The leaks from Kanye West’s new album feel really meh.
Okay, look. Full disclosure, here. This opinion is coming from the guy who called Yeezus trash. This is an opinion that I stand by, too. So, maybe I’m not the best judge of Kanye West’s post-My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sound.
With that being said, though, I can’t be the only one who hasn’t been excited about the snippets from his new album ‘Donda’ that have made their way into the ether.
We got our first taste of the new album’s sound in a Beats commercial of all places. We saw Sha’Carri Richardson lining up for a race with headphones in and Ye’s new single from the album “No Child Left Behind” was playing.
This was…alright?
There’s no way to really have an opinion on this because it sounds like we just got a section of the track on a loop for the entire minute.
Obviously, Kanye is sticking to the new Christian Rap sound he adapted for 2019’s “Jesus is King.” It sounds like church organs are playing and the lyrics “He’s done miracles on me” keep looping.
Alrighty. Cool. This is alright. Nothing worth going crazy over, certainly. But this is fine. The next snippet, though? This is probably where the disappointment comes from for me.
One would think when you have two absolutely generational producers like Kanye West and Mike Dean in a room together they’d make some sort of mind-melding, incredible sound that shatters music.
But here’s what we got.
It sounds like some sort of attempt at creating a Christian drill song? Which, without thinking about it, sounds alright! But in execution? Fam. This is not it. This beat is plain. Ye doesn’t sound the greatest over it. What are those random, awful screams in it? What’s going on here?
This just doesn’t sound the greatest. And it doesn’t feel all that creative, either. If it’s one thing we’ve known Kanye West to do it’s completely shift music. Whether it be with a new sound, a new feature, some sort of rhyme scheme. He always comes with something different.
But this sounds like Kanye chasing a sound that’s already there. A sound that isn’t his own or one that he created. Despite my strong aversion to Yeezus, even I have to admit that Ye at least tried different things with it. And though they didn’t work for me, I can appreciate the attempt. This snippet doesn’t sound new at all.
That’s the thing, though. This is a snippet. There’s still an album to come. And it will probably (hopefully?) sound much more like a buildup from the first snippet rather than a continuation of the second.
And then, maybe, I’ll finally buy some Yeezys.
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