Yeezus

He's lost his mind since this was recorded and released, to the point that I wasn't sure whether to listen to it. He's clearly not well, and maybe this album, with him framing himself as as deity, could be seen as the start of it. It is not a great album, full of auto-tune and glitchy beats, and with only a couple of memorable songs. Probably the biggest drop from his early work of any artist I have listened to.

gonna just sit with a 2 on this one, i know there are some great ones on here but not sure i can give it a listen front to back at this point

This isnt Kanye's best album, quite far from. It has maybe 2 good songs the rest is pretty meh. I dont like the overuse of autotune

The least listenable Kanye album. It shows genius, but I won’t be listening to it again

2, very underwhelming considering how much it is held in high esteem

Well a quick glance at the reviews on give it either 1 or 5 stars so theres quite a lot of polarization. I remember the music press gave it 4s and 5s... here goes...Ok...I like a lot of the beats and dark electronica that backs lot of the tracks...it gives it a sense of urgency...however I I can't get past the 'pussy, dick, nigga" lyrics that permeate 90% of the album and the nauseating ego on tracks like 'I am a god" 2 star for the backing tracks.

While honestly there are some great beats on this album, and this album should be on this list, I do think that it is completely overrated, as is the conceited artist who made it.

Delving into one of the two most overrated figures in hip-hop of the last twenty years, we get Yeezus, an album inexplicably on this list when Death Grips doesn't even get a footnote. Death Grips are the most influential act of the 2010s - indisputably. The barriers they lowered between bedroom acts and professional musicians, the relationship they cultivated with the internet, the approach to abrasive textures that led to a resurgence of interest in industrial and noise influences on everything from metal to pop. Death Grips changed the game, and Kanye casually cribbed their notes three years later in a messy facsimile. Is this a bad album? No. But it isn't original and it has some of Kanye's worst lyrics on it. So why is it on here?

Hardest album to rate yet. Immediate reaction was not good. 1 star. But it grew on me after a couple of listens. 2 stars. A couple more listens and I was noticing some over-arching narratives and 3 stars. I had to come back to it later in the day as it was nagging at me. Could it get even more stars? No. On a refreshed listen I was back toward my initial reaction. Best be done with it and give it a 2 but I feel like it may pull me back in.... Highlights: Hold My Liquor and Bound2

When you copy Death Grips' homework poorly and then ask Rick Rubin to go over it before handing it over

No stars for nazis. This was garbage.

Nazi

Yesterday’s album was Yeezus (2013) by Kanye West, and y’all already know that there’s no streaming revenue going to Nazis from me, so to replace this final Kanye album (crazy that I’ve gotten all 3 of his records in the first 250) I listened to: Mayhem (2025) - Lady Gaga After going through her lounge singer phase with Tony Bennett, then releasing the good-at-times but uneven Chromatica five years prior, this was the return to form that Gaga needed. Covid lockdowns and falling in love/getting engaged is all it took to get her best album yet! It’s all here: we got Dance Pop Gaga (‘Abracadabra’, ‘Killah’, ‘Zombieboy’), Extremely Horny Gaga (‘Garden of Eden’, ‘LoveDrug’, ‘The Beast’), Dark Gaga (‘Disease’, ‘Perfect Celebrity’), Female Empowerment Gaga (‘Don’t Call Tonight’, ‘Shadow of a Man’), In Love Gaga (‘Vanish Into You’, ‘Blade of Grass’), and Big Corporate Hit Gaga (‘Dead Dance’, ‘Die With a Smile’). This is a no skips affair, an album buzzing with energy, joy, and emotion, only solidified further as her best work by the incredible 2.5 hour theatric concert on The Mayhem Ball Tour. It’s my favorite album from her (I favor this over Born This Way, but it’s a close race) and I highly recommend giving it a listen. An unofficial but powerful 5/5

Okay some of the grooves are good but this dude is such a train wreck it's impossible to evaluate this without acknowledging the Hitler in the room.

Ramping up to the height of his narcissism, where practically every song is about comparing himself to humanities saviour despite harbouring alt right views himself - It’s hard not to judge this with the hindsight of him going off the rails (whether it is mental health related or just going off the deep end is by the by). I got a bit sick of the constant self reverence and found that as a comment on society, black culture, or world events where rap and hip can really capture the cultural zeitgeist, this absolutely missed the mark. Even the collaborators on it don’t improve this particularly, with the only thing that supports it is that some of the instrumentation in the background had sporadic and rare moments of interest. Otherwise, I really disliked this as a concept and piece of work. Stay on the bipolar meds Ye.

The previous time I got a Kanye album I gave it 5 starts despite him being... well Kanye. That was because it was, to me, far and away his best album in The College Dropout. Even when I went through my big Kanye phase I never really liked this one. I also made myself a promise that if I rated that one 5/5 the other two would be 1/5, so here we are. Fuck Nazis 1/10, would honestly be about 4/10 without the context this one is so overrated.

Awful. Every song is either bass-boosted to shit, or autotuned to shit. I hate the awful electronic beats and Kanye’s rapping is just awful. Every other song is “I get so much pussy”

nazi garbage

nope

Not interested in helping him

it’s fascinating how i can view Dark Twisted Fantasy as one of the best albums of all time, and then there’s this. I was going to go with two stars, but minus one for being a terrible human being. I can’t separate this guy from his music, even his better stuff.

Interesting, but not really in a good way. He took a big swing incorporating different genres into this album and it mostly misses. Lyrically, the album isn't much more than ego stroking and provocative self fulfilling nonsense. I think people buy a little too much into his "genius". 1/5 Won't listen again

Actual lines from this album: "We get this bitch shaking like Parkinson's" "I keep it 300, like the Romans" "I'd rather be a dick than a swallower" "Pussy had me floatin'/Feel like Deepak Chopra" "Eatin' Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce" "Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign" "Uh, I be speakin' Swaghili" "I hit her with Jamaican dick, I'm the new Shabba" "Star Wars fur, yeah, I'm rockin' Chewbacca"

A few of the songs have pretty good beats but this is quintessential egotistical Kanye. The themes for several songs and the lyrics for most songs are frankly ridiculous and flat out bad. Pair that with Kanye's horrendous public persona and it's really hard for me to get into this album. Also, he's a black Nazi somehow? Excuse my French but fuck that and fuck Nazis. 0/5

not even once

I've listened to 877 of 878 albums presented to me on this site. The one I didn't listen to was Kanye. I'm not going to give this fuckwad a second of my time. I'll add two albums of my own to round out the thousand.

Nope. Nazi rappers can fuck off, too. He's no good.

Would never give his music my time. I would rate zero if I could

This fails on every possible level. The rapping is poor. The lyrics are hate-filled. The "lo-fi" arrangements are spoiled by excessive use of autotune for effect. The music is crap. And to cap it all, West is an obnoxious piece of shit who is taking up space better left empty. The other albums I've rated one star here are all wonderful by comparison. This might be the very worst thing described as music that I've ever heard. I can only think it's included here as a dire warning.

Didn't listen to that album, don't want to support the artist.

Nah

This fucking sucked!

Nope. Didn't listen. Won't ever listen. It's really disturbing to me that EVEN AFTER Kanye West exposed himself as a conspiratorial anti-semitic dipshit, he goes on a tour and releases new stuff and remains popular. I hate it. Can't figure it out. I think he learned about how to con his loyal followers from the former president. Just wrote about mental illness and how maybe Captain Beefheart was toying with that line between madness and genius (myth by the way, but hey, popular music, right?). Kanye West has the more sociopathic version of this, where he feels okay exploiting his fans. "Yeah, look how CRAZY I AM!! {That'll be $250, please.}" This dude has a lot of problems, always has, and I'm kind of sick of using brain cycles thinking about it.

Not going to listen to Kanye

Never. Fuck this Nazi.

Fuck Kanye. Also, the album just sucks. Like, hurts my ears bad. I don't understand the boner everyone gets for this stuff.

Another recommended album from Kanye broke my listening habits for a while. I took a break from listening to recommendations from 1001 albums for four solidweeks to build up enough stamina to get through this album. Sonically, there are some electronic sounds and beats that can draw in my attention for a minute, but I can't get past the content. I don't want to listen to the lyrics and I could never repeat them. The album falls firmly in the 1 star range. I do NOT want to listen to this album ever again, and I wish I had NEVER listened to the album in the first place. I've got better things to do with my time. Yeesh(us).

The exact same vocal style/intonation/inflection in every track is extremely boring and unimaginative. There were no musical hooks here either. This guy is the equivalent of a bowel movement with an ego and a clothing line. How many stars is less than zero? Yeezus wept.

Have not yet finished the album, but nearly done. How can anyone listen to this without wanting it to end the entire time? The vocals are mostly over-the-top and heavily autotuned, the whole album sounds like an Imagine Dragons type beat, and the bars range from okay? to wtf is this? Not a fan of this album, and honestly not sure how anyone who's listened to other Kanye (or any rap at all tbh) could either.

I just love the idea of God going to a French ass restaurant and getting all pissy because his pastries are delayed. This guy is so out of touch with reality. Are you really going to sample Strange Fruit to brag about your watches and car? What an egotistical twat.

I'm nearly 900 albums in at this point and there have been TWO albums that I just could not listen through in their entirety. This is one of them. I tried. I really did. But I only made it about halfway through before the bloated, misogynistic, false-martyr, ego-tirade become so oppressive that I turned it off. Every song is either juvenile in subject matter or delivery... or both. I don't care about your clothes, Ye. I don't care about your dick. I don't care about how much of a genius you think you are. I don't want to hear it and I don't have time for this level of garbage. Grow up, get over yourself, and elevate your game. Kanye's an overrated hack and the industry that enabled his delusions can burn to the ground for all I care. This will be the last time I give him any of my time and attention.

Mainly consists of an angry man shouting about how rich he is while in the background a confused IT technician tries to make a laptop beep randomly. Just truly awful in every respect.

For 2013, both the rap and the electronica/industrial aspects are a bit pathetic. The misogyny is rampant, but that kind of comes with the territory. I think there was some valid social commentary somewhere in there, but I could not pay attention to the lyrics because the song was so boring. Maybe I don't understand the point of samples, but if you put a piece of a good song into a bad one, I will just wish I was listening to the good song. I was sad about "Gyöngyhajú lány"; first, Scorpions did their awkward cover, and now this.

Fck Kanye

This man is a mentally ill, hate filled, ego driven monster. His music should not be celebrated.

Dogshit from an insane white supremacist

This is the third Kanye album that has come up. I really hope this is the last. Probably some interesting music in there somewhere, but the ego and denigration makes me too irritated to care. No more please.

No thanks

The history of the music industry is full of assholes who produced great music. This asshole produced this shit. Scale: 5 - My absolute favorites. 4 - Albums I like. 3 - I enjoyed listening to it but wouldn't seek it out. 2 - Didn't like. 1 - Absolute shit.

