Kanye West With Pusha T, "Runaway"
I'm assuming you've seen the performance from Sunday night's VMA award show already, so here's the recorded version of Kanye West's new song, "Runaway." What's to say? It's great. Most of the music we've heard in the past few months, as Kanye has emerged from his quiet year of repentance after making an ass of himself at last year's VMAs, has been great. It stands with rest of his catalogue, and his catalogue stands with that of any other artist currently working on his level. And well above most of them. But more than that, he understands that to be on that level-the big giant world-stage let-me-hear-you-scream level-he needs to be thinking about way more than just music. Clearly, he does. (How much time he must spend choosing his outfits!) He goes for the big show, the big statement, pretty much always. And pretty much always pulls off something special. XXL has a nice round-up of the big TV performances of Kanye's career.
He knows that in today's media climate, if you're going to embrace being famous, privacy and quiet self-reflection are privileges almost impossibly hard to maintain. So he doesn't try. This is a different tack than that taken by a Jay-Z, who says, "I'm so cool, you'll never know the real me." Or a Lady Gaga, who suggests "everything is artifice, there is no real me." Instead he says "there is very much a real me, and I'm not cool enough to keep it hidden, so here it is, all the time." (How exhausting this must be!) He throws everything out there, exposing himself over various platforms in some kind of exhibitionist reality star performance art thing. Emoting, emoting, emoting, joking sometimes, taking himself extremely seriously others, completely unafraid to try new things, opening himself to his audience in ways sometimes off-putting, sometimes endearing, but very rarely boring, he stays beating commenters and pundits to the punch, and backing it up with music that, whether or not it's to one's liking, is hard to experience as anything other than bold and adventurous and, yes, artistic. So here's to Kanye, showing everyone how to be a pop star in the 21st Century.
Yeah! Copyright claims. It frustrates me that something done for marketing purposes is not allowed to then run for free outside the intended audience. Blech.
Blocked video replaced. (We'll see how long this one works.)
Nice, fixed it as I posted!I dig the background beet but I'm not a fan of the triple Kanye chorus. Too much.
I am glad his image thingy is interesting to people, because this song isn't very good.
OK,I admit I kind of liked it when it leaked back in 2002, but in my defense I was 15 at the time.
ok that wasn't very constructive. I guess I just really hope that "I am a jerk! A self-aware jerk! A self-loathing and witty-approximate jerk!" is not in fact the way we are pop stars now.
I don't like it either. If "let's have a toast for the douchebags" is brilliant pop music then Dennis Leary's "I'm an Asshole" is a timeless classic I guess? I don't get it. I like some of his music, am ambivalent about his image/antics and think this song sucks.
Brilliant pop music can be made of any sentiment whatsover. And there's much more to this song, and to all music than the lyrics. I love the beat and the melody. And even the lyrics, and the way they're delivered, carry a whole lot more in them than Dennis Leary's (very funny but very differently intended) song. To read this as a straightforward celebration of bad behavior is miss it in a big way. He says "runaway from me, baby." And he sounds sad, not crowing.
I totally agree on the more to all music than the lyrics thing and I generally think that professional pop music critics focus way too much on lyrical content. I only focused on the lyrics because you seemed to be saying that they were a key component to why you liked the song so much and also because this is a case of a pop song where the lyrics are heavily emphasized and their atypical/shocking content is I think meant to be a big part of the deal. I totally agree about the other aspects of the song. I love the beat and the melody. I love the grandeur and drama of the production. The idea I guess is that the contrast between the beautiful music and the novelty song lyrics (and I love "novelty" and don't dismiss at as a lower category of pop) is supposed to create a how you say "frisson" but it doesn't work for me. I'd rather here him rap or sing almost anything else over the music, even if it was something banal. In this case the lyrics ruin it for me for some reason.
With this and the new Trey Songz leak, today is a very good day.
…His Good Friday output is but schtick to try to cling to cultural relevance…
Ye, who used to be the guy who would eschew a twitter account, on grounds of pomposity/snobbery is now the guy pandering to people who want to look really deeply into mediocre rap-crossover music.
At least, I spose, it has let J.Cole do justice to a beat Kanye had no business on, furnished a great Nicki Minaj verse, and let the world know just what Jay-Z's Achilles heal is.
Awl, please stop covering rap.
Or, alternatively, hire someone who knows rap. Perhaps Noz. You seem to be aware of his existence.
And for those who wish to download this song, I suggest searching "Runaway" on NahRight.
"What's to say? It's great."
lol
But I guess you gotta play to your audience. It's just funny when hyper-educated white people opine about rap. It's a genre that deserves a different sort of nuance of knowledge, than say, your pop music critic, or critic who would know who False Priest is.
/hate/hate/hate/hate
Keep talking.
I think Kanye's raps are generally overblown and sophomoric, but you can't deny his position as a cultural figure. And honestly, if he's holding down the last spot at the VMAs, he's probably moved beyond the insular world of rap and become a pop star. That fact alone makes his performance fair game for the awl and any number of blogs that don't specialize in hip-hop.
Do I wish the awl featured rap dialogues as lively and intriguing as yesterdays' pair on Gaga? Of course. But until that happens, I'm gonna be delighted when I come here looking for some damn fine writing and find the latest Freddie Gibbs video.
