Kanye West : My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

[Antonio]

Originally Posted by Rainard Jalen

It seems his lyrical weakness is well attested. Surely, for something to be a rap classic, the lyricism must also be of a 'classic' nature. Perhaps, on the other hand, the spectrum of 'hip-hop' as opposed to simply 'rap' can be given a broader scope. DJ Shadow, for example, is often classified under the notion of 'instrumental hip-hop'. This album is certainly a classic in terms of beats, arrangements and sampling. But a 'rap' classic is is NOT. I defy anybody to claim that the rapping on this record is (on the whole) brilliant in terms of delivery, flow, rhymes and content. Any such assertion would be ludicrous beyond anything I can conceive of.

For good actual rapping of 2010, see Big Boi.

It is a great pity that Kanye cannot sing. He could have been the greatest contemporary R&B artist ever to exist.

ok, you're right. in terms of rapping, i'd say that as a whole this doesn't even compare to Kanye's older material much less more heavyweight contemporaries. some of his older stuff, like "All Falls Down", "We Don't Care", and "Last Call", i think reflect some of his best lyrical writing, and even then that doesn't make him the greatest rapper/lyricist.

But as for being some of the worst lyrics you've heard in hip hop, like you stated in an earlier post, it's not nearly as bad as some of the completely vapid sh*t in mainstream hip hop being passed off as lyrics.




so yeah, i'd say that you could do MUCH worse, and seeing as Kanye himself is one of the most mainstream artists today, i'd say his stuff is miles ahead of alot of the crap on the radio/tv. now i know this doesn't make him some kind of legendary rapper like Nas or what-have-you, but his stuff has gotta be worth something in current mainstream hip hop, doesn't it?

so yeah, i wouldn't say it's a great rap album either, but as a hip-hop album as well music in general, it's definitely something all it's own, so i'll agree with you on that as well.