Urgh. This is October 18th, 2022. I received this album on the generator on Sunday, October 2nd, 2022. I initially paused the generator because I wasn't that familiar with Kanye West's work, so I thought I should spare some time to acquaint myself with his ouevre and give him a more considered take. The next day, Kanye paraded around in a jumper saying WHITE LIVES MATTER. I immediately lost all enthusiasm for writing this review, and indeed just the basic capacity for trudge. He then followed it up with extremely ugly anti-Semitic posts on Instagram and Twitter. I'm not including every event over the last fortnight where Kanye proved himself both nasty and moronic, but the principal effect on me was to deter my review of Yeezus. Every time I tried to write this, I would just stare at the screen, not typing but constantly grimacing. I was worried this album would break me, and I'd quit the generator because Kanye West was an imbecilic cunt. Still, that which does not kill me blah blah blah (by the by, the context of that quote from Nietzsche always gets dropped: he actually says that military view of life is "That which does not kill me blah blah blah"). And I'm reviewing an album, not the person who made it, so perhaps I should swallow up my grievances and just assess the music. Apparently, this is Kanye's dark, challenging album, his raised middle digit to a world that just wants him to perform nice songs for people to dance to. But wehat nobody told me was how slight, how superficial and how meagre this album really is. The music, despite all the advertised influences of early 90s industrial metal (which was never that transgressive in actuality), is just a bit of electronica. It's acceptable, but it's hardly inspired. But that's not the fatal symptom of the album. The album's tubercular cough is (wait for it...) Kanye West, or more specifically the fact that the stances he expresses are incoherent, confused and, in summation, boring. Yes, one can point to his willingness to pick at the scab of affluent segregation in New Slaves (actually, is that especially resonant to the poor, that salesmen try to sell Kanye high-end goods?), but such outrage becomes distinctly undercut by lines like "Eatin' Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce". Indeed, there's a vicious misogyny throughout this whole album, but there's none of the illicit thrill of saying the unsayable that, say, Eminem or Ice Cube were able to muster in their best work. It's just Kanye trying to sound like what he thinks a rapper should sound like. It's the sound of a limited man, of a wimpy schoolboy trying to impersonate the bigger boys in a doomed attempt to become popular. And it stings that a work this mediocre is what ruined my fortnight. Anyway, that's the album out the way. I hope Kanye will find it apposite if I review him as a person in the form of a poem. Kanye West is a cunt. A cunt is what he is. He possesses labia majora and he evolved to imbibe jizz. Once a month he menstruates. For his clitoris you may hunt. I know the term is ugly, but the cunt is just a cunt.

This is a weird listen in light of his recent comments. It's hard for me to separate the art from the artist. I'm just annoyed by West boasting for 60 minutes.

Mi piace il genere ma questo album mi annoia totalmente. Due stelle le metto quando nell'album ci sono brani che ri-ascolterei ma qui...

È il massimo che possa dare a Kanye West. Un 1 di fiducia.

It amazes me how many people it took to write a bunch of crap songs. And the guy is an a total dick.

I have no idea what is good about this. Sounds like a random number generator plugged into a sampler. Lyrically horrible. I took the time to read the lyrics to find out if there is some hidden glory, but it's all Kayne bragging. "I'd rather be a dick than a swallower". This is made for 13 year old boys.

No thanks.

The guy is a talentless narcissist who genuinely believes he is gods gift to everything. There are infinitely better unsigned artists out there, why are we giving this idiot airtime? He only gets a 1 because I can’t give it a zero

nah. what the hell is this. everything i dislike in music in one album i guess? couldn't really listen to it all, its not good.

I liked some of the more fractured musical parts of this, but the voice grates quite quickly and the lyrics are awful. Not just bad, but actually just grim. I get that ‘Yeezus’ is playing a character, but it’s hard to divorce this from his overblown public ego. With decent (pun intended) lyrics, this could have the makings of a good album. More queasy that Yeezy, unfortunately.

Não gostei

Obviously not to my taste, but almost aggressively bad.

I tried… When it comes to controversial people on this list, I easily separate the art from the artist and took the same approach to listening to this album. I haven't listened to a lot of Kanye, but I've heard his earlier albums. This was just unlistenable, and I'm disappointed I couldn't make it past the first four tracks. This is my 271st album on the list and the second one I couldn't make it through. The first, Lana Del Rey's Chemtrails is also a recent addition, but I will acknowledge Kanye does belong on this list and maybe just Yeezus isn't the album that should get him there. 1/5.

The best part about this album: it's only about 40 minutes long. What could be done to improve this album: make it 30 minutes. What could be done to make my life better: not having had listened to this album. RIP Hip Hop.

vacilão

Misogynistic Cover art: 5/5

Kinda dug the industrial electronic feel. Unfortunately the content wasn't for me. It mostly goes on and on about how great Kanye is.

Hip Hop? Check. - Overhyped artist with an inflated ego? Check. - 0.5/5? Check.

Oh ffs NO! How is he considered a genius?!?!? This is awful. And waaaay too much pussy talk 🤢

Jesus Christ, this man is an arse. I really don't get why this album is held in such esteem. People calling it ahead of it's time? In what sense? Created essentially by Daft Punk, sampling (nothing wrong with sampling) earlier music and then he just puts some juvenile, misogynist words over the top. Plenty of people already doing that. The lyrics aren't anything special and frequently neither complement nor disturb or disrupt the music, which makes me wonder what they are for. It never ceases to amaze me how people get taken in by the self-promotion of such mediocrity. There really ought to be an option for zero stars.

no talent

“He’ll give us what we need, it may not be what we want.” A few years ago I used to listen to sooooo much Kayne, I think he’s still my most listened to artist by a lot. The last release of his I heard was Donda, which was a little bit ago now. All of the stuff surrounding him has really turned me off from listening to him and his recent stuff. That being said, I hadn’t listened to this front to back in a few years and holy shit 😭 it’s still unbelievable. These songs are insane, especially for the time they came out. The only kinda weak one would be guilt trip imo. And I already had a feeling this would be low rated on here (people don’t like Kanye, or rap, or this album specifically) but damn 😅 Anyway great, great album! And Melodrama + this is probably the best back to back I’ll get on this whole thing

Experimental masterpiece with terrible reviews that I’m assuming come from his personal life.

I bought Yeezus the day it came out without ever having heard a Kanye album before. Why, you ask? Daft Punk. They were part of the production, which piqued my interest, and also explains my seemingly spontaneous purchase. Not only was I floored by the musical creativity of Yeezus (the sampling is 10/10), the raw, sometimes crude, but always sharp delivery of Kanye West proved to be the main attraction. I think it's one of the all-time great rap albums because it pushes the envelope in ways that few big time artists would be willing to risk.

No skips

saw him on this tour, probably one of the most bat shit shows ive ever been to. this album is flawless by a very flawed human.

Brilliant artistic statement exploring the highs and lows of narcissism.

His best album. In your face beats, distortion, and arrogance. He pushes every envelope and steps over every line and it all works. Genius art from a truly disturbed person.

I can’t quit you Kanye! 😭

One of the all time best albums

perfect experimental album

4.7 One of my favorite albums. Remember the SNL performance hitting pretty hard. I never used to like Bound 2 but it has grown on me over the years (a billion streams on spotify that was kinda surprising)

The wildest Kanye has ever been (musically at least). He’s angry, then he’s depressed, then he’s a total goofball. Every single track has something to offer, whether it’s insane rage-filled industrial rap beats (first 3) or laugh-out-loud one-liners (Send it up, Bound 2), out-of-body-bliss outros (New Slaves, Hold My Liquor), or potentially I’ll-advised samples of Nina Simone songs while rapping about a breakup (Blood on the Leaves). Whether it’s good or bad, you can tell Kanye put 110% of his self into this album and the results are incredible. There’s really no other album, rap or otherwise, that you can compare this one to. Disclaimer: I do not support Kanye’s actions or words from about 2020-2025+

niggaaaaaaaaaa

Still one of the most interesting albums released by a major artist this decade, this was Kanye firing on all cylinders creatively working with some of the most talented producers of their generation. You can rightly criticise Kanye as a human being but as a standalone piece of music this is as good as anything on the list - the opening run of 4 tracks is still electric

Gas

unfortunately still a banger

best

Badass Lord!

Listen, I get it. You don't need to explain it to me. Fully aware. All that being said, this album is absolutely a 5. Nothing sounded like this album before it came out, and I can't think of anything that sounds like it since. A true one of a kind that hopefully outshines the horrible person that created it as the years go by.

BBBBWWWWWEEEEEEW BWEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWEEEEWWWWWEEEEEWWWWWWEEEEEWWWWW BWEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEWWWWWW WEWEWWEWWEEWWEWWEEWWEWWWEWWWWWWWWWW dum dum CHING dum dum CHING dum dum CHING 5 stars

Behold, the last good album Kanye ever made. And there are signs of the poor music that was to come from in the decade and a half since ("They be balling in the D League, I be speaking Swaghili"). But overall, this is the last stand of Kanye standing for something, speaking truth to power, and crafting a powerful message through masterfully written and produced music. To think he would go on to make a song making fun of people who say they miss/ed this version of him is pretty much a perfect encapsulation of his downturn in music. It wasn't the erratic behavior or acting like a genius that drew us to you, Kanye. It was legitimately being a genius and creating music like this. Favorite track: Blood on the Leaves. It might be the best track in his discography

(CD) This album just fucks. That's it. Simple and doesn't need to be anything more. Lyrics are silly, sometimes crazy, sometimes genius. Vern is all over it. The simple mix CD artwork is classic. I didn't want to give it a 5 but I just might have to. It's not Dark Fantasy, but it's in the same HOA

This album is a force. You can feel he is imposing his will through his rhymes (or imposing his omnipotence delusion) all with this funky electronica, German industrial techno vibes, overlaid on groovy swinging beats. Its a fun listen. If this album was a movie it would be very quotable.

Honestly one of the most creative hip hop albums imo. This has lots of catchy and creative rhymes and the beats are so insanely creative it almost listens like an electronic album is some parts. Highly recommend.

Highlights: On Sight, Black Skinhead, I Am a God, New Slaves, Hold My Liquor, I'm In It, Blood On the Leaves, Send It Up, Bound 2 Hard af. Great use of weird distorted sounds. This is his turbo testosterone ego trip record and he masterfully translates this feeling into sound. Lyrics are here just to serve the noise, so it's not at all weird that he often spouts weird bs about croissants, 300 Romans and King Kong. But it often touches on his frustrations which fit with the angry and aggressive sounds. New Slaves is a great example of that - spittin facts even though he also spits stuff about dicks, swallowers and Hampton blouses. The aura of bragging and douchebaggery on display here is his own little manifesto that he would stick by for the rest of his career. His state of mind on this record is literally the same as it is in his meltdowns. Post Graduation he was really trying to reinvent himself and I feel like this is the peak of his metamorphosis - Pablo is just a polished continuation of this. It also defined his style for the new decade and that's why I believe this one of the most important records in his discography. The record is a great package and it's one of my personal favorites.

This album is FUCKING AMAZING. I really hate Ye because of the incidents that happened in the past few years, but I really hope he gets some help and goes back to making amazing music like this again. This shit SLAPS. Musically produced masterpieces, each song plays like heaven on your eardrums. Some songs feel a bit cliche with their lyrics, but even then they still have something to offer. 5/5!

The production is very weird but I kinda like it. I understand the hate tho because of the akward production and the aggressive rapping. However I like this aggressive delivery on New Slaves because it expresses his anger well.

Still one of the best sounding albums of all time. When I first listened to it it introduced me to sounds I had never heard before that just gelled with my brain perfectly

feels like Pandora's box. This should have never happened but it's amazing it did. So good when listening to when angry. Altho doesn't feel like a typical 10/10 it absolutely is. Only song I don't like is send it up but even then its more opinionated then it being bad.

