Reviews on Hiatus - The Fresh Prince of Chi-Town

I want to say that The College Dropout reminds me of those Fresh Prince albums when Jeff was still the DJ, and Will was the rapper but I don't want people to get caught up in that. The point I want to make is that Kanye West fills that same void. He represents that persona that we rarely see in American pop culture. He's the middle class black kid. He's more The Wood than Boyz 'N The Hood. The difference between Kanye and Will, though, is that the Fresh Prince was a celebration of being that kid. That kid as cool. Kanye West's rhymes are for that kid who, in 2004, knows that in our current pop culture it's the thug that's sexy, the thug with the cars and the girls, and definitely not the kid with the backpack. He knows that and imitates it and is mad at himself for being a poseur but not having the desire or will to get hood rich nor the self-worth necessary to shake his feelings of inadequacy. He's a kind of Bizarro Dwayne Wayne with all the insecurity and little of the focus, determination and book smarts. It's an admirable concept for an album. If only Kanye was a better rapper.

His rhymes are ragged. He has a tendency to rhyme the exact same word (ending two successive lines with "club" or "felt") and rarely taking the opportunity to play off the different meanings one word might have. He absolutely floors me with what could be a decent turn of phrase by getting Cree Summer's name wrong, even going so far as to spell both her first and last name wrong in the liner notes. Most of the time he's trying to catch up to the beat and on every song he's outclassed by his vibrant hooks or by the guest rappers and many times, by both. Kanye is witty. The themes in every track are smart, often funny, and very timely. It's just unfortunate that he didn't spend as much time writing in his notebook as he did behind the boards.

The song production is luscious. Each track is a full-bodied funky head-nodder. He distills the power of Lauryn Hill's best track on her disjointed unplugged album on All Falls Down and twists an old Marvin Gaye track on I'll Fly Away into a song that, without Kanye's lyrics, would sound just as at home on Donnie's The Colored Section from last year. I could actually see Jesus Walks making it's way to radio. It's awfully urban playlist friendly even with the heady material and the sincerity. There are a few too many skits but every actual song is just really adept hip hop. It's nice to hear such grand sounding music after spending the last two years with a lot of minimalist and electronic beats. There's nothing wrong with that but, damn, I'm on the west coast...sometimes I need a real funk record.

The standout song is Get 'Em High. It's a simple enough concept with Kanye explaining his lack of skill with the ladies, particularly dealing with a girl he met on blackplanet.com. It's one of the few times on the album when his rhyming is up to par. He's flowing well, he's on pace with the beat, and it's hot. He has to because Talib Kweli and Common are on the track and they drop some of their illest raps in a while. Common's is particularly strong and suggests that he's returned from the Electric Circus and is back to "real nigga quotes." His verse is just ridiculous and sits atop this hard driving bass line. The track is particularly of note because all three artists seem to be rapping outside their normal boxes. The conscious rappers on a track about hooking up, the lazy rapper actually putting in the effort to come correct.

I'm not sure if the sum of this album is greater than it's parts or if all the outstanding individual parts make up for the lack of great rapping by Kanye. It's a true head-nod masterpiece, I just wish that he was a better wordsmith. It's a definite shift in hip hop, though. It's most noticeable on the track that Jay-Z guests on. Jay is an amazing rapper whose subject matter has always been a three-trick pony (money, cash, hoes). On this album, Jay-Z's posturing felt really tired for the first time. I wanted to hear him talk about something else.

If anything, Kanye West's The College Dropout proves that you can.

Comments

[gwen]

Hello? What? Is someone talking?

(I've got a big PeeWee Herman ear on.)

[nOva]

Yeah, I wasn't really feeling the Jay-Z track odd enough. and "Jesus Walks" has already been on the radio over here in DC. *dap*

[Rocka]

I felt and said the same thing about the Jay-Z track on this album, Jay really should branch out and go as deep as he claim he cans, but that is also something he should have done on the black album, but I digress.

Kanye could improve his rhymes. But you have to give him props for being the Anti- 50 cent, if u will...

[METALFACE]

Kanye's album is significant in ways beyond just his rhymes. An alternative take is that like many African-Americans, he has an understanding of his family history and consequently his peoples struggles. This is eveident in tracks like "Never Let You Down" and "Family Business".

Artists like Ghostface and Tupac vividly painted vignettes about their lives relating to their mamas and family history. Similarly, Kanye does this somewhat.

He articulates the current condition of black folks like himself especially accurately of the tracks "Spaceship" and "All Falls Down". Particularly, black people foresaking their corporeal lives to instead focus on a better existence in the after-life. In otherwords, like many before him, he realizes that blacks are marginalized and a denied any self-esteem in this life world through century long battles with racism. Maybe, like the missionaries and masters tell us, their is a better life on the other side.

These archetypes exist in his music.

[Timi]

I purchased Kanye's CD last week and I thought it was pretty tight. I think Jesus Walks and Never Let Me Down are both hot tracks. I wish the brother success in the future.

[dioN the recovering onlychild]

great review. now its time for me to become $15 closer to being broke.

[David]

I disagree about Jay-Z being a "three trick pony" (The Black Album was an entire work based on the conflit of whether to bow out or fade away, how to age in hip-hop, etc., and he's always done songs like "Meet the Parents" and "Song Cry") but other than that, great review! I like that Kanye is very much "the people's" rapper - I never feel like I'm being preached to (coughTalibcoughKRScough) and he's willing to address his own flaws as well as those within society.

You know what would be a great topic for a piece? How rap actually provides a place for a complex male identity in a world of Maxim magazines and The Man Show.

[Matt DiPace]

What was your motive for writing through the wire