So far, deacon, you and Noz are the only ones I've heard calling for a complete blackout. Ahem. As for me, I'm much more disturbed that a university-educated rap scholar insists on giving airspace to imbeciles like Gucci and Waka, who I personally see as unsettling extensions of the minstrel show, harmful to both rap as a music and children as a future.
How many folks have demanded that Noz quit hyping these undertalented actors with bad delivery? Yet he continues to cover them with fawning adoration. And honestly, that's his business.
And this post, well, is Dave Bry's business. If you want to engage it based on the content–and there's plenty here to argue with–that could get us somewhere. But dismissing it just because it's rap writing on a white website seems a bit hasty.
@TheWalbert
Kanye qua pop culture I will not dispute, and it is fun and fair to talk about.
In regards to Gucci and Waka, I don't want to tread into the impressionable youth terrain, but I do want to say that writing them off as extensions of minstrel show is well, a bit hasty, if not dismissive. Wasn't the minstrel show for white people? Who (primarily) is the audience of the aforementioned rappers?
Ah crap, i will breach the youth topic. As a fellow lover of Gangsta Gibbs as well, I find it funny you bring up the "corrupter of youth" characterization.
What does Gibbs talk about? His delivery is just in a more blatantly technical way.
I attempted to challenge his assertion that Kanye as pop-star has had a steady image. I guess that was lost in the cloud of hate. Kanye has gone from dismissing twitter to using it as a tool to constantly engage his audience. Which I guess refers to content of the article (I guess I came off as a jerk, lol).
I, personally, have sites I check for music (I think I am the minority of the awl's audience, being that I primarily listen to rap), humor and politics. The intersection of the topics is bound to happen (see: Daily Show, Colbert report); it is convenient when the lapidary and humorous prose meets the musical interests (see: the awl when it covers rappers, Byron Crawford), but it also rankles (so far), if I may so myself, finely attuned rap hairs when commentary ensues. Linking to new videos would be juuusstttt fiiinnneeee.
To be fair to Mr. Bry, who I'm sure is well intentioned, this was more of a response to all musical coverage (crossover pop appeal and otherwise) that has pertained to rap.
@Murgatroid
You mad doggy?
My minstrel show comment refers specifically to white folks like Noz, who-despite a thorough knowledge of hip-hop history and an appreciation for the finer aspects of the genre-continue to listen to rap that I can find no redeeming value in. My roommate, who is a dj and a music scholar in his own right, claims that "sometimes I just get into that ignorant shit," but can't call to mind any other reason why he enjoys it. If you want ignorance, I guess this is the place to go-Waka's got it in spades (no biggoty). But there's something unsettling to me about white dudes sitting around in their rooms reveling in the ignorance of black rappers.
As for Gibbs: regardless of his content, there's no doubt that the man puts an incredible amount of work into his craft. (Maybe I'm actually more afraid that the children will grow up to be wack rappers than hardened criminals.) I also think Gibbs gives a more nuanced portrait of street life, expressing ambivalence about his own role in it, and arguing that criminal behavior doesn't grow in a petri dish, but arises from the wreckage of a broken system and a poverty-stricken environment. This is most evident in his "Miseducation Of" tape, but can also be heard in "The Ghetto" off "Str8 Killa," when Gibbs spits "The ghetto's not a place/ it's a mentality/ most of us carry with us constantly causing casualties."
I'm not going to claim that I have any deep knowledge of Waka and Gucci's catalog, but Gibbs' body of work shows subtlety and self-contradiction and proof of reflection, despite his more graphic and nihilistic narratives. He has undeniable technical ability as well, and if either of his contemporaries exhibited similar skill, I would give them a pass. I used to be even more of an old man when it came to rap, but I've slowly come to understand that so much of success in hip-hop is driven by image, and an original voice/ flow, and crushing beats. To me, Gucci and Waka don't really have any of these elements. And that's what makes me think that their success is largely orchestrated by outside forces (Byron's T.I.'s) who are interested in dumbing down the culture in order to feed the prison industrial complex.
But enough of that.
Since I played devil's advocate in my last response, I've spent the past week arguing steadily against Kanye. I wanted to believe that his weekly releases were a way for him to push himself to create new material, but I'm starting to agree with you that it's all a stunt-mainly because the songs all seem so thrown-together and directionless. Even if I think Mos Def's verse on the latest single is a mess of vocabulary, Kanye's follow-up is at least 8 times worse. The way he explains his "booby trap" punchline makes him sound like a proud middle schooler. And the fact that he thinks a douchebag goes "in" the coochie…it just makes me sad that this dude's supposed to be the future of rap.
So what I'm saying, ultimately, is that I agree with you on most of your points, and I think we'd probably get along in real life. I just don't understand why Noz thinks he has the right to determine other blogs' content, like some supreme arbiter of taste-and I think you got caught in the crossfire.
@Murgatroid.
Ahh, I just had the time (Sad, I know) to read some of your comments on this site; it's the same problem as career politicians (thank goodness I'm so new!).
You're pretty much the guy who gets into the rap talks. And, I mean it's so hard to find a vulnerable position in your rap music taste when you stand behind a love for Drake, you have a distaste for Ye's Power and also don't comprehend why "Girls, Girls, Girls" would not be on a Jay-Z Best Of.
This probably won't get read, as this article is over a day old (just about as much turn around as Nah Right, impressive!) but I guess I just realized, in writing all this, that one should let the erudite echo-chamber reverberate, smugly, and to not mind it; it's best to sift through the pieces and take what is actually well done, the humor.