September 2008 Archives
Kanye West Has The Blues
The other night, when I saw Kanye's performance at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, I was more than a little disappointed by what I heard. I was livid, and if you haven't read so, you can click here to check out exactly what I thought of "Love Lockdown" in my Live Blog. That same night I posted my critique, my main man (and VIBE's Music Editor) Sean Fennessey, wrote a blog calling "Love Lockdown" the most important song Kanye West has released since "Jesus Walks." Needless to say, I disagreed with everything he wrote.
At the time, my main point of contention with the song was not how it sounded. I actually didn't mind what I was hearing. The lyrics are on point and true to my life right now. The way the beat builds with its pulsing bass line, and creeping piano vamp, then hits you in the chest with a barrage of drums fit for battle, it all makes for a sonic tour-de-force filled with emotional depth. So as a song, "Love Lockdown" is good, but what irked me so much was Kanye West felt the need to sing instead of rap. As I mentioned in my VMA blog, this was a man who has cared so much about being respected as one of the best MCs in the game, and was actually getting there. But instead of continuing his momentum, he went the Andre 3000 route, even though he hadn't built up the resume of, you know, Andre 3000.
But after two days of listening to the song, and reading the lyrics courtesy of Elliott Wilson's transcription via his Facebook profile (request to be his friend if you haven't, he accepts everybody), I have to say I not only agree with Fen's assessment, but I will also say that right now, "Love Lockdown" is the most important song in my life. Not only that, but in my analysis of Kanye's decision to "sing" his lyrics rather than rap them, I have come to the conclusion that when you think about all Kanye has been going through this past year, rapping just isn't going to cut it. The man has the blues, and as somebody who's in a similar place, I understand that he needs to go beyond rap.
As an artist who uses his music as a way to vent his own thoughts and feelings, Kanye must've seen the emotional limits of ripping a microphone. Very, very few rappers have been able to tote the line between keeping it real and keeping it skilled.
Now some artists can do both. Jay-Z, Eminem, and Scarface are three who immediately come to mind. But Kanye West is nowhere near these guys in terms of MC maturity, and therefore, he sees the limits of rapping. It just doesn't allow the room for a wide range of emotions that he may perhaps be feeling at this point in his life.
Whenever I'm going through some things, whether it's at the job, with a woman, or some other BS, R&B can sometimes be a little too soft for my taste, so I tend to go for rappers like 2Pac and Young Jeezy - two guys who are often recognized moreso for how they keep it real, rather than their skills.
On the flip side, artists like Biggie, Lil Wayne, and I don't know, let's say, Nas, are applauded for how nice they are on the mic, the way they flip words and metaphors and create quotable lines for days on end.
Unfortunately, it's this flip side that has forced so many of our favorite lyricists to go West, so to speak. Andre 3000, Cee-Lo, and you might even be able to say Jay-Z judging by his latest verse on Raphael Saadiq's "Oh Girl", are all extremely talented MCs who might've felt limited by a genre that rewards lyrics off the top of the dome rather than from the heart.
In the past year, Kanye "lost the only girl in the world who knows him best." He also lost his fiancee´, and even though I saw some things at his Knitting Factory show that could be construed as a reconciliation between them two, as the old song says, "breaking up is hard to do." Add that all up, and you begin to understand why the man has entitled his upcoming album 808's and Heartbreaks.
Sometimes music needs to make your heart pump more than your speakers.
Live Blogging the 2008 MTV VMA's
There's a lot going on TV tonight. The season premier of Entourage, one of my favorite shows, begins tonight at 10 p.m. Then this is the first official day of the NFL, and even though my team played at 1 p.m. today (how 'bout them Steelers, huh!?), I still like to watch the first day all day. So the MTV VMAs is not only cutting into one of my favorite shows, but it's also cutting into opening day of my favorite season. Yet, I've decided to put aside both for the sake of watching what looks to be one of the most entertaining VMAs in recent history.
A couple of things I'm looking forward to: Kanye West performing some new music. Lil Wayne's performance, which is sure to be drug induced. Finding out who the hell Russel Brand is, even though I did read this interesting article in The New York Times about sex addicts, and his name was mentioned as a person who came out and admitted to being one of them.