Kanye please take your medication and see a neurologist so you can get back to the studio I am begging

I used "Black Skinhead" as inspiration for a short literary analysis of the film King Kong (1933) for my Intro to Film course in university by calling out the long lasting racist comparison of black Americans to King Kong. I look to "Black Skinhead" for personal life inspiration in it's declaration of "For my theme song, my leather black jeans on." One of my favorite albums of all time.

This album is unironically and unapologetically one of my favorite albums of all time. Take that back, it is apologetically one of my favorite albums - the lyrics are so crass and emblematic of a man who was rewarded or forgiven for behaving like an abusive man-child his entire life, using the death of his mom as an excuse in the most perverted way. Now that that's out of the way, somehow this abrasive schizophrenic metallic and overlooked project is arguably the most impressive piece of art from a generation of genre-bending hip hop artists. The layers of creativity are so thick that this album will never grow old. The transition from I'm In It -> Blood On The Leaves sends chills down my spine every time, and not even because using a song from the civil rights era to raise awareness about lynching as a metaphor to being chained to a gold-digging woman is the most distrusting use of sampling. But the pain and genuine emotion behind Ye's words (not something usually associated with the machismo of modern rap) and vocals on an otherwise ironic album cuts through the disgust and shame of liking the song. The tagline of Kanye's career is "too creative and masterful to not indulge", and Blood On The Leaves is the perfect example - a shameful song through and through, but somehow one of the best songs every created?

I mean, for my money, his second best. Goes hard. I'm still trying catch up, so I'll keep it brief.

He'll give us what we need... It may not be what we want.

Top 3 Kanye album oat Favorite songs 1. Blood On The Leaves 2. New Slaves 3. Hold My Liquor 4. I Am A God 9.2/10

No denying this is a great record even if Janye is a dickhead. Very fun to listen to.

An album that was problematic when it came out and has only gotten more problematic with time. Unfortunately it is also an absolutely perfect album. The trumpets on Blood on the Leaves are simply transcendent.

Lurer på om noen så statistikken vår for 2010s og tok grep. FKA Twigs, Frank Ocean, og nå Kanye i løpet av fem dager? Yeezus er ikke den beste skiva til Kanye -- den tittelen går til My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy -- men jeg regner den ofte som min favoritt. Det var tydelig allerede fra Graduation at han var i ferd med å gro som artist, og ambisjonen han begynte å finne som kunstner peaka på MBDTF. Hvor går du når du har runda pop-musikken og laget en skive som kommer til å toppe listene for det 21. århundrets beste album i all tid? Dykker ned i undergrunnen. Her har vi Yeezy på sitt mest experimentelle & kompromissløse, og det er en nesten ubevisst / psychedelisk tilnærming til låtskrivingen, hvor det i hvert fall høres ut som om første-innfall får passere forbi sensoren og etterlate et evigvarende inntrykk. "I keep it 300, like the Romans / Three hundred bitches, where the Trojans?" kan rives i stykker av enhver historiker der den blander kulturer adskilt av hundrevis av år sammen i en sammenlignbar mølje, men fy faen som det funker. Yeezus oppererer på et slags pre-rasjonelt plan der Kanye har latt geni-visjonene og mediespetakkelet spille i førsterekke og høyner seg selv over det ved å lage noe som er så hyperbolsk og overdådig at det er umulig å høre på dette uten å smile. Skiva har alltid et glimt i øyet og det er en slags post-ironisk performativity ved hele pakka. Ingen steder er det mer tydelig enn i siste sporet. Bound 2 er et slags super-troll. For det første hører den ikke hjemme her, sonisk ulikt alt som har kommet før. For det andre positionerer den seg som en slags oppfølger til låta den sampler. For det tredje er musikkvideoen en gigantisk pastiche som involver Kanye sammen med Kim K. på en motorsykkel foran en green screen. Hvordan han klarte å få en gag-låt til å høres så legit ut burde få novelty-band verden over til å ta et crash course i Yeezyismen. Og som om han ikke har dratt hardt nok i de 35 minuttene som kom før, leverer han fortsatt strofer som "Start a fight club, Brad reputation", "She asked me what I wish for on my wishlist / Have you ever asked your bitch for other bitches?", og han klarer attpåtil å næme seg oppriktighet med "One good girl is worth a thousand bitches". Jeg vet ikke om noen andre skiver som har så mange linjer som Yeezus. Kontrastene og den upolerte & usensurerte tanken gjør at det føles rått & ekte. Selv skivas mest dustete spor — pule-balladen I'm In It — har udødelige strofer som: "Eatin' Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce", "I'm a rap-lic priest", og ikke minst "I be speakin' Swaghili." Den har også Justin Vernon, bedre kjent som Bon Iver, synge "I'll be gone long, grab that ass, shed your clothes." Det eneste som kan drepe Yeezus, er at den blir analysert til døde. Den er umiddelbar, og på et kunstnerisk nivå, hinsides logikk & politikk; Ye fremstår her som en slags hip-hopens svar på Henry Miller. Men det er også den siste gangen Ye jobbet på et nivå som dette. I ettertiden har han gitt ut mye slurv, men gjerne i en pompøs impakning. Han var nærmest å lykkes med Life of Pablo, hvor han igjen strekker seg mot MBDTF-grandiositet, men snubler på målstreken. På Yeezus føles det som om han faktisk har klart å ikke tvile på seg selv og positionen sin i mediesfæren. Jeg er spent på om vi noensinne får tilbake Kanye, som for lengst har gått seg vill i massemedienes Spiegelsaal.

Another record where I go in without knowing more than two songs. I was shocked - it's an incredible album. I don't listen to Hip-Hop or Rap, maybe the techno sounds helped. But I love this record.

Anything by Kanye falls in the rate the art not the artist category for me. That being said, I quite enjoy this album.

Yeah, I know. But you gotta separate art from artist, right?

My second favorite Kanye album. This is one of his most divisive works. I can see why; the entire album is in-your-face, loud, noisy and arrogant. But there's just something about that noise, those beats, that i-don't-give-a-single-fuck-i'm-kanye-motherfucking-west attitude giving the album a sense of character only Kanye can give. It's a manic episode in experimental rap form and I absolutely love it to death. One of my favorite albums of all time.

A Last Burst of Pure Genius before the MAGA and the Madness set in.

I didnt like this years ago but somehow really enjoyed it this couple times around. Some real fun songs in here and Yee’s use of words is brilliant. Pretty impressive not a one feature found on this album.

2013 was such a great year for albums and somewhere near the top was this gem. This doesn't sound like other rap albums past or present. It's not only truly innovative but it's a masterclass in production. People love to hate on Kanye and rightfully so, he's a fuckface and he deserves it. But this album is a work of art. Inspired by Daft Punk and touched by Rick Rubin It's the most rock n roll thing in his whole catalog and a huge reason why i've alwys been drawn to it. I also don't think Kanye gets enough credit for his rhyme schemes, bending words and tones to connect lines. Even the cameos were great. Bon Iver is just the icing on the cake. Lastly in an era of 20 songs rap albums with 14 throw aways this one is all killer no filler. That art is so lost in hip hop in general nowadays...

Ok. I know that Kanye is batshit crazy now, but man this album is great. It's such a different turn for a rap album. Awesome.

I hate that this album is so good

good album

Це мабуть мій улюблений альбом Йе. Дуже стильний, музично його складно назвати прям експереминтальним порівняно з якимось Death Grips, але як для мейнстрім репера Каньє, то це досить сильний вихід за свої рамки. Ще подобається, що не розмазаний на годину плюс, все сконцентровано та щільно. Guilt Trip and Send Iy Up найслабша ланка альбому, але не встигає зіпсувати враження, ну і після трепу бенгеру Blood on the Leaves можна перепочити трохи. Звичайно его-маньяцтво тут на піку, лірика місцями просто смішна. Вже класичний приклад з 300 романс, потім вже троянз. З другом постійно прикалувались з Ай джаст ток ту Джізас, хі сед вотап Їзус. Останній по справжньому хороший альбом Веста

An experimental and authentic album, that’s delivered with confidence and sounds good. I feel the album only grows on people. Besides Ye’s recent controversy, this is a classical rap album.

For a long time, Yeezus was the single most divisive thing among Kanye’s fan base. Now it’s his support for the Nazis. I could take or leave “Guilt Trip”, but I think the rest of the album is so good that this one less-good track doesn’t take away too much from the overall quality. As for German Nationalist-Socialism, I’ve always been staunchly opposed to the creation of an Aryan race. Who would have thought when Yeezus dropped that Kanye would be in sharp decline by 2025 but fascism in Europe would be on the up-and-up?

Hip hop. Really good, possibly the best production on a rap album I’ve ever heard.

Gotta say this is not a Kanye album I expected to see on this list. At the time of its release KW was on top of the world: he had established himself as a critical darling on MBDTF; partnered with hip-hop giant Jay-Z for a full-length de force on Watch the Throne; and elevated his GOOD Music label to new heights with the Cruel Summer "mixtape." Then Yeezus dropped with a detour into experimental electro/industrial beats, no credited features, and a no-fuss roll-out. The net effect was an album that largely was lauded by critics, but I think landed a little more mixed on the public. Personally I fell into the camp that loved this album for what it was -- a complete change of pace, and a damned good time. I also feel in retrospect that this album marked a distinct turning point for KW. While he remained at the top of the world for several years to follow this album's release, it was the last that was rolled out with any sense of cleanliness, and arguably the last marking his "great" run (though an argument could be made for TLOP). Ever since then its been a bottomless plummet. As with _most_ Kanye albums, this has excellent production and plenty of lyrics that make you cringe. What separate this from others in his repertoire is the experimental nature of the beats -- I can't think of another album album quite like it. Closest that come to mind are some .clipping or Injury Reserve. The album opens to the fuzz of some warbled synths that wander around and sound like electricity arcing in a tesla ball. The beat cauterizes around this warbling, throws in a piercing high pitched counter-point and slaps a few high hat taps on top. Such a wild beat, I love it. Black Skinhead is among my favorites on here, featuring absolutely propulsive tribal sounding drums with vocal chanting, and some tasteful use of 808s. New Slaves features another minimal beat and possibly the most Kanye-cringe chorus ever recorded: "You see there's leaders and there's followers, but I'd rather be a dick than a swallower." Ignoring the stupidity of the line, the rest of the song is great and a (somewhat) rare social commentary from KW regarding the fact that the Black community's status in America has only morphed topically from direct slavery into a form of social slavery with institutions compounding the issue through private prisons, etc. Hold My Liquor is an introspective "ballad" of sorts. Love the slow build of the instrumental up front before dropping the floor out and introducing the siren sound that permeates the vocal section. Blood On the Leaves is the album's shining centerpiece. Featuring a masterful flip of Nina Simone's Strange Fruit into a Hudson Mowkawke instrumental West tells a tale of a relationship soured. Send It Up is straight-up ignorant shit and is an absolute blast -- such a dumb fun beat. Always felt like Bound 2 was a weird way to end -- fine song, but something about it just feels a bit anticlimactic -- could have to do with the more "traditional" beat selection here relative to the rest of the album. In any event, them are a lot of words. While MBDTF has my brain, Yeezus gets my heart. Easy 5 / 5 for me.

