6. Yeezus (2013)
Standout Tracks: “Bound 2”, “New Slaves”, “Black Skinhead”
To start it off we got Ye’s most recent solo album. Personally for myself, this was the only Kanye solo album that let me down. I don’t really consider this album to have been made by Kanye West. This was crafted by Kanye Kardashian. That’s not to say that Yeezus is terrible by any means. The production throughout this album is nothing, but flames on top of flames. It’s sound very expensive and polished, also it’s the most experimental Kanye has ever been on for any of his albums.
The problem is that the majority of Yeezus (aside from the standout tracks) is lyrically mediocre and uninteresting in terms subject matter, at least for Kanye. Tracks like “I Am A God” are bold in a sense, given the album title and the track title itself, but come off humoring given the lyrical content of Kanye aggressively ordering croissants and calling Jesus to talk about his countless millions. Songs such as “Guilt Trip” which features Kid Cudi are too mellowed and drowned in Auto-tune to even listen through without cringing, and while the beat on the track “Hold My Liquor” is pretty damn good and Kanye’s verses were fine, having an Auto-tuned Chief Keef crooning on this just made the track a bit rotten.
Coming off of his previous solo effort (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) the hype for this album was higher than most other Hip-Hop albums ready to drop that year. Much more was expected. Regardless, if you want some banging beats and with lyrics that aren’t too complex, then this is definitely something worth checking out. Plus, “Bound 2” slaps very hard.