This is a 5/10 music album for me at best, feels like a really unfinished project like everything Kanye released after Yeezus, ultimately hurt by Kanye himself and his lack of production subtlety and arranging amnesia, and overall insecurity which quite frankly is hilarious and tragic at the same time since this is the same guy who dropped 4 classics in a row. West collaborated with Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami to oversee the art direction of Graduation as well as design the cover art for the album's accompanying singles. To be fair we got some highs on Donda, we got some beautiful material like Come to Life, some OG Kanye shit like Believe What I Say and New Again, some haunting shit like Jesus Lord, Hurricane is cool, God Breathed had a lot of potential (Yeezus vibes). He said to Rolling Stone magazine: 'Seeing this album cover did so much for me. In particular he was inspired by the look of the artwork of the bands album Roseland NYC Live from 1998. It was primarily produced by West himself, with contributions from various other. West was stirred to use a sonic orchestra to provide the musical layers throughout the album by the British Trip Hop group Portishead. Recording sessions took place between 20 at several studios in New York and Los Angeles. The "second half" of the album which should be the actual Donda material is serviceable good (definitely better than Ye and Jesus is King) and has this tender and more thoughtful production going on (still badly mixed and realized) minus that Tell the Vision record that thing is peak washed. Graduation is the third studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West, released on September 11, 2007, through Def Jam Recordings and Roc-A-Fella Records. Big fan of Kanye’s, but sorry, not loving the cover that much, not as good as Graduation or Touch the Sky maybe I’m just not into that kind of painting style, sorry. So about Donda as a whole i can say this project is way way way too long (coming from the same guy who said 7 tracks was the perfect album length), repetitive and needed more time in the oven, feels like we have two thematically different projects mixed together here (i don't know if this is a know thing because didn't follow the pre-release cycle cause i don't give a fuck about Kanye since post TLOP era), i don't understand how at least 10 of these tracks made to the "final" release they look like raw notes, demos and ideas for a possible record and could easily be deleted, i don't understand how pretty much the whole album is so badly put together, arranged, mixed, sometimes out of sync and produced altogether, i don't understand why he put himself in these do or die situations like just work your shit and RELEASE WHEN IT'S READY for once. So what does it all mean? If nothing else, it's definitely related to West's upcoming album, Swish.This release definitely has A LOT of duds (What the fuck was that Tell the Vision thing?!!?!), Kanye obviously lost his artist touch (and soul) quite a while ago he's not in control of his own shit it's crazy this thing is so all over the place i can't even put my thoughts together about what i listened. It's a place of dreams, of righteousness, a place to have fun.
But it seems to have appeared on his skin relatively recently, and the VMAs were a perfect opportunity for him to show off his new ink. Of the cover image (that took weeks to design), Murakami says, 'The cover is based on Kanye's theme of student life. and especially not enough thought to realize if one is brand new or not. And while he was busy dancing in the audience like an embarrassing dad, talking on stage (aka announcing his 2020 run for presidency), and hugging wife Kim Kardashian, you might have noticed something interesting: West's new tattoo on his forearm.Īt first glance, it's kind of confusing -just a random symbol, maybe? Being that my allotted time for thinking about Kanye West each day is usually spent looking at pictures of him smiling at his ice cream, I haven't given too much thought to his tattoos. I was totally expecting West to use his time to put on a flashy performance, but instead he gave a speech filled with humility and emotion - and an unexpected apology for interrupting Taylor Swift on a very different VMA stage in 2009. If you watched the VMAs on Sunday night, there's no way you missed 2015 Video Vanguard honoree Kanye West in all his glory.