[MercuryLS]

Blame Game and Dark Fantasy are my favourite tracks. Blame Game is so raw, so much emotion there.

[Dreams-Visions]

Blame Game is so raw, so much emotion there.

yessir.

[blame space]

Blame Game is probably the best track..

the Framtonesque autotune solo of the chorus at the end of Runaway is fucking amazing

[Bowser]

Ok how have so many of you already got this bloody album? It's not out till the 22nd...?

Probably everyone in this thread except you :lol

[Ken Masters]

Probably everyone in this thread except you :lol

Wrong, I haven't heard the album yet, will wait to the 22nd to buy it

[2real4tv]

gotta agree.. as sketchy as he's been lately, love this verse.

I guess MC hammer did not so much

[Bowser]

Wrong, I haven't heard the album yet, will wait to the 22nd to buy it

I did say probably :P

[enzo_gt]

After careful, careful consideration, the only overproduced songs are All of the Lights (cause the Fergie part is 100% unnecessary) and Lost in the World with all the extra bells and whistles he added. Everything else is alright, and complaints of overproduction are hyperbolic, or are from people who only prefer simple beats with not much depth.

And G.O.O.D. Saturday is coming! :D

[Pinko Marx]

Ok how have so many of you already got this bloody album? It's not out till the 22nd...?

Its like you've never been on the internet before.

[Swag]

So much head I woke up in Sleepy Hollow

Accidently said that line too loud in class earlier, needless to say people were confused :lol

[enzo_gt]

Dude autotune is dead. Jay Z gave the eulogy. Seriously though, I never really liked it.

Jigga gave the eulogy and Ye half produced the track. Though if you never really liked autotune in the first place, I can't knock you for your personal preferences.

He sings through the majority of like 5 tracks. I guess it's closer to hip hop than r&b, but it's closest to some amalgamation of everything you hear on a top 100 hits station condensed into an album. You've got sweet dance club stuff, pop rap, cheesy introspective autotuned song, some akon-like r&b... it's all there.

What's this Akon-like R&B song? It appears your perception of the album is completely different than mine. I refuse to believe Kanye went out of his way to make pop-friendly tracks, when he'd throw an extra 3 minutes on every song in the album. Only AOTL and LITW seem to have been edited to suit that format, and even still, they sound like nothing else out there. Though, I can see if you deteste his singing and only like his rapping/production then this would be a disappointment, but from my perspective the auto-tune and singing is a lot more seamless and less forced as it appears to you.

If "the culture" is listening to Young Jeezy and Souljah Boy, then pushing it forward isn't that much of an accomplishment. Well... I take that back. Getting people that listen to that crap to switch over to something not as simple or mind-numbing is pretty impressive. But how do I know he's converting Souljah Boy fans?

Soulja Boy fans cannot be saved, that demographic is far beyond the realm of what we here consider hip hop. Jeezy does his thing, but is a completely different animal. I can't say Kanye is converting Soulja Boy fans, but in the same way Heartless, Stronger, and so many other singles brought people closer to hip hop, if they sticked with Ye till now, and listened to this album, you can feel the progression. I'm not saying Ye went completely left field with this shit and it created something utterly revolutionary, but this is a step in the right direction. The song format, blunt honesty and transitions between thoughts and sub-themes in this album are quite a marvel.

No rap has had annoying ass r&b chicks sing choruses forever. Having someone sing on a rap song is about as amazing as a Drake verse on Nas track. I'm saying when Kanye sings he can't restrain himself and usually the song has so much singing it becomes r&b. It's like a lot of Drakes crap. Is it r&b? I hope that shit's not what people are calling rap nowadays.

To Drake's extent? No. But Drake has raised himself off of Ye's versatility. And I agree with you saying he can't restrain himself on Runaway, but who complains about his singing on All of the Lights and Lost In The World? When Kanye knows he can't do it himself, he will enlist others to help harmonize in the interest of the quality of the track. Ye has gone overboard on the singing before, but he has collected some of those tracks into what he calls 808s and Heartbreak.

I count singing on Dark Fantasy, All of the Lights, Runaway, Hell of a Life, Blame Game, and Lost in the World. And out of all those songs, the only times Kanye tries to bridge the raps into a so called R&B song is Runaway and Blame Game. To be fair, Blame Game is fairly close to R&B, but at the same is fairly close to spoken word, and in that case, the little bit of singing he has is seamless with John Legend's. And Runaway, yes he gets carried away I agree, but I'm having a hard time finding evidence to back up your notions of Kanye getting carried away on MBDTF with singing.

