gun range, beat it up like Rampage
Hundred bands, cut your girl, now yo' girl need a Band-Aid
Grade A, A-1, chain the color of Akon
Black diamonds, backpack rhymin, co-signin by Louis Vuitton"

When it comes to conspicous consumption though, none can top Kanye.

"I threw suicides on the private jet
You know what that mean? I'm +fly to death+
I step in Def Jam building like I'm the shit
Tell 'em give me fifty million or I'ma quit
Most rappers' taste level ain't at my waist level
Turn up the bass 'til it's up in yo' face level
Don't do no press but, I get the most press kid
Plus yo my bitch make yo' bitch look like Precious"

On one hand you have to admire the sheer hubris of Kanye and comrades one-percenting like only they can, or at the very least, like only he can while the rest are spending out of their advance. (Watch for that rebound on the recoup Chainz, it's gonna hurt like ground and pound from Rampage.) And as long as we're being fair, that beat by Lifted et al is hypnotic as is the Super Beagle chatter of the chorus. The flipside of that coin is that Kanye seems increasingly out of touch with the very consumers that are buying his music. He's always been gassed off his own ego, but with the stack of greenbacks he's standing on these days, any liftoff from that point will take him far beyond stratospheric heights. He's probably 30 miles up now.

If the goal of Kanye's album was to flaunt the Benjamins he and his crew burn to light their cigars, there's no doubt "Cruel Summer" will feel like cruelty to anybody scraping two nickels together between thumb and forefinger. Pusha T's "I wouldn't piss on that nigga with Grand Marnier" on "New God Flow" epitomizes their excess excellently. At some point I expected West to rap about using Sevruga caviar as eye black to play flag football, swimming in bathtubs filled with Dom Perignon, and wiping his ass with original drafts of the Constitution. I imagine on one good night of partying, he spends more than I made in the last two years and doesn't even miss it. He never tones it down - on songs like "Cold" he only takes it to ever more braggadocious heights:



"Dinner with Anna Wintour, racing with Anja Rubik
I told you muh'fuckers it was more than the music
In the projects one day, to +Project Runway+
We done heard all that loud-ass talkin, we're used to it
I'm from where shorties fucked up, double-cupped up
Might even kill somebody and YouTube it
To whoever think they words affect me is too stupid
And if you can do it better than me, then you do it"
SRSLY 'YE WE GET IT. Congratulations. You can buy and sell every person on Earth ten times over. I'm sure you can put out more hits than the Guild of Calamitous Intent too - so much they probably give you a frequent buyer's discount. If you don't get the reference, I'm not going to make you look it up to get it, because the point is that it's now a cartoon. He's exceeded the bounds of believability that even he had previously set. It's like the old story that if you tell your son if he behaves badly that you'll spank him, he believes you; if you tell him you'll hit him so hard that he flies over the moon he no longer fears you because you stepped all the way beyond credibility into absurdity. The words of any critic like me may be "too stupid" to effect the oh-so-intelligent Mr. West, but since he's already become a walking talking cartoon I don't have any reason to fear the repercussions of criticizing him. I'ma call it like I see it.

There are a few moments on "Cruel Summer" where believability actually shines through. Kid Cudi's "Creepers" sounds like anything he would have done on an album of his own, which to some degree makes it out of place on this compilation - but still appreciated all the same. "If I had one wish it'd be to have more wishes" is the kind of sentiment I can actually relate to. "To the World" embraces its own absurdity to a degree I can appreciate with R. Kelly proudly crooning "The whole world is a couch; bitch I'm Rick James tonight." If it's a cartoon, at least let it be a funny one, ya heard? And on that note the version of "New God Flow" found on this album exceeds the original simply by having Ghostface Killah add another verse. Kanye could take a few tips from him about how to be flossy without coming across as so arrogant and unlikeable.

The biggest fault of "Cruel Summer" may be that it lacks a unifying voice or vision. One might be inclined to forgive that by saying since it's a showcase of Kanye's imprint G.O.O.D. Music, it has to feature all of the artists who are associated with it. John Legend and Teyana Taylor's "Bliss" doesn't fit though, in terms of either its sappy sentiment or the 80's inspired R&B funk of Hudson Hawke, who can actually get away with punctuating his backdrop via the sound of a screaming eagle - I like it. Most of the time people get sucked into the vortex swirling around West though, to the point talented crooners like Marsha Ambrosious are singing "got a pistol on my hip/and it's gon' be some shit" on "The One." Is that really the best use for her? In fact do the cameos by Common, Raekwon, Jadakiss or even God-blessed Ma$e represent the best use of their talents? No. West's true crime is not that he flaunts his excesses on "Cruel Summer" because that's the Kanye we know and respect, love him or hate him. His crime is that with all the talent at his fingertips, he can't think of anything better to do than brag on his dick size.

Music Vibes: 7 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 4.5 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 5.5 of 10

Originally posted: September 18th, 2012
source: www.RapReviews.com
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kanye's quality has definitely gone down this part year or so. He's living in a crazy bubble right now, especially once he started seeing Kim Kardashian... that shit shot his stardom to whole new level.
 
After listening to New God Flow Im even more excited for Ye's next solo. We may have a case where we get back to back classics similar to CD and LR.
 
ninjabyke said:
Overall, I am pleased. It tides me over until Pusha T's solo album comes out, as well as Kanye's next album.

Thoughts:

  • Pusha T's (way too short) verse in The Morning was worth the price of admission. He's so on these days it's not even funny. That is the best non-previously-released song on the whole thing as far as I am concerned.

  • I like Cruel Summer a lot more than the population here appears to. It has exactly the mix of stuff I had anticipated. And I anticipated being disappointed, and to a degree I am but so far I haven't cried or sulked because Cruel Summer wasn't good enough for my earballs.

  • Expecting Q-Tip on here is understandable. He's officially on G.O.O.D so I don't know why he was excluded. I would have happily exchanged some of my 2 Chainz for at least one frikking Q-Tip verse.

  • I actively hate "I Don't Like". I don't know what Kanye saw in that generic sounding bullshit enough to remix it and put his best students on the track. I can't get that ignoramus going "bang bang" out of my head.

  • I am really surprised the version of New God Flow with Ghostface wasn't on this. He adds a really excellent verse to an already great song. Too bad.





Nope. The leak was legit.
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Ahem, the abum version does have ghostface on new god flow, that leaked version you have is not final.
 
Wasn't this originally a double LP?


That aside I am enjoying it for what it's worth. Really is a simple safe crew release from Kanye & Co. I agree though that it did need more Kudi, Mos, & Common
 
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