Donda

during Donda:

Even Jay-Z has diminished in the same ways?

The days are long gone I anxiously anticipated each new Kanye project. I used to keep up with every feature, not to mention albums. I've changed, but so has Kanye. He still puts out original ideas but only in a vast orbit of mediocrity. His quality verses especially are rare.

Christian or not, and however interesting the history of Christian art be, you must agree these hyper-Christian themes are less interesting than his older themes.

So much stupid rap these days. I guess that's the side-effect of rap becoming so fundamental in the modern mainstream.

There's definitely a lot of rap I'm less interested in than this. If this was Kanye's first album, and I'd never heard of him, this would be interesting. But his trajectory is hard to ignore. He's been bottomed out for a while. Still it's more interesting than a lot of pop music. I attribute this in part to his background in soul.

"Believe What I Say" high point so far?

I don't hate it. I'm warming up a little. I also miss rap; I've hardly listened to it in the last couple years.

I was troubled when I heard "Violent Crimes" from Ye was ghost-written. So I'm not even sure what Kanye himself contributes, of the good stuff recently. Some of this is good... mostly the beats. Is he still beat-auteur, or are those "ghost-written" as well? I like some of this. I especially like the soulful chords in some of these tracks, like "Violent Crimes" -- the organs playing phat chromatic changes. It's gospel and I love that.

I actually like some of these beats quite a bit. I miss good rap though. High-level verses are spare here, even with all the features.

Contemporary Christian references compromise an otherwise decent verse -- and I don't think I'm anti-Christian for saying that...

Who wrote "Lord I Need You"?

Since Pablo we've seen a lot of dumb, unsubtle, spastic stuff... but some great beats.

This would be awesome live.

I miss long verses, not that I've expected those from Kanye in a long time.

"Melodic rap" with the sophistication of high school poetry... it's everywhere.

(In)elegant variation... Kanye doesn't know how to subtly repeat things for emphasis. He repeats jokes and, on this album, entire songs.

after Donda:

I didn't mind it -- I may have liked it better than I expected, though my expectations are low these days. If I'd listened to any of my favorite rap lately, I'm guessing I'd like Donda less. It just doesn't really compare. While I love good beats, I love good writing even more, so rap is really about lyrics. Kanye's lyrics have suffered enormously in the last ten years or so, though he was never king of that from the start. But falling even as far as he has from his early wordplay and concepts is a blow to his value: what do I do with this rap containing such mediocre lyricism? Kanye is no longer a strong writer. Somehow he still coordinates some great beats, in my opinion, but I'm not sure what that process looks like. What's his role? I even loved The Life of Pablo, despite its verses, or lack thereof. But the lack of quality verses is a blow to the whole value of rap. Most of the rap I hear is trending that way. People aren't leaning into verses -- its just cheap beats and offhand auto-tuned remarks. I miss great rap. Even Kendrick has declined. I wonder what's going on. I'm sure there are things happening underground that shatter previous quality standards. I hope Kendrick isn't so far past that; Kanye is long past that. He's still inventing, and I like some of it, and he'll always be my first favorite rapper, but I shake my head.

I certainly appreciate the gospel chords of the last few albums. I daresay they rescue his recent trajectory. I daresay they're his savior.