[kassatsu]

G.O.O.D. Friday coming tonight?

[Dreams-Visions]

My order of favorites.

Blame Game (the deepest song of the album. song most similar to C.D. / L.R. flavor)
So Appalled (WIN. strongest collection of verses on the album.)
Runaway (easily one of the strongest and best, its length adds depth...loved the ending)
POWER (very strong, a real look into the thoughts of Kanye)
Gorgeous (very solid verses)
Monster (enjoyable verses)
Dark Fantasy (best start since 'We Don't Care')
Lost In The World (one of my favorite beats)
Devil in a New Dress (it's cool...)
Hell of a life (just not really for me)
All of The Lights (overproduced, not terribly memorable, lyrically)


everything but the last 2 are 5-star tracks for me. the last 2 are 4-stars. needless to say, even my least favorite are better than most music...so it's all relative.

[Dali]

What's this Akon-like R&B song? It appears your perception of the album is completely different than mine.

Sorry autotune plus a sugary sweet beat is Akon-like enough to me for me to call it out as such.

I refuse to believe Kanye went out of his way to make pop-friendly tracks, when he'd throw an extra 3 minutes on every song in the album.

Length of a song has nothing to do with how pop friendly it is. If a separate radio version isn't made, then radio stations have no problem just fading out.

Though, I can see if you deteste his singing and only like his rapping/production then this would be a disappointment, but from my perspective the auto-tune and singing is a lot more seamless and less forced as it appears to you.

I don't detest his singing. I just feel like it's not one of his strengths. If I want to hear singing, I know where to get it. It's like Andre on The Love Below. Shit "Hey Ya" was fire and Roses was pretty good, but I didn't become an Outkast fan for that. So if that's what he (Andre 3000) sees as his musical future then RIP one damn good emcee. Similarly, I didn't start listening to Kanye for his singing ability.

Soulja Boy fans cannot be saved, that demographic is far beyond the realm of what we here consider hip hop. Jeezy does his thing, but is a completely different animal. I can't say Kanye is converting Soulja Boy fans, but in the same way Heartless, Stronger, and so many other singles brought people closer to hip hop, if they sticked with Ye till now, and listened to this album, you can feel the progression. I'm not saying Ye went completely left field with this shit and it created something utterly revolutionary, but this is a step in the right direction. The song format, blunt honesty and transitions between thoughts and sub-themes in this album are quite a marvel.

That's called crossover success. He's making better pop music than what's out there now.

To Drake's extent? No. But Drake has raised himself off of Ye's versatility. And I agree with you saying he can't restrain himself on Runaway, but who complains about his singing on All of the Lights and Lost In The World? When Kanye knows he can't do it himself, he will enlist others to help harmonize in the interest of the quality of the track. Ye has gone overboard on the singing before, but he has collected some of those tracks into what he calls 808s and Heartbreak. I count singing on Dark Fantasy, All of the Lights, Runaway, Hell of a Life, Blame Game, and Lost in the World. And out of all those songs, the only times Kanye tries to bridge the raps into a so called R&B song is Runaway and Blame Game. To be fair, Blame Game is fairly close to R&B, but at the same is fairly close to spoken word, and in that case, the little bit of singing he has is seamless with John Legend's. And Runaway, yes he gets carried away I agree, but I'm having a hard time finding evidence to back up your notions of Kanye getting carried away on MBDTF with singing.

He's pretty sing-songy in Devil in a New Dress. I guess I'm just more sensitive to his transition from proper delivery into flowery singstress than most, because I'm not a fan of it.

[ATF487]

gotta agree.. as sketchy as he's been lately, love this verse.

Yeah, better than comparing himself to Windows 7

[Swag]

G.O.O.D. Friday coming tonight?

Completely forgot about this, good week to be a kanye fan this is.

Actually don't know about tonight, Kanye's in Dubai doing a concert.

[parasight]

Blame Game and Dark Fantasy are my favourite tracks. Blame Game is so raw, so much emotion there.

Quoted for emphasis. My favorite two as well. Can't get enough of Blame Game - hell I even love the Chris Rock outro now.

[MickD]

G.O.O.D. Friday coming tonight?