This is Kanye West's best album, a masterpiece in my opinion. I love how unpredictable it is, very experimental, it keeps you on your toes and you really don't know what's going to come next. Some of the lyrics are hilarious, while others deal with serious issues. It feels like Ye didn't take himself too seriously with this album, but still created an incredible work of art at the apex of his career. I can't listen to Kanye anymore, it's a shame he went off the deep end and doesn't make records like Yeezus anymore.

He's a cunt but this fucks. 5 Stars.

complete 180 from the refinement of MBDTF, yeezus is dark and scattered. loved a few songs back when it released, have come to love the whole album (except send it up).

Rating: 4.3/5 Short Review: It’s like someone handed a fashion-forward Terminator a drum machine and unresolved parental issues. Favorite Track: “Black Skinhead” — unhinged energy, stadium drums, tribal chaos, and enough raw power to bench press your feelings.

The samples were insane and were the highlight for me. They fit in so well with the verses

Had this album on repeat when it was released. Over 10 years later and I put it on repeat again. The production on this album is so diverse and fresh, always gets me hyped. For me not the best Kanye album (I like the old kanye...). But still nothing less than a full hit: 5/5.

Underrated Kanye. Still miss the old Kanye

Amazing, creative, interesting, catchy.

Yeezus is pretty unique. Kanye’s sample choices are very interesting, and provide good contrast to the rawness of the synths on this album. The main thing holding it back is the weird and unpredictable structure of some of the songs. The cuts between sample and synth sections can be pretty abrupt. They do work very well on other songs like On Sight. Send it up is kind of ruined by its weird ending. Lyrically this album isn’t as good as earlier Kanye stuff. It’s a lot more fun with nice headphones! 5/5 deserves to be on this list Standout tracks: On Sight, Guilt Trip, Bound 2

Honestly, probably my favorite Kanye album so far. It's weird, really weird, and pretty creative. As usual, Kanye's head is a mile up his own ass and you can see his ego from space, but there is no denying you won't find song structures like this on many other albums. My favorite, by far, is Guilt Trip. I swear I recogonize the piano and synth parts from somehwre else, but endless googling turned up nothing. Maybe from my roommate listening to it in college, otherwise I have no idea. The rest of the album is good too, particularly in the music. The lyrics, or more the content of the lyrics, can still degrade to some misogynistic themes present in a ton of R&B/ Hip Hop. Sucks that he's a nazi now tho.

Rap's *In Utero* - a brutal, ugly-honest, self-immolating record made by an artist who knows, on some level, that he is inexorably headed towards the end of things and can't make himself stop (and maybe doesn't want to). And it's *also*, under all the nihilism, a repository of pop songcraft by a master of the form. I don't know that I've ever heard the apocalypse on record like I hear it on "I'm In It." And "New Slaves" scans like a final airing of trenchant grievances against the modern minstrel show of Black American celebrity. All the sadder now that we know for sure that the light at the end of the tunnel ("Bound 2") was just another train.

A punk rap opus? An industrial rap opus? No less than greatest rap album of all time? Yes, yes & yes. Yeezus was originally titled 'Thank God for Drugs' with a running time of nearly four hours. Weeks before release day he got Rick Rubin to streamline the whole thing famously stating that Rubin is not a producer but a reducer. Yeezus was cut down to a lean 10 track noisy, abrasive beast of an album with a running time of 40:01. More a protest against music than a celebration of it. The vocals on three tracks were recorded days before release date. Lyrics were written and rewritten as fast as they came to West's mind, new beats were added then erased. It was an active weekend at Casa West of collapsing and rebuilding the numerous buildings that made up the great architect's grand estate more a Jodorowsky-ish like maze more than the Frank Lloyd Wright organic Japanophile built a woodblock at a time that he once had envisioned for his 6th album. Yeezus was influenced by a dizzying array of sounds and sights from Krautrock and Suicide to minimalist design and architecture to rough angry sex, soul kisses, Romanticism paintings and ultimately the absolute need to fill a blank canvas that when finished would become West's greatest work and sadly his last masterpiece. The Kanye West of 2012/13 used his demons to his full advantage safely playing with madness as only a man on top of the world can, peeking into the abyss simply because he got off on the adrenaline. The Kanye West of 2024/25 is lost among his demons, more to the point the Kanye West of present day IS the demon and a stark reminder that there is sometimes a great price to pay for the ability to create great art. Yeezus sounds as fresh today as the day it was released just like it will in 100 years, 500 years, 1000 years- for eternity. Was it worth it, Mr. West?

own

This has, and likely always will be, one of my favorite albums of all-time. My view of what music and art could be - and that music "outside of the box" could still be memorable, palatable, and interesting - was changed as a teen when I first heard it. Easily in my top 10 albums.

Common ye W

Just amazing production and the epitome of a "horny album" i know its controversial but it is a 10/10 album.

Kanye West is currently a Nazi piece of shit It has to be said. But in my head, Kanye West died sometime between 2016/17 and is now lost. Honestly I do listen to his music almost never because of who he has become, and have not listened to anything new since 2017 or purchased any music. I wouldn't be surprised if the time around Yeezus was the start of his mental unraveling. This thing is grim, ugly, narcisstic, profane. On I am A God, as ridiculous as the song's lyrical content can be, you can hear the isolation and desperation, almost like he's trying to convince himself rather than listeners that he's a god. I do think this is an incredible album, I can't lie. From a production point of view, its a feast of funk, punk, industrial, dancehall and rock samples that just works on every track. The beat drop on Blood on the Leaves is transcendent. New Slaves is one of his best songs. Bound 2 is a pathetic attempt at a love song by someone who I'm not sure is capable of love, but its also weirdly honest, and love the sample. No rapper is or was making anything that sounds like Hold My Liquor. So just like with Morrissey, it's one star for the person, I refuse to defend him, but I'll die on the hill that this is one of the best rap albums this century

Yes

STILL a nazi.

Favorite Track: Black Skinhead

Peak off-the-rails Kanye. This is his best album. All his earlier work sounds in some way dated, maybe even just because it became oft imitated - it’s hard to imagine Yeezus aging that way. It’s jarring, dark, provocative, full of absolute bangers (Black Skinhead, Blood on the Leaves) and also personal, intimate and full of typical Kanye oversharing. This album is magical in the way it pulls hooks out of abrasive sound clashes. Some of the beat switches are so gosh darn naughty. Fave Tracks: On Site, Black Skinhead, Hold My Liquor, Blood on the Leaves, Guilt Trip, Bound 2 4.9/5

Bad guy, but he may be the best hip hop artist of all time.

One of my favourite album

Pablo is awesome but this was Kanye’s peak. Also, I love all the sanctimonious Pearl clutching from listeners who give Kanye albums a 1 and then turn around and throw 5 stars to all the classic rock rapists and pedophiles lol.

thought this was amazing when i first listened, but its lost some of its power as i kept discovering other industrial/abrasive/experimental rap (and as kanye kept spiraling). still very good though. actually nevermind this really is amazing

This is the 147th album I’m rating. Surprisingly I haven't listened to a lot of Kanye before. For my first album I'd rather have his debut but Yeezus is fine. Adding to my Playlist - On Sight, Black Skinhead, New Slaves, Hold my Liquor, I'm in it, and Bound 2. Not Adding to my Playlist - I am a God, Blood on the Leaves, and Guilt Trip. All in all I liked 7/10 songs. It was pretty weird but sometimes that weird was really good. Not bad for my first Kanye album.

No one should listen to Kanye. Having said that, this was the album that got me into hip-hop. I mean, I'd liked a few songs here and there. I was obsessed with Grandmaster Flash back in 4th grade, but mostly, I didn't care for the genre. But then I read so many great things about Yeezus from guys like Pete Townsend and Paul McCartney and Lou Reed, and I was like, "Kanye's good? That ass clown? Come on, now." But I decided to check it out. This album blew my mind. I didn't know hip-hop could do that. And then hip-hop became the only genre I listened to for several years, so this was an incredible gateway drug for me. But don't listen to it or any other album by Kanye anymore. It's a shame because he was truly gifted, but there are plenty of other artists out there.

i get why david loves him so much

GOAT

The guy is insane, but separating the man from the art, this is a legitimately exceptional record. The production is left-field and at times quite challenging. Not a massive fan of the lyrics in places, but for me this is definitely his best record. Love it. Favourite tracks: everything.

This isn't Kanye at his peak, but this is potentially him in his most innovative era. I remember the hype around this album before it released, then finally getting a hold of the leaked files and liking it so much that I still went and bought it at FYE. The influence this album had is insane. It sucks this album came out when Kanye was in a self-destructive period that just kept on spiraling to where he is today.

Ye at his creative peak. A wildly engrossing take on punk & industrial music, the energy on this is crazy: the breathless antagonism of New Slaves, the horns on Blood on the Leaves, and for my money an all time closer in Bound 2 - all beautiful. And Kanye's distinct sense of humour is out in force here, perhaps the last true glimpse of it we ever got before Kanye stopped being in on the joke (to borrow a phrase from Boyd). But there's an attitude that runs all the way through, even on lesser tracks like Send It, that really brings this together into a cohesive musical statement, something Lou Reed described as 'supreme beauty' in his review of the record, one of my favourites. Then there's the meta: after putting out one of the most commercially and critically successful hip hop albums ever in MBDTF, itself an olive branch to the mainstream after his Taylor Swift fiasco, it took a lot of balls to follow it up with something as abrasive and uncommercial as this - something the album is self-aware about and plays on for great effect ("first you make them like you then make them unlike you" and the terrific "he'll give us what we need, it may not be what we want" choir lift - a textbook Kanye sample amid Daft Punk's production). Yet it has stood the test of time as one of the most raw, unfiltered and well realized hip hop projects of the 21st century. It's remarkable how clear of a peak this is for Kanye: unless you count the transcendent Kids See Ghosts, it's the last time we got a cohesive, fully formed project from him - which isn't to disparage all of his later stuff, but none of it - not even Pablo - received the same care and attention that Yeezus did.

There’s this split second towards the end of the opening track, On Sight, that tells me everything I need to know about Ye on this record. At 1:50 Ye sings, “I put my dick in her mouth,” dragging out that last word in such punishing style; you can hear him break at the last moment just before the mask goes back on. Ye knows full well that it’s obscene. That moment where the pretense of ‘the greatest artist ever to have lived’ drops gives me the assurance I need when I listen to his music that he’s not completely deranged (at least at the time of recording). Ye’s music carries all the subtlety of an atomic bomb. But he’s a straight shooter and he’s not afraid to speak his truth. I can’t say I approve of everything here, but Ye had an important voice when he made this record and boy does he know his way around the studio. The production is excellent and even innovative. The samples while often clunky are still somehow catchy and inspired; there’s real creativity going on here in the composition of these songs that is to be applauded. I love Black Skinhead, Bound 2, and pretty much clicked with everything in between. Blood on the Leaves, another showstopper. The electronic beats on some of these tracks also have this amazing cold, industrial feel to them - it’s weird and unfriendly, and I love it. For me to rate this anything less than a five would be clear virtue signalling to others that I couldn’t possibly have a high opinion of the music of someone so utterly compromised as a human. The truth is that this is simply a modern classic, and a high watermark for the genre. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Feel like I could analyze this one for a week, which is a credit to the album. When you throw music on at the house, this isn’t what you’re playing, but it’s perfect for this exercise. I’ve thought a lot about this album. When this came out a friend played Bound 2 for me and I just thought it was Kanye being intentionally provocative and it wasn’t “real” music. My friend’s response was that I was talking about it, which I think was my point. Over time though that song specifically has really stood out as a great song on its own. In the context of the entire album it’s even better. I don’t know what KW is doing these days and I don’t support etc etc but the dude is a genius. I think he might be our Bowie? A mentally ill Bowie. One of the cooler music moments I’ve heard is on the first track. You’re immediately on your heels with that dissonant aggressive beat, and it cuts to a “sample” (which I’ve learned was recreated because they couldn’t get the rights) that sounds like the best thing you’ve ever heard “he’ll give us what we need, it may not be what we want” How it sounds sonically is an accomplishment, not sure I’ve ever heard that kind of contrast before, but him saying “yea I know this is fucking insane, it’s not the hit you want but it’s what you need to hear” is pretty fucking sick. He can make beautiful music if he wants but that’s not what we “need”. Not sure that we “need” it but I greatly prefer to be challenged that to hear recycled shit we’ve heard a million times. I’ll continue thinking about Yeezus for a while. More music that pushes boundaries please.