Anyway, we're about four minutes away from show time. So let's get ready to see what we got...Anybody reading this as they're watching, thanks for the love. I hope to keep you as entertained as the show itself. Oh, and please excuse the typos. I'm typing as I go here.
9:00 - So the opening monologue is with Johnah Hill and Britney Spears, but umm, this isn't that funny. MTV is trying to make light of the stupidity they exhibited last year when they let Spears open up the VMAs. And guess what? We're over it. We're cool. I didn't hear anybody saying, "Man, I hope Britney Spears gets a second chance." No one cares.
9:04 - We got Rihanna looking mad Goth, with some dancers that lok like they were taken from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. Come to think of it Rihanna is kind of looking like Michael Jackson from the "Thriller" video.
9:06 - Actually Rihanna looks like Luna Vachon, all my pro wrestling fans know exactly who I'm talking about. For this being the 25th Anniversary of the MTV VMAs, this is a lackluster performance. It looks like a Halloween MTV special. Let's hope things get better.
9:08 - Oh, okay, I know who Russell Brand is. I remember him from that movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He kind of looks like one of Rihanna's dancers. So does Lil Wayne...who they just showed.
9:10 - That is the first official endorsement of Barack Obama tonight. Get ready people, we're about to hear at least four or five more.
9:12 - Russell Brand looks like Amy Winehouse with facial hair. He looks funnier than he actually is.
9:15 - Jamie Foxx is presenting the first award tonight. My man's thunder has died a little bit since winning that Oscar. I remember one year he hosted the awards, or was that the MTV Movie Awards? I don't know, but dude is funny as hell. He's actually a great stand up comedian, that unfortunately has taken himself too seriously. I hope my man does the stand up thing soon, he's a good actor, but yo, Jamie, get your (stand up) act together.
9:17 - Best Female Video Nominees: Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, and Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown.
My pick: Mariah Carey
9:18 - The winner is Britney Spears. I've never seen the video she won for, "Piece of Me". But she just accepted that award like she was entitled to it...Britney, yo, you almost lost EVERYTHING. You're not about to win an award for anything else for a long time. Act like you know!
9:20 - During these commercial breaks, where they will be endlessly pumping The Hills, I'd like to take this time to encourage all my readers to watch Baldwin Hills on MTV instead. The production value isn't as high, but the show is as equally entertaining as The Hills, and it's an all-black cast. I like that. But I'm also militant.
9:26 - Demi Moore presenting the award for Best Male Video...She's kind of lost that MILF status, is Ashton still hitting that? Sarah Palin actually looks better than her.
9:27 - Best Male Video nominees: Chris Brown, Flo-Rida, T.I., Usher feat. Young Jeezy, Lil Wayn feat. Static Major.
My Pick: Lil Wayne
9:28 - And the winner is Chris Brown, who's wearing a tie that looks like a Listerine strip. But did anyone notice the nominees were all black? Can someone tell me if that's some sort of historical achievement only me and a couple of others are going to care about tomorrow? I guess I'll Google that later.
9:30 - The Jonas Brothers are performing, who I care about thismuch. I'll take this time to go back to what I noticed in the category for Best Male Video...How the hell did Flo-Rida get nominated? Is this the Ozone Awards? I don't know, even though the MTV VMAs are a popularity contest, I'd still like the picks to have some substance to them. If they tested Flo-Rida for steroids, I guarantee you, he wouldn't have beennominated. I'm going to get some more water, because these Jonas brothers are superwack. Is this the bar for boy bands now? Damn we've fallen off since New Edition. You have got to be kidding me! Somebody get me Pretty Ricky. Even N'Sync was better than these guys. And I'm militant!
9:34 - Is that Katy Perry? She's aiight. It's the first time I'm seeing her.
9:40 - Michael Phelps is coming out...You know, if this was the BET Awards, how much you wanna bet they'd invite Usain Bolt? As a matter of fact if anybody from BET is reading this, please invite Usain bolt.
9:41 - Who is that singing? Is that Leona Lewis? Lil Wayne's starting out with "Misunderstood", which is the last song I thought he'd perform. But hey, he's a martian, and we are not the same.
9:42 - Okay, here we go, a "A Milli"...Now we're talking. I hope this is the last time he has to perform this song on television, because I'm telling you right now, this is the last time I'm hearing it. I actually took it off my iPod.
9:44 - Kobe Bryant jammin to "Got Money" because, well, that ninja's rich! I jam to this song and I don't got money.