Of course, he's Dubai right now, so look for it sometime in the late AM, usually drops about then weekly. 3 or 4 am cst

[enzo_gt]

I don't detest his singing. I just feel like it's not one of his strengths. If I want to hear singing, I know where to get it. It's like Andre on The Love Below. Shit "Hey Ya" was fire and Roses was pretty good, but I didn't become an Outkast fan for that. So if that's what he (Andre 3000) sees as his musical future then RIP one damn good emcee. Similarly, I didn't start listening to Kanye for his singing ability. That's called crossover success. He's making better pop music than what's out there now. He's pretty sing-songy in Devil in a New Dress. I guess I'm just more sensitive to his transition from proper delivery into flowery singstress than most, because I'm not a fan of it.

Alright I agree singing isn't one of his strengths, but I'm not completely mad at his decision to integrate singing into his rap songs. Beyond creating hooks and stuff, the only time a significant amount of singing on the album has interfered with the quality of the track in my opinion is the nonsense at the end of Runaway. I can see how it'd upset you, but I have difficulty attributing any songs in this album as "pop." All of the Lights, maybe. But that song is like 75% beat/production and 25% vocals/deliver, and that 75% is straight up hip hop to me.

Of course, he's Dubai right now, so look for it sometime in the late AM, usually drops about then weekly. 3 or 4 am cst

More time to phone in a verse from J. Cole. You know what you need to do Kanye, capitalize on this shit.

[ShinobiFist]

This what I wrote in the GAF-Hop thread

What's the deal with this long ass tracks? And why the hell did he let Rick Ross on the Devil In A New Dress, track? Homeboy ruined it. And I thought Conway West was doing a Boom Bap album with all this talk of Primo, RZA and other producers saying is the truth....Not feeling this at all. The production is all over the place, his doing to much on certain tracks..If you want to go with a different style of producing, stick to a theme...Like the Roots did in their new album. One of the best albums produce this year, it has a great flow. Conway West is falling into the same path as RJD2 and DJ Shadow in production. I didn't include Danger Mouse, because his rock projects have been really good so far. Shit, KNO went with a Euro influence sound but still manage to capture a solid sound that wasn't a mess(Like the Runaway track) And apparently, Conway West discover something call "Distortion" because he went heavy with it for this album...Shit, I almost didn't recognize Raekwon on "Gorgeous"(Love this track BTW)"Lost in the World" was greatly produce, but again, too long..That breakdown should have come sooner. Conway West needed someone to calm him down on this album. Look at Lucas and Kojima for example, they have nothing but "Yes" man around them, and that's not good. And that's what Conway West has around him.

[Discotheque]

LOL what's with all the Conway West?

I slightly agree though, production is so inconsistent. But some beats are fire. And yeah 'lol at depth', no that last 3 minutes of Runaway is just pure bullshit. Kanye really couldn't let go of 808s.

[dvdjamm]

Who the hell is Conway West?

[ShinobiFist]

Who the hell is Conway West?

If GW Bush can call him that, so can I.

[enzo_gt]

I don't want my stannery to get ahead of me, but how is the production all over the place? Would you rather an album with all similar sounding beats like MotM2, or are you referring the beats being a mixed bag in terms of quality?

In the case of the former, I'd rather not have it like that as it could be creatively stifling, and in the case of the latter, the beats are A+ from start to finish.

[HiResDes]

The production is fantastic. It's well-rounded, not all-over-place...See it's all about the connotation of the words you use.

[ShinobiFist]

I don't want my stannery to get ahead of me, but how is the production all over the place? Would you rather an album with all similar sounding beats like MotM2, or are you referring the beats being a mixed bag in terms of quality? In the case of the former, I'd rather not have it like that as it could be creatively stifling, and in the case of the latter, the beats are A+ from start to finish.

Out of one track, he could have done four songs, lol. He overdose on production for this album. Tracks are too long, breakdowns take forever and shit. There's a shit load of change arrangement's is crazy! Props for him doing it, because is not easy doing all that shit and keeping the BPM's intact........Kind of.

But, is annoying and confusing. If your going to do long ass tracks, have a theme and let it ride. Look at Pink Floyd with the song "Time" for example. I can't bump this album. You like it awesome. I was expecting a "Boom Bap" album, not this overkill shit. What Conway wanted to do with this album, Kno succeeded with his.

[HiResDes]

Kno's production - Fantastic...Kno's rapping and even some of guess spots - Weak.

[ShinobiFist]

Kno's production - Fantastic...Kno's rapping and even some of guess spots - Weak.

Talking about production, not rapping...Again, something he fucked up big and trying to over do things, just like Conway West did in production.

[roosters93]

Who is Kno?