Is Kanye the only muscial genius of the 21st century? I'm not even really a fan (even before the Nazi stuff, always found him annoying) but this album is so clearly on another level from everything else going on at the time. It's abrasive and strange and unlike anything else, yet still works on its own. Kanye is a madman who delivers his bizarre, unsettling vision with such conviction, you start to feel a little crazy too.

For some reason I keep thinking this is the kind of cohesive album Queen was trying to make with Night at the Opera. Songs about Croissants > Songs about Cars. Haven’t listened to that much Kanye overall, but this is better with each listen.

Ezmoney 10/10 100/100 wish he wasnt doing this shit

kanye west, even with his seemingly infinite number of controversies is no stranger to creating genre-defying and original hip hop music. compared to his last album, he's switched from orchestrated aesthetics to polarizing industrial sounds. album consists of critiques of consumerist culture, fashion trends, racial identity and his own sins. it's artistic and has a lot of messages to the masses, but it's buried under his messy little egotistical brain. kanye was always a bit strange, but this was absolutely the time in his career where he was spiraling. it's an awesome, intense album. he's very skilled but he needs to genuinely find god. or a therapist. or both. if john lennon was still alive the two would be... friends. of some sort.

Really hate to be listening to this again because this art is really hard to separate from the artist. A lot of his projects that people and critics have loved have fallen flat for me, but damn does this album slap. It is objectively killer and proof of how complex people's inner worlds are. It kind of sounds like this "old Kanye's" last fleeting attempt to grapple with the fact that his ego and mental health are both nuclear-powered freight trains going Mach 10 towards each other on the same tracks. Beats are all abstract yet extremely high impact and the bars are caliber. This album even works almost as Ye's "Villian monologue" in a movie. It's an inflated narcissistic diatribe that is seething and unnerving in it's zealousness. If you're a movie protagonist and this is the villian you're up against, God help you.

Utterly crude, hilariously so, in places, but also such a weird soundscape and unmistakably Kanye. I know he's a bit of a dick now, but this is just so fucking out-there and ballsy that it's hard not to be impressed.

Even Kanye’s middle school level lyrics can’t dissuade me from loving that production.

Kanye really is the litmus test of your ability to separate art from artist, and in these reviews one can plainly see that the Reddit crowd that makes up a large part of this project's audience is unable to do so, even doing so willfully and defiantly. Were you this smugly judgmental when Public Enemy's album popped up here? Is it really less absurd to support the utterly racist Nation of Islam? Kanye has obviously had some kind of mental breakdown or general mental health issue. The views he has uttered are so over the top that they have become comical - I can't begin to understand how people can (still) take him seriously and work themselves up in such a rage about the inclusion of his albums. Speaking of, I am biased towards this album. Being a metalhead in my youth, this album was what made 19 year-old me start appreciating rap music; from here on, I went on to discover a world I had willfully ignored in my teens. I still mostly dislike Kanye's earlier and later albums, but Yeezus has a collection of bombastic, heavy, viscerally memorable beats which have stuck with me. I don't care about lyrics that much - not being a native speaker helps tuning them out, I think - but whenever I pay attention to them, they are either smart, funny, disgusting or just absurd. Still, the production clearly is what matters here, and the art of Kanye's sampling, beats and composition make this a 5/5 album for me - if only barely.

Brilliant

So so good. Come back kanye. Stop all your foolishness and make amazing music again!

Hate the guy these days but the man is talented.

I’ll keep it 300 (perhaps, akin to the Romans), I don’t wanna talk anymore about the guy who made this, so I won’t. The songs however, I could gush for hours, how the hell do you gather all of these eclectic musicians and influences together into something extremely abrasive, hype, and beautiful?? Those are three adjectives that probably shouldn’t all be on the same album. Also daft punk worked on it, so even if you ignore everything else I said, automatic 5 stars.

Didn't expect this to be in here over some of his earlier shiz but yeh it still slaps no doubt. Mid 5.

Fucking love him.

9.5/10

Album of pure genius. The changes throughout songs are glorious and the production is INSANE. Albums like this make me understand why Kanye still got hardcore defenders no matter how bad it gets 😂 This is incredible

Great album, terrible person

I gotta do it man

no era el mejor momento para un álbum de kanye perooooo Hurry up with my dammn croisant

Does Kanye West think he is Jesus? Yes. Does his album suggest he is Jesus? Yes. He set out to make an album where he considered himself as God, and it largely works. Excellent use of samples and his lyrics are strong here. Hold My Liquor and Blood on the Leaves are my favourite tracks, but Black Skinhead and Send It Up are also great. This is definitely the point though where he went off the boil - 808s and Heartbreak, and MBDTF are superb. Is Kanye West a bit mad? Yes, but no more so than other controversial artists on this list. 5 stars, not even a bad boy boost. This album is cracking.

I love you ye

ебанутый легендарный релиз

Dissect season on this is a great recommendation

this is a great website for its concept, but it has terrible taste, this should be so much well respected, the character of kanye is pushed to the max and the production is harsh, precise and genius

Amazing production. This album is one of the first "noise" style albums I've ever enjoyed. Some of the lyrics are kind of insane (sweet and sour sauce for example, iykyk), but this is a no skip album for me.

Possibly Kanye at his best. Grimy beats juxtaposed with beautiful choirs. The wordplay here is classic Kanye. Since I had an Eninem album the other day, he's fresh in my mind. Like Eninem, Kanye's lyrics are transgressive and seek to offend but often it seems like Kanye has (had?) a lot more self awareness and is in on the joke. The lyrics are shocking in order to bring awareness to social issues that have been plaguing this country since before it existed. Black Skinhead sampling the Black Lodge Singers fits so well in a song about racial injustice. African Americans and Native Americans have been working together through struggles for centuries now. Daft Punks production on this song give it a massive boost as well. Just a 5/5 song, easy. Overall, this is an excellent album. Kanye is advocating for marginalized people everywhere to recognize where we're at and realize that help is not coming. We can only help ourselves and by extension, our community. 4.5/5

Fantastic

He’ll give us what we need It may not be what we want

Fuck Kanye as a person. No respect to this fascist PoS. But as an artist he is just so great. I generally don't like hip-hop but love almost everything he produces

Sorry but… still one of the most mind-blowing albums ever, to me. Like def one of the most important of my life time. Every single song is incredible and perfect and timeless! Some of my fav songs of all time here! Has risen to becoming my fav Kanye over the years, which is saying a lot!

Kinda deeply uncool but still one of my favourite albums and I am sorry

sorta interesting to think of as Kanye's response to chicago drill ... stripping down the noise and clutter and making a minimalist drill album lol while keeping his lyrics extremely maximalist. certainly one of the most formative albums of my lifetime, it was a true alignment of the planets that resulted in this album coming out when i was 16 years old... man, i forgot how hard New Slaves goes, i had to run it back at least 5 times... just one of the most raw and passionate albums of the century... it doesnt get much better than this... also just an aside, i do think this is unironically maybe the funniest album of all time? kanye's horny ass brain is just so impressively hilarious. some real deviant ass shit on this album

Inspirations include 1980’s “acid house”, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and “a single Le Corbusier lamp”. I love this album.

“As soon as they like you make them unlike you” sure got the crowd fucking hating this guy

Everyone trashing Kanye because they can’t get past him as a person or just generally don’t like hip hop are depriving themselves of so much inspired and influential art. There is SO MUCH to appreciate if you let yourself dig into his catalog. Also, with this album in particular, many are missing the fact that this album was supposed to be harsh and abrasive - that was literally his goal. I’ll admit it’s not exactly ear-candy, but it’s worth considering the context of the album: Two albums prior to Yeezus, Kanye was on the verge of being permanently cancelled for disrespecting Taylor Swift, America’s sweetheart. He went into seclusion while the critics (and even some fans) relished in the certain demise of his career. But Ye emerged from his hiding to release the masterpiece that is My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - arguably a top 5 of all time hip hop album. The record received near unanimous praise. Career saved. Back in the limelight and the good graces of the music industry and public at large. So what does an artist like Ye do? Well, he told us: “Soon as they like you, make them unlike you.” Instead of riding the high of MBDTF and enjoying his renewed image, Ye recoiled at the thought of being the music industry’s reformed black darling, after they had spurned him and left him for dead. He proved he *could* still do it, but had no interest in doing it again. Instead, he put out Yeezus which leaves the soaring melodies and choruses of MBDTF behind - way behind. It’s an intentionally harsh and abrasive album. One without any discernible single. It delivered a frantic, stuttering, and unflinching glance into the abyss that is Ye’s deepest, darkest, most depressed, aggressive, manic, and troubled psyche. Many didn’t “get it”, but for those that did, it was brilliant. This has never been my favorite Kanye album, and if you were to ask me prior to this listen what my rating will be, I wouldn’t have said 5. But listening again, with new ears and an open mind, it won me over. The brashness. The industrial quality. The beats. It all just works. 5/5 Highlights: Black Skinheah Hold My Liquor Blood On The Leaves

Some of the greatest production on an album ever. Amazing lyrics, GODLY creativity, literally not a skip on the album. I love every song for a different reason. Thank you kanye Fav Songs: All of them, but especially On Sight and Blood on the Leaves

Yes, there are some very cringy lyrics as Kanye appears to have surrendered to his worst impulses but the production is incredible. The cracks are starting to show but still an album that holds up as singular and original.

Oh man I don't even want to listen to this....... Unfortunately this is really good.

Kanye’s not a good person, but he’s a really good artist. And I’d consider this his worst album on the list.

5/5

The most explosive Kanye album, and one of my favorites to listen to through its entirety. Hold My Liquor is in my top 5 Kanye songs. Standouts: everything but I’m A God and Send It Up.

I distinctly remember listening to this when it came out and being like, this is the start of the fall for Kanye. The starting line of the new Kanye vs the old Kanye if u will. Originally I thought that was a bad thing but revisiting this I was shocked by how much I liked it. Some of these songs and beats go so freakin hard. There is zero “poppiness” to this album compared to his previous albums for better or worse for his fans. All the beats are very abrasive and in your face. There are a number of very provocative one liners, especially on new slaves, that isn’t just for happy go lucky type listening. The album really makes u pay attention. Came in expecting to give 3 or 4 but I can’t deny that I really liked it. Did not expect it to age better like this. Also i remember black skinhead playing in the wolf of Wall Street trailer and was so epic that i was like omg I have to see this movie.

