Quick Before it Melts

Wednesday 24 December 2008

Amazing

It’s Christmas Eve.  A blogger has three options: 1. Post nothing; 2. Post happy holiday wishes and a token rare/much-loved/obscure Christmas cover song; 3. Go to town and really change up what’s expected from me.

I’m actually not sure which of the three categories this post will fall into right now, because: 1. I don’t know whether or not this is ever going to see the light of day; 2. I’ll probably end up wishing everyone a Merry Christmas by the time this is all over, and in some strange circles, the song I’m intending on posting could end up becoming some one’s holiday classic; 3.  I’m about to write a name I never thought would ever see the light of day on QBiM:  Kanye West.

I don’t follow popular music.  I’m not an elitist, it’s just that I rarely listen to commercial radio, so I really don’t have my finger on the pulse of what the kiddies are listening to the way some others might.  I get pieces and snippets, thoughts and ideas from the kids at school, and occasionally see something on TV or read an interview/review in the paper that let’s me pass for being “down wit it”.  So, yeah, I know who Mr. West is. I bought “Golddigger” from iTunes (to play at the school dance, if you can believe).  I know about his outspoken rant in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and gave the guy props for speaking his mind (but poor Mike Myers, that dude didn’t know what the heck was going on).  I know he’s a producer of extreme talent, and a pretty decent rapper, too.  That pretty much covers it for Kanye West in my world.

Now he’s also on heavy rotation ’round QBiM HQ.  808s & Heartbreak was the last album I thought I’d be buying in ’08, and now it very well may be the last album I buy in ’08, because there doesn’t appear to be anything else I want to hear at this moment.  How did I get hear?  The same way I end up with so much music in my life: by accident.  First, the oddly New Order-like album cover caught my eye, along with the albums title.  I know my dance music and techno history; the 808s in the title couldn’t be anything but a reference to Roland’s legendary drum machine.  My fate was sealed with a quick read of the album’s review in a publication which shall remain nameless, that was flattering, but not gushing.  There was some consistency issues, it said: The beats and music were inspired, but the lyrical content was a bit too heavy-handed.  The AutoTuned vocals and synthetic rhythms made the whole affair icy and cold, even though feelings of loss and betrayal  ran through to the very heart of the record.

That’s more than enough reason for me to give it a listen.  And I’m so very glad I did.  808s & Heartbreak isn’t an easy listen by any stretch of the imagination, but it has stretched West’s creative imagination into afore un-thought of realms.  He is single-handedly re-imagining rap and soul’s place in the pop Parthenon much like Prince did before him.  You can’t–and shouldn’t–refer to him as a rapper anymore, not just because he doesn’t rap here, but because that label just doesn’t do justice to what he’s doing.  It would be akin to calling Mozart just a songwriter.  I agree, it is lyrically very heavy to handle, especially when you’re trying to get into the Christmas spirit, but that’s a trifle criticism in light of the product as a whole:  a masterstroke of musical vision, that–whether you dig it or not–is unequaled by its contemporaries.

It’s Christmas Eve, and this blogger has three options:  1.  Post nothing (I still haven’t pushed the “Publish” button yet); 2. Post happy holiday wishes (“Merry Christmas QBiM Readers one and all!”) and a token rare/much-loved/obscure Christmas cover song (not this year); 3. Go to town and really change up what’s expected from me.

You tell me if it’s a 3 for 3.

MP3: Kanye West “Paranoid”
Video: Kanye West “Heartless”
Myspace: Kanye West
Buy: Kanye West 808s & Heartbreak

by J. Di Gioia | 5 Comments »

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 10:00 am and is filed under MP3, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.