[GodfatherX]

still don't like Moster or Devil in a new dress

[roosters93]

still don't like Moster or Devil in a new dress

Either. Everyone seems to be on Minaj for her verse but even though her rhymes are decent enough, I just can't stand the voices she puts on which makes it all null & void and incredibly annoying.

Btw what does the chorus even mean?

And DIAND was revised to have Rick Ross. 'nuff said.

[dvdjamm]

If GW Bush can call him that, so can I.

But he's a idiot...You're not

[Dartastic]

So, after lots of listens, the only thing I want edited out is Fergies verse in AOTL. Yes, that includes Chris Rock. Has someone made that happen get? :lol

[toastyToast]

Who is Kno?

The producer and occasionally rapping member of Cunninlynguists which are one of the most consistent groups of the last decade imo, in part due to Kno's production.

You can sample his full album here.

http://cunninlynguists.bandcamp.com/...eath-is-silent

Back OT, Power is growing to become my favorite track on the album. Kanye, I mean Conway needs more solo tracks on his next album. I like features but I feel like this album is way to crowded. I thought he would get all his super mixes out of the way with the GOOD Friday tracks but a lot of them made their way on here, I'm disappointed in that respect.

[Grzi]

I was expecting a "Boom Bap" album, not this overkill shit. What Conway wanted to do with this album, Kno succeeded with his.

The last time he mentioned he was doing a boom bap album was like a year ago or so. If you were following anything about this album, you'd have realised it won't be a boom bap album a long time ago.

[Swag]

What's Boom Bap mean

[GodfatherX]

Kno's production - Fantastic...Kno's rapping and even some of guess spots - Weak.

the only song on Kno's album I feel is "weak" by producers who rap standards is I Wish I Was Dead.

overall I think its a better album then MBDTF but I'm not here to start that argument, both are really good albums

[DominoKid]

What's Boom Bap mean

old rap music

[MickD]

What's Boom Bap mean

808's and 909 drum kits usually

[Swag]

So would you guys say MBDTF > Graduation?

I'm a big graduation lover, but liking MBDTF just as much. Will have to hear the extra tracks before I decide though

[Baby Milo]

So would you guys say MBDTF > Graduation?

Nope i think Graduation is a better album

the highs points are so good on that album(Stronger,Flashing Lights,Good Life etc). I also prefer the production on Graduation.It's a fun album.

[Dreams-Visions]

So would you guys say MBDTF > Graduation?

easily.

[Net_Wrecker]

Not feeling this at all. I haven't been following the news before release so I too came in expecting a Boom Bap, older Kanye sound, and what i got were long tracks for the sake of being long, boring production, Kanye singing, and mediocre guest spots.

College Dropout/Late Registration Kanye, where art thou?

[nib95]

Only at Monster at the moment, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Glad Power and Dark Fantasy were changed up. Liking the changes, especially in Power which has changed enough since the last time I heard it that it feels almost new.

Weakest song for me thus far is Gorgeous, but the others have been brilliant.

[Dreams-Visions]

Weakest song for me thus far is Gorgeous,

it's like a Chia pet. keep watering it and watch it grow (on you).

[roosters93]

Only at Monster at the moment, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Glad Power and Dark Fantasy were changed up. Liking the changes, especially in Power which has changed enough since the last time I heard it that it feels almost new. Weakest song for me thus far is Gorgeous, but the others have been brilliant.

What were the changes to Power?

[YoungHav]

This might as well be called The So Appalled LP. Jay-Z bodied that, Pusha T did his thing also.

[nib95]

What were the changes to Power?

I only heard the version he released for Good Friday before. This versions production wise is totally different, especially the last half which doesn't have that weird cut and random outburst of rap from Kanye. It's a lot more harmonious and consistent now.

In-fact, a lot of the tracks are tweaked. Listening to Runaway now, and the end of this track is different too, also has different added synths and additions not present in the original Good Friday version.

But again, really loving the album so far. The pacing is brilliant, feels like a musical journey. Still not too keen on Devil in a Dress, but it's a little less monotonous this time. Good beat, just not diverse enough imo. But I wouldn't call it 'bad', just not up to the rest of the albums standard.


EDIT: Hell of a Life is a bit tweaked too, different affect added to the chorus? Actual lyrical content sounds the same mind. Anyway, love this track.

[CRS]

Thinking about adding J. Cole's verses onto DiaND since it's such a short song.

[Swag]

What were the changes to Power?

From the single version released, just an addition of laughter at the end of the song. Not much else