I forgot all about this album. It’s great! I will say, though, that all of Kanye’s sex lyrics make him sound like a virgin.

Den her plade fra 2013s måske største navn lyder stadig mere avantgarde end 90% af indierap i dag, og den lyder også som om den opfandt hele genren. Vanvittig produceret. Kanye er ikke verdens bedste rapper, men han lyder bedre på New Slaves end han nogensinde ellers har gjort (selvom det er lidt svært at se en literal nazi milliardær som en eller anden slags borgerrettighedsforkæmper). "in the french ass restaurant, hurry up with my damn croissants!" - 5/5, absolut essentiel

Yeezus is a really good drinking album. All of the Kanye album’s I’ve listened to have been really good for drinking to. Is Kanye a really good drinking artist? His topics of thought certainly jump around in the same way mine does when I drink, and just when I’m thinking in general. I really shouldn’t find Kanye as relatable as I do. And for the first time, the ADHD feeling of the topics is replicated by the beats, which jump around and switch up in an almost schizophrenic, but completely absorbing way. God, am I a Kanye fan? I thought I was woke, but man with this and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, I’m completely compelled. I’m fascinated by everything this man does. Fuck

Is it me or are most Ye albums about a variety of things? Including his penis, sure, but this feels like an exclusive topic on this album

Top 3 Kanye album for me, however I remember hating it when it first came out.

Deeply caustic and angry, but the music is clever, inventive, always changing, never settling. In a certain way, despite the criticism, this might be Ye at his most hip hop yet.

Bold, adventurous and VERY experimental, Kanye uses a multitude of abstract sounds and samples to create a concept album that shows the side of the rich and lavish lifestyle that's not so glamourous. Ranging from soulless sex to eccentric narcissism, to a more vulnerable, softer side of one of the world's most contriversial rapper, Yeezus is an experience unlike a lot of albums. It feels raw and barebones, even the album cover shows a blank jewel case with a slip of red tape and a CD. Tracks like New Slaves tackle issues like corporate america and the system's racism against black people, while Blood On The Leaves touches on the injustices in a failing relationship. Bound 2 closes the album on a low, calm, accepting note where Kanye finds real love and peace with himself. Coincidentally, it uses the same sample as A BOY IS A GUN*, on Tyler, The Creator's album IGOR releasing in 2019, 6 years after Bound 2. Overall, a must listen for any hip-hop fan or anyone willing to jump into a more abstract side of Kanye's discography.

Listened to a lot before. Big fan.

Perfect album

If marmite was an album. Kanye’s second best. 9/10

Fuck nazis, fuck Kanye, all that good stuff. He's a garbage, self-serving, pretentious human being who would do anything to get media attention. I don't really care what he truly believes, as it's not worth my time. But yeah, this album is timeless. The finale of Hold My Liquor alone is enough to set this above most other 2010s records.

Yeezus is the pinnacle of Kanye’s career, one of the greatest left turns in all of music history, and my all-time favorite rap record.

Amazing album that still sounds futuristic! Hugely influential, sparking a new genre! 5/5

Thank you Kanye gor saving my life Top 30 album for me Top 5 Kanye Not Ye But Kanye Omari West

Oh, Kanye. But this is a great album. I listened twice.

best kanye album

I can't handle no liquor But these bitches can't handle me

6/5 stars. Perfect Juneteenth album rec. This should be top 10 albums anybody should listen to before they die, and as they die, and after they die. Yeezy season approachin'.

YEEZY TAUGHT ME

Kanye is a jackass, but this hits so hard.

There's no album quite like "Yeezus." It's bold and in-your-face and (for my money) Kanye's most entertaining album. It captures the racing mind of a manic episode. The lyrics swing from delusions of grandeur to trashy sex jokes to commentary on the prison-industrial complex before swinging back and landing on another trashy sex joke. The industrial and electronic music is full of surprising moves. I remember the shock of listening to it for the first time. The out-of-left-field samples dropped smack into the middle of the song. The abrasive, glitchy sound effects. The screaming. But one of the joys of listening to this album countless times over the last 10+ years has been memorizing every sudden twist and turn, and being along for the ride. The guest appearances are perfectly placed. I love how Kanye uses Justin Vernon from Bon Iver. On "Hold My Liquor," he runs Vernon's voice through a garbled auto-tune effect to introduce the song before bringing in a snarling Chief Keef to play the role of a substance-abusing lover. And on "I'm In It," the ferocious feature from Jamaican rapper Assassin is immediately followed by Justin Vernon again, this time singing falsetto over a wailing siren beat. Or how about that Beenie Man sample right at the end of the club banger "Send It Up"? For years now, my wife and I have been imitating the way he sings "Memoriiiies." A lot of rappers have sexist lyrics about not trusting women. But on "Blood on the Leaves," Kanye takes this ugly trope and twists it into an epic song about his darkest insecurities and fears -- infidelity, divorce, drug abuse -- that audaciously samples Nina Simone's "Strange Fruit," a song about lynching. It's a reckless but stunning song. His auto-tuned vocal solo at the end always stops me in my tracks. The pacing of this album is so tight. It's got an arresting opening sequence, stretches out in the middle and finishes strong with a few more quick songs before ending on the upbeat, spacious and (I think I can use this word to describe it) romantic "Bound 2." "New Slaves" is probably my favorite song on this album but I'm a big fan of "Bound 2" also. On Kanye's next album, "The Life of Pablo," he has a great tongue-in-cheek song "I Love Kanye" that parodies fans who say they "miss the old Kanye." If there's a Kanye that I miss, it's this one. I miss the Kanye that could include a gut-wrenching guitar solo in one song, only to follow it up with a dumb punchline a few moments later. The Kanye that could be crude and untamed and irresponsible in his lyrics but still be charming and charismatic enough to make you laugh. The Kanye that could make an album where ugliness, beauty, brilliance and imperfection coexist as part of the same take-it-or-leave-it artistic expression. This album was made by that Kanye and, God help me, I absolutely love it.

Kanye's always been a genre-pusher; it's my favorite thing about him. When rap lingers in one place too long, he comes around and disrupts, and pushes, and evolves. I appreciate that, and because I wasn't a listener during the "gangsta rap to pink polo shirt" early Kanye albums, to me, Yeezus is the album that I think of when I think of him changing the milieu of rap. This is probably my favorite Kanye album. It's his heavy metal album. It's the edgier, harsher, more in-your-face album, and I love that. The music is crispy, angry synths with unique panning. His vocals abrasive and at times jarring, and the lyrics are confident, weird, and sometimes funny, "In a French ass restaurant Hurry up with my damn croissants" is something you have to scream with your friends. I also appreciate how this album is listenable. Put on "On Site" and you can dance and bop to it. Put on "Bound 2" when you are hosting a dinner party with your friends. How many albums are out there that I can define as "edgy" and "heavy metal rap" and then in the same breath say that you can also dance to it and you should throw it on while drinking wine with your friends? Not many. If I can find a fault, it's that sometimes Kanye's voice sounds a little "on top" of the music, like in the 2nd half of "Bound 2". It's like the music is mixed very intentionally to be cohesive, and then his voice at times is about 3-5 decibels above it and lacking some "glue". This is me reaching for a fault though, and it's hardly a criticism when so much of Kanye's music is thoughtful and intentional. Additionally, I can look past this (hear past this?) when I accept that the sounds underneath his voice are atypical and unconventional. Top 5 rap album of all time for me. Simple, but very memorable album cover. If I saw this from a few hundred feet away I would know that it's Yeezus.

Amazing album. The use of such abrasive instruments and implementing them in rap was very inventive for the time. Also, it has this sort of sustained, calculated energy that I don't see in too many albums. In terms of lyrics and themes, I am kind of a fan of Kanye shifting between feeling like a God and feeling vulnerable - it's a very human experience that he imprints in this album. Either way. Super fun to listen to, as always.

Wow...here we are. I had to go back and read my review of MBDTW (and you should, too) to see how I reviewed that album. I go back and forth between that and Yeezus as my favorite Kanye album. That review spends more time discussing separating the art from the artist which I think frees me up to dive deeper into this album. I don't want that, or the following stories to give the impression that Yeezus is my favorite, though I won't fault you for thinking so because it might be true. This album came out in June of 2013 which would have been about a month after I graduated college, was newly single, and was living with my brother alone in Greeley, Colorado. At this time, I specifically remember that I was still at the house, I think Stevie may have gone home for the summer already. There was an empty room not being used we had then moved to friend Kyle. So this was a transition time for myself. I was alone, sweating it out in a house with no A/C. All of us boys were on Xbox one night and I don't remember how it came up, but Stevie had told me the album came out. Apple music wasn't a thing back then so I think it had been released on youtube as one long audio or something. I don't remember much more in terms of external stuff, but at some point I pressed play and I listened the whole way through. It was late at night, all the lights in the house were off and the only glow was from my laptop and the TV. I lost my mind listening to this album and I think in a weird way this was the album that made me a Kanye fan. I introed with caution, but I think it is fair to say that and that in this moment as I type it's my favorite of his albums. Is it his best? Maybe that is reserved for MBDTF, but the memories surrounding listening to this, and the raw depravity of this album just struck a chord with me. Dungeon hip hop. Something about that whether it's hearing a trash can bang in Slipknot or beats that sound like they were made in a bunker here. It's totally unlike anything he had done before, and it was at a time where (and I realize the irony) he was beginning to fall off. The trajectory is actually pretty wild. Going from proving himself in his first couple, then kind of getting into his feelings, and then reaching an apex with MBDTF and then plunging down deep underground for Yeezus and when he came up he shifted to the religious side and slowly started unraveling with his last few things. You might say that he didn't stop enough times on his ascent from the ocean floor to depressurize his dive suit. This really is an album you could make at the bottom of the sea in one of those steel bases in Aquaman 2. Beats rattling off the metal walls as you're slowly going insane wondering how long you've been down there. Everything is pitch black save for some bioluminescent sea life. All of that to say that it felt like we were simultaneously witnesses the rise and fall of one of the greats. It was very difficult for people to process that, they either hated or loved this album. This might be the only album of his I have on vinyl and it's a bootleg I got from my brother because the seller accidentally sold him two. Unfortunately these copies were missing the final track which is one I really enjoy so that was a bummer but it was still an amazing souvenir of that time. In a stroke of fate, I have time to kill before I leave housesitting today so I will do a track by track free write as I listen. On Sight: It's funny, in the office I'm typing in there is a buzz coming from one of the wifi devices or something and so I put on headphones with my ear buds underneath blocking that sound out. As this track starts I am right back hearing that with these deadly beats. "Get this bitch shaking like parkinson's", damn. He just comes out the gate swinging taking no prisoners as he invades this bunker. "How much do I not give a fuck? Let me show you right now before you give it up". We are being murdered with these laser beams. Black Skinhead: Absolutely epic intro and this attached itself to the Wolf of Wall Street Trailer. Sounds like wolves running honestly. "They see a black man with a white woman at the top floor they gon' come to kill King Kong". "I keep it 300 like the Romans". The shift from the fast hits to the long hums is so good. The production on this album is fantastic. Another aggressive song. I Am a God (feat. God): This song opens up with a beat and feeling that, every time and especially the first, took me right to the Poughkeepsie Tapes. A found footage movie about a serial killer and the police find all these tapes he made. In one, he is crawling on the floor wearing two masks so you can't tell if he is looking up or down as he crawls towards the camera, and victim tied to a chair. I think I may have even brought the movie up to time it with the music and it worked. Terrifying. This song is the one that really told me he was losing it, sure he was trying to prove a point and calling that whole idea out, but there's always truth behind that. The screaming at the end too really ties into that serial killer chase vibe. I don't know if I've ever thought long about why that is, to have that type of music to say he is a god. Because the god's he is conjuring with this type of music probably isn't the same he is repenting to in future albums. New Slaves: Woah Kanye said my name! Never realized that. But this song is a great call out to very common racial issues. This song is also a little slimy with the beats and some of the lyrics. Not the type of song you can sing, more so to just sit your ass down and listen. "I know that we the new slaves, I see the blood on the leaves" call out to future song. Those shifts from one beat to another or to him singing a totally different way. This one is an eye opener. Hold My Liquor: I don't listen to this one as often so no real raw reactions, the beginning kind of sounds like Bon Iver but I'm not sure. These are where I concede MBDTF has the edge. I'm In It: I do love the second half of this song, and we get Bon Iver for sure. Great beats and I can't remember if I've heard it since in a show or commercial. Blood On the Leaves: Phenomenal sample. I love the calm before the storm when the beat drops. His auto-tune at the end is great, too. Guilt Trip: Somehow I immediately saw the movie poster of Barbara Streisand and Seth Rogan in the movie of the same title. Funny, too, because I mentioned Barbara Streisand in the MBDTF review. This is another I don't listen to as much which I always lament because Cudi is in this one. Send it Up: This one also reminded me of Poughkeepsie Tapes. Now that I think of it, I made a Vine of both of these songs with the movie, that's what it was. Too bad that doesn't exists anymore, maybe those videos are on my computer hiding in the bowels of my picture folders. "This the cray-ist shit in the club, since 'In Da Club'" epic. "Can you get my friends in the club, can you get my Benz in the club?" Fantastic burn. Bound 2: I love this song because of the shift from him to "I know you're tired of loving with nobody to love". The contrast is amazing and worth the song. I'm pretty sure this one is about Kim and there's a few lines here where I know cracks were probably forming in their relationship prior to the full crazy divorce part. Like, "I do these things, but it's fine" and she's probably not thinking that way, my guy. That was great listening through. I stand by my statements prior, I think my "fav" is this, but MBDTF is better. I think that statement lets me enjoy this one, but also always want to listen to the other to see if it will take it's spot. Maybe one day.

