Okay, so let me make this very clear: I love Kanye West. The dude is one of the most innovative thinkers in hip hop. I mean, the fact that he actually thinks and is at the same time a hip hop artist is as refreshing in today's music scene as Sprite.
And let me say: Sprite is fucking refreshing.
So Kanye's got a new album slated for a December 16th release entitled 808's And Heartbreak. This is the first album outside of Kanye's "College Trilogy". And being that all three of those records won the Grammy Award for Rap Album of the Year, the anticipation for this one is high.
That is until this first song leaked on Kanye's official blog. Well, actually, Kanye first performed the song live at the 2008 VMAs a few weeks back. Not that I actually watched the VMAs, but I did hear about them.
So now that we have the song in high quality studio-ized goodness, what are we to make of it?
Well....it's safe to say that Kanye West has officially lost his fucking mind.
Now, I know what you're thinking: "Hey, Anonymous Blogger, did you not see the Katrina telethon fiasco?" Yes, I did. But I saw nothing wrong with it. The man was given a camera and a microphone, and he told the world how he felt. And that's wrong because.....?
"But what about his meltdowns at awards shows?"
Again, what's wrong with that? The dude got upset 'cause he didn't win the award he thought he'd win. As if nobody's ever felt that way before. Kanye's the first dude to openly admit it. He's a celebrity who expresses how he actually feels. What a concept!
But back to this shit. Here's the thing: "Love Lockdown" as a song, on its own merits, isn't a bad song. In fact, it's a cool idea. Throbbing bass, moody vocals. Sounds like some shit you'd here on a dark Duran Duran record. The problem is: that's NOT Kanye West. This is not the same dude that made The College Dropout.
Now, I can't say I'm totally surprised by this shift by Mr. West. I mean, I saw this dude on the BET Awards call T-Pain a "genius".
Yes, that T-Pain. And yes, I was watching the BET Awards. Fuck you.
So now Kanye comes out with a vocoderized track of his own. And it's just not right. Had another artist taken reigns of this song, I wouldn't mind as much. But the fact that it's Kanye trying to pull this off, it's a disaster. To use an analogy of sorts, take The Love Guru. It's a terrible ass film. But if Steven Spielberg had been the director, and the film was the same terrible ass film it is today, that would make the film even worse because the man behind the terrible ass work has no business making such a work.
It's a sad day for the world of hip hop when a great mind like Kanye's resorts to following in the footsteps of a fake ass Nate Dogg. A sad day indeed.
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