Alfa Chad music

Incredible, top 3 album of all time for me.

I love this album. Really raw and abrasive, just Kanye leaning into all the negative criticisms. Just owning it. It's all downhill from here though. It's a bummer what he is now. This is the "good" asshole Kanye, before he was the bigoted asshole Kanye. I miss this Kanye.

Thank you Jonah Hill. I Love You

Just kind of an insane record for an artist like Kanye to drop at the top of his popularity after MBDTF. Fuses so many genres with the hard industrial hip-hop sound (shout out to the Bon Iver feature!), and just makes pure bangers from it all. 9/10

Forgot how much I enjoyed this

lol

I believe in separating the art from the artist. Is Kanye West a terrible person? Yes. Is this album a 5/5? Also yes.

One of the first albums i remember listening to as an album. Genuinely experimental and innovative. Kanye will be canonised in a way none of his contemporaries will be

Really enjoyed this album

groundbreaking, after my beautiful dark twisted fantasy everybody expected something similar and kanye surprised them with this. at the time not well received, now an instant classic. amazing production and sound. character aside, one of the most creative artists of this century.

Love this album so much. It doesn't miss anywhere at any point for me. Insane lyrics, revolutionary experimental sound, and Kanye just shows his musical and artistic genius the most out of all his albums here imo. Simply Kanye at his apex and the direction he's decided to take his persona lately I find irrelevant here. Can't give it any less than 9.5/10. Man's paved a completely new path in music with this one.

Fuck this guy, but I hate to admit it, I think this might be my favorite album of his. Something about the hip hop-industrial mix grabs me by the balls and spins me around. Sprinkle in some completely bizarre bullshit like sampling the Super Mario 64 Chain Chomp on "I'm In It" (I'm not going crazy, that's what that was, right?), the Hungarian classic Gyöngyhajú lány (amazing song, jó napot) on "New Slaves", also just the entirety of "On Sight", and you have an extremely creative hip hop album that still sounds like it was recorded yesterday, over a decade later. This is something only an insane egomaniac with a god complex could create, and it somehow works. An album where an asshole raps about how awesome he is and how much sex he has while the sounds of a pressure washer play in the background would be a complete trainwreck in the hands of anybody else. How does he do it. Again, fuck this guy. My only real gripe was that there was so much autotune on some songs that it sounded like listening to Microsoft Sam. Maybe it's meant to add to the futuristic vibe in a weird way? Sounds pretty kitschy. 5/5. Fuck this guy though.

I distinctly remember when this came out. Hate hate hate the person he has become but this hit a perfect pitch right when I was searching for music like it. 4.5/5

Fuck it, 5 stars do not represent an endorsement of politics

Unpopular opinion, but this may actually be Kanye's best album. I don't mean to disrespect My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (banger of an album), but it has a couple of filler songs that do not improve the listening experience. It still has the all-time best Kanye songs though. Returning to Yeezus, I think it actually encapsulates both the MBDTF highs while showing the best bits of Kanye's future albums (which have amazing songs, but are lesser albums).

YZY SZN APPROACHING

The album that we never asked for, but needed ... futuristic even to this day. So interesting to compare the minimalistic production here to the maximalism of MBDTF - you can really hear the influence Rick Rubin had on this album. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but boy does it really click when it does. (should mention I don't condone anything this man says, but think it's important for this exercise to judge the art independently of the artist)

It makes me so sad to listen to this knowing what was coming in just a few years for Kanye. This album is a brilliant autobiography of the horror and wonder of becoming famous in America as a Black man, you’d never imagine the man who wrote this would be deep in the pocket of conservative white America less than five years later. I guess this album combined with that downfall gives a pretty complete picture of what money and fame will do to you over time.

I wish I could hate more of Kanye's music, but this album is a fucking blast.

8.5/10

Great album. Super creative both musically and lyrically. It's definitely my favorite of Ye's. Now can we make sure he's getting therapy and/or medication, please?

shhh don't tell anyone but this one is beastmode

Ik ken Black Skinhead, I'm In It en Bound 2. Desondanks heb ik dit album nog nooit geluisterd omdat ik een beetje een hekel heb aan het schreeuwende personage Kanye dat gevormd is in de jaren na z'n debuutalbum en steeds extremer werd. Simpel gezegd had ik verwacht dat ik dit album een beetje kut zou vinden. Ik had het mis. Meteen zodra je het aanzet weet je dat je een knettergek album te pakken hebt. Bij de openingstrack (waar de hand van Daft Punk goed te horen is) gaat de trein meteen van 0 tot 200 om voorlopig niet meer te stoppen met denderen. Wat ziek. 'Black Skinhead' voelt wat minder extreem, maar dat is misschien omdat ik die inmiddels vaak gehoord heb. Daarna slaat de gekte weer toe met gabber-achtige, industriële fabriekbeats. Ook bij het wat rustigere 'Hold My Liquor' hoor je toch dat wat paniekerige, alarmerende geluid terug. Nina Simone komt even meedoen bij 'Blood on the Leaves'. 'Guilt Trip' is Astro World 5 jaar voor Astro World uitkwam. Leuk man. Bepaalde tracks werken ook eigenlijk niet als je ze als losse track in een playlist zou zetten, maar binnen het album werken ze wel. Tof is dat. De teksten ("Eating Asian pussy, all I need was sweet and sour sauce") laat ik maar gewoon een beetje over me heen komen. Ik ben vooral heel erg druk met alles er omheen. Ik ben blij dat ik er dankzij deze lijst toch voor ben gaan zitten. De productie is fascinerend gelaagd. Ik zet het album gewoon nog een keer aan. Een 5 voor mij, al snap ik het ook volledig als je hier echt helemaal niks mee kunt of wilt.

I AM GOD Любимый альбом Канье, во многом из-за ебанутых экспериментов со звуками и сэмплом

Industrial hip hop rules

As so often is the case, it’s hard to put ones personal opinion of an artist aside and just focus on the art. If I think about the great painters, like Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, etc., I don’t often think of their personal lives. They didn’t have social media or the internet in their day, so it was easy, I imagine, to put the art first always. But alas, we live in the era where artists have platforms beyond their art to discharge their personal thoughts and beliefs. With that said, this album is monumental for rap and for popular music in general. Kanye pushes the envelope, he’s an auteur, he takes the turns that no one thinks to take. That’s what makes him special and complicated. This album is special and complicated. It’s dark, it’s thrilling, it’s sexual, it’s humorous (but dark humor). It’s dissonant, but it’s also desirable. It doesn’t conform to anything anyone knew before or after, it’s punk, it’s industrial, it’s audacious, and above all its art of the highest quality.

this is the album where Kanye starts to go crazy (comparing himself to Jesus), but he hasn't gone full crazy yet so the Crazy help to augment the Talent, whereas in his latest projects I'd agree the Crazy is overshadowing the Talent. This album is surprising and jarring but it is amazing how well it works together. On this listen I really loved how I'm In It blended Bon Iver and Jamaican Dancehall, and it comes together beautifully, a testament to Kanye's talent.

As shocking now as it was then. But it’s great. In retrospect maybe the first sign he was absolutely losing his mind. Highlights: Blood On The Leaves, New Slaves, Bound 2

Rating: 10/10

Briljante plaat, de sound, de krankzinnigheid; geweldig. Ik weet dat ie niet spoort en ook zijn teksten af en toe storend slecht zijn, maar toch vind ik het geweldig!

inventive

Regrettably an extremely important album for me

5.0 + I'd mistakenly remembered this record as the odd sibling to "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" but it's 100% a whole-ass album in its own right. Those noisy, glitchy beats on songs like "On Sight" are undeniably awesome, especially when Kanye juxtaposes them with gorgeous vocal samples (e.g. "Strange Fruit" on "Blood On The Leaves"). Bon Iver's melancholic falsetto similarly provides striking contrast on "I'm In It." This is Kanye at his most urgent and propulsive.

obv an all time great industrial rap album

Måske det stærkeste Kanye album, råt, ind til benet, sjovt, konceptuelt, lydunivers

With the start of "On Sight", we immediately see Kanye go in a completely opposite direction from MBDTF. It's cold, industrial, and abrasive, fueling an angry and manic persona that juxtaposes to the depressed and victim-playing character we saw him play previously. It's a super short album, with 10 tracks over the course of just 40 minutes, and yet each stands out. I never know which direction he goes. His use of samples and production techniques is incredibly harsh and impactful and matches his strong lyrical delivery. Despite how harsh it is, his vocals are clear and smooth, capable of transitioning between all sorts of delivery styles, from plain rapping to singing to screaming. His use of repetition, emphasis, and ridiculous metaphors make certain lines really stand out and leave a greater impression, not only being memorable but also reinforcing his points. Most of his samples are highly distorted and barely coherent, with the notable exceptions being "Blood on the Leaves" (which I was blown away by) and the accessible closer "Bound 2" which - although doesn't fit with the rest of the album - provides a satisfying and easy closer to this mess of an album in a similar way to "Radio 4" on PIL's Metal Box. I was constantly impressed by every track and wasn't sure where he was headed. These tracks really blew me away by which how complex and encapsulating they all were. I'm a huge fan of experimental music, so I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was also a fan of the reoccurring themes (like how he referenced song titles in previous songs), which add to the overall coherency, and these manic themes are even more impactful now knowing how literally insane he is based on recent actions. Even the tracks that didn't leave a huge impression at first grew on me with each listen. "I'm In It" had the lushest soundscape and intense power. "Guilt Trip" had awesome techno-like synths and effects with melancholic lofi vocals and samples that produced a very industrial and hopeless atmosphere. "Send It Up" impressed me with its machine-like and cold sound.

Hate Kanye but this was one of the best of its time...

YEEZUS WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW HOLY FUCK THANK YOU GODS OF ALBUM GENERATOR IM GONNA GIVE THIS 6 STARS HOLY HELL FINALLY A PRETTY GOOD ALBUM DEFINITELY TOP 5 OF THE FEW GOOD ONES IVE GOTTEN

I was always a big fan of this album. Kanye's last great work before his descent into madness.

I was at a listening streaming not so long ago and it got to my mind that this was the Kanye record that had better aged. I guess I was thinking about its power and rawness, but also, the sacrilege is the same as it was back when it came and has not whined nor soured down like some other of his records/statements. I do not know what Nina would think about her appearance on this, but it’s outrageous and brilliant nevertheless. Damn there was a time when Kanye could take that extra step beyond the line and not burn like he surely should have. Those days are gone but the music does indeed linger with strength and power.

Just a master.

The first tracks just floored me. Wow. Listened again as soon as it finished. Loved the abrasiveness of it, the industrial sounds, the darkness of it.

Best Kanye album. Amazing album. Nothing else need to be said.

I forgot how legendary this is. I hate how much I love it hahah. Bangers. Wild and crazy!

Man, it was so much easier to swallow Kanye when his rabid ego-mania seemed charming rather than disruptive and slightly terrifying. But this album is fantastic. The production really holds up. Its aggressive nature makes it feel outside of time and trend for me.

woof - what a time to review a Kanye West album. Trying to keep current events out of my revaluation of this album, so bear with me. I loved this album when it was released. I loved his previously album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and this was the polar opposite. For a few months after its release, I would regularly blare this as soon as I woke up (sorry neighbors) while getting ready for work. Lyrically it's a fascinating dissection of racism in society and specifically the fashion industry/business world, deeply problematic in its misogyny, and utterly hilarious at times. There is a great podcast series (Dissect) that covers each track, the musical and lyrical content in depth, but some quick thoughts on each track as I re-listen. On Sight - Instantly establishes the worldview of this album. The sample cut-in is perfect, letting you know immediately what could have been, but clearly defining that this ISN'T what you are going to get. Black Skinhead - (so ironic in light of recent events) This is an absolute hype song. I have this on about 10 different running playlists. I am a God - "HURRY UP WITH MY DAMN CROISSANTS". TBH the screaming does get a little old. New Slaves - The ending of this song gets me every time. The sample is so epic and triumphant. Probably the most interesting song lyrically, commenting on the racism in the fashion industry. Hold My Liquor - Start of a series of tracks with really problematic misogynistic lyrics, but the focus is more on the Yeezy character's issues with alcohol (as the title implies). The production is still so interesting, with the woozy beats and scattered vocal samples, breaking midway through with Justin Vernon's part and some amazing sounding guitar lines. I'm in it - Honestly this song innovates in how misogynistic and grotesque some of the lines are "put my fist in her like a civil rights sign", and the sweet and sour sauce line. It's kind of funny for how extreme. Blood on the Leaves - I know the use of Nina Simone's sample is controversial, but the production is absolutely top notch. The lyrical content, beating a dead horse, is extreme and misogynistic. It paints a portrait of men having affairs without any judgement or critical thought of the man's role in the affair. Guilt Trip - In the context of this album, this song is almost a ballad. Some surprisingly vulnerable lyrics. Send it up - Some people might find the backing track annoying, but like a lot of the sonic choices on the album, I love it. It's like a demented air-raid siren. I find a lot of Kanye's lyrics hilarious, such as "She said can you get my friends in the club? I said can you get my Benz in the club? if not treat your friends like my Benz park they ass outside until the evening' ends" Bound 2 - Absolute banger. My wife doesn't like a lot of this album, but loves this song. Another example of absolutely hilarious Kanye lines "when a real ***** holds you down you supposed to drown" "one good girl is worth a thousand bitches" think about it! "I wanna fuck you hard on the sink, after that give you something to drink" When the second chorus kicks in, it takes everything to a higher level.

ON SIGHT

greatest of all time

9/10

Ignoring Kanye as a person this album didn’t hold up perfectly to time for me. I loved it in high school and I still like it a lot but I guess I’m just not as angsty anymore. 9/10

Pravi omjer ludila

Even more than *My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy*, this record is the ultimate postmodern masterpiece Kanye West left us. *Yeezus* is eerie, weird, gritty, inventive, layered, dadaist, hilarious (sometimes unwittingly, but does it matter?), angst-ridden, dark, manic, megalomaniac, self-deprecatory, ironic, earnest, dumb, bright, noisy, melodic, mellifluous, groundbreaking, flavored, tasteful, distasteful, mysterious, nocturnal and unpredictable. This album is *absurd*, in all the senses of the word--absurdly good and absurdly nonsensical all at the same time. The scope of different emotions it can make you go through (some of them unsettling) is potentially infinite. It's a definitive artistic statement, blurring the lines between genius and madness. Obviously, it's quite difficult to enjoy listening to this album today. Given what Kanye has become in the ten years that separate us from the release of *Yeezus*, it's near-impossible not to think about the freak the man is in 2022, even as you listen to that gem he recorded in 2013. If only because some of the seeds of his current downfall were actually sown during that period... At the time, artistry still had the upper hand, not delirious episodes fuelled by paranoid takes about world politics (at least that we know of). But the equation is reversed today, sadly. Kanye should take his prescription pills, and steer away from despicable far-right rhetorics and conspiracy theories. The "genius" is very much the ultimate fool here, a pawn in a larger shameful game in which crooked politicians and shameless business interests have used him to unsavory ends. A tale of hubris if there is one. That being said, and in a somewhat strange way, close to schadenfreude, I actually hope West keeps on self-sabotaging his career, one that's quite meaningless *now* anyway, and that he goes bankrupt as a result. He needs to pay for the negative and even potentially dangerous impact his actions and sickening public statements have made in America. Ironically, him being the sacrificial scapegoat of a rotten society that direly needs to cleanse its political sins would unwittingly be akin to an artsy gesture--some sort of real-time "happening" that would at least tell everyone a lot about the dangers of putting money, fame and ego first, instead of ethics, decency or empathy. I think this here is the heart of the "Tragedy Of Kanye". I just pray he doesn't seriously hurt anyone in the course of his demise, just as he keeps on hurting himself. I can't listen to *Yeezus* this year, not with what the man has become. But once we're rid of his disgusting public persona, maybe we'll be able to later return to the many stellar hip hop albums he gave us in the past, and enjoy them for what they are. At least if nobody else suffers as he goes down in flames... I think I'm worried, though. Does anyone else feel that way in here? Number of albums left to review: 739 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 129 (including this one--unless something *really* bad happens) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 65 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 68

This sometimes is my favorite Kanye album depending on my mood. I could not re-listen to this after his most recent crazy-ass rants and blatant racism.

One of the best albums ever

Masterpiece

*Russell Westbrook eating gif* Favorite track: Blood on the Leaves

Incredible music. Fav track: New Slaves

didn't like this album much when I first listened years ago. as time has gone on, I've grown to absolutely love the sound. wish we would've gotten a yeezus 2, but wash me in the blood was a nice callback to this type of sound. love it. gym banger. blood on the leaves is 10/10.

short and to the point. unique beats, no mumble mouth auto-tune garbage. 5.

Kanye's best album.

Yeezus just rose again

From other ratings I’ve seen i know that rap tends to get rated lower, whether it be preference or more… melanin related reasons, this is at least a 4 (ima give it 5 imo) it’s great.

Tous les écarts de comportements de Kanye sont pardonnés dès lors qu'on écoute sa musique.

one of my favorite albums of all time. great lyrics, but genuinely perfect production. i dont think we’ll ever see an album like this again, hold my liquor and bound 2 are top 5 and blood on the leaves is top 1. to get the most out of it, play it over headphones and turn it up until the bass plays through your whole body. this listen i great to appreciate i’m in it a lot more, assassin is so good on his feature, i’m shocked i havent listened to anything of his before. this album is quite divisive, and for good reason, but to me it’s a true masterpiece. my favorite album we’ve heard so far, will likely be in my top 5 for the entire list.

Highlights: Black Skinhead I Am A God Hold My Liquor I'm In It Blood On The Leaves Bound 2 Artwork: 1 / 10 Rating: 9 / 10

Obviously a 5 stars

One of Kanye's finest works, and definitely one of the most formative albums of the decade.

A mastapiece

Ah yes. Death grips-lite. I fuck with the album the long way. Easily my favorite Kanye.

This is probably my favorite Kanye album. On sight and black skinhead are all time bangers and bound 2 is also hella good

Great Ye album, as much as I dislike the dude

I LOVE this album. A lot. Too much. Like, it isn't perfect and a few songs are just fine (e.g. Hold My Liquor and Guilt Trip) but when it hits it really hits. Some of my all-time favorite ye tracks come off of this album (New Slaves, Bound 2, Black Skinhead, Blood on the Leaves, in that order) and the whole things is just a vibe. I'm In It and On Sight are pretty good, too. It just encapsulates ye's attitude and lo-fi era perfectly (I Am a God) and the lyrics are consistently hilarious and iconic. It's just. Great.

Another modern classic from Yeezy; the kind of thing that makes you say "what was he thinking?" on the first listen, but gets more compelling every time you come back to it. It's raw, arrogant, and unfiltered in the inimitable Kanye style. How many other artists could assert "I Am a God" without sounding the least bit corny? His incredible success is tempered only by his own self-destructive tendencies - on "Hold My Liquor" (possibly my favorite on the album, although "Send It Up" is a strong contender), Kanye reenacts a superstar's bender, the sort of horrific "the rules don't apply to me" story that make up a superstar's day-to-day. (And what good is being a superstar if you don't have some Mike Dean synths to back you up?)

Five stars despite Kanye's sometimes shoddy vocals and fucking autotune. The beats are different gear.

Ye is god

Irgendwie genial, wie zurückgenommen aber brutal die Mittel des Album verwendet werden, spartanisch und doch scharf gewetzt bestückt und cranky/noisy wie bei The Knife’s „Shaking the Habitual“ und in den krassen Breaks, die eigentlich wie mal eben reingeklebt wirken, ein klein wenig melancholischer Trost verströmt wird...hat für mich etwas, was die Zeit überdauert und sogar mit der wachsenden Scheisse um uns herum immer klarer die damit anbrechende Zeit vertont...irre, wenn etwas so voraus ist, dass alles, was kommt, erst sich diesem Werk, das den Spirit vorweg zu nehmen scheint, anpasst. Das Teil funktioniert zudem in sich und seiner eigenen Zeit zum Möbius verdreht wunderbar auf repeat. Visionary 4.7