9:45 - That was a pretty good performance, but I have yet to see anything that matches up to this.
9:48 - Best Dancing in a video nominees are: Ne-Yo, Chris Brown, Danity Kane, Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake, Pussycat Dolls.
My pick: Ne-Yo
The judges end up picking the Pussycat Dolls...Does it matter that Ciara can outdance every one of them?
9:51 - So during the commercial break, I'm thinking about this Lil Wayne performance. Yo, I used to sag my pants back in the day. I thought it was cool. But as a trend, is that still the hot shit? Like, seriously, dog, I don't want to see your black Hanes. I barely want to see you without a shirt on, but hey, I understand, you got to impress the ladies. But seriously dog, pull up your pants. I'm not even that old. As a matter of fact, Lil Wayne is older than me. I'm sorry, I just can't accept the sagging of the pants...If it was an accident fine, but something tells me it wasn't.
9:56 - Another plug to try and get me to text for the Best New Artist. I wish they'd stop doing that. Who cares so much about these artists that they'd actually text in a vote?
9:58 - Who are these four kids? Who are they introducing? A band called Paramore? Man, I gotta step my rock game up because I have never heard of this group. They kind of sound like that one group all the female hip hop heads would act like they were into so they can, you know, look different. I hate when people do that. You know who I'm talking about too. That guy who says, "Man, I'm not even fucking with Lil Wayne, I'm way more into Fall Out Boy." Yeah, well you know what? FOB is cool, but quit acting like an asshole.
10:08 - Shia LeBouf and Slash are presenting the award. I'd like to take this time to encourage those who haven't seen the Black List Vol. 1 on HBO to see it asap. Slash is featured in it, and his interview is one of the most compelling. The nominees for best rock video are Paramore, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Foo Fighters, and what do we have here, Fall Out Boy for Michael Jackson's "Beat It." But Linkin Park wins.
10:12 - Pink is performing this song called "So What", which also manages to echo my thoughts on her performance. She looks old, doesn't she? I mean, is she even relevant? Are there any girls growing up trying to be Pink? Hmm....
10:15 - About an hour and fifteen minutes into this awards show and I have to tell you, this shit sucks. If it wasn't for the fact that I have DVR, I'd of switched to Entourage 15 minutes ago.
10:22 - Presenting Best Hip Hop video is Slipknot? This is MTV trying to be ironic...It's not.
10:24 - The nominees are, Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos, Flo-Rida feat. T-Pain, Mary J. Blige, and Kanye West.
10:25 - Lil Wayne wins and he only has three Thank Yous. God, Family, and everyone else. He should've said thank you to Static Major.
10:26 - Jordin Sparks (more on her in a minute) and John Legend introduce the next performer, T.I.
10:27 - This performance just made this song uber-corny! This chick, who is she?
10:28 - Okay, here comes Rihanna, and her and T.I. are performing "Live Your Life" which is probably one of the more inspirational hip-hop songs this year. This is going to be a big hit in the 'burbs. I can tell. In the 'hood? Doubt it, that goes to "Whatever You Like". Rihanna looks funny up there doing nothing until her part comes in, but that's because she doesn't know T.I.'s lyrics yet, so she can't just join in. She's still looking mad Goth.
10:31 - That whole performance was, I don't know...there's something about this year's awards that is just off. Not one artist has ripped the show. The pressure is building for Kanye to do something incredible. I seriously had more fun watching the Republican National Convention, and I'm for Obama.
10:37 - Here comes the cast of High School Musical 3 presenting Christina Aguilera who's doing a surprise performance. At least, it was a surprise to me when I heard about it the other day.
10:38 - Why does she look like Rihanna without a mohawk? I'm falling asleep already...
10:39 - What MTV needs to do is go back to a regular award-show format. All this production ain't for shit, because the viewer comes away feeling confused and under served. Music award shows are about two things, the winners and the performances. They don't needa ll the extra bells and whistles, and they don't need crap like a fan favorite category. When I was growing up (and I always sound older than I really am when I start a rant like this), I would disagree with some winners, but I never wished I could vote. I left that up to whoever was voting. This is just over-produced and is forcing itself to be definitive. The best moments are going to happen naturally, you won't see them coming. But MTV wants to act like every single performance is an event, and it really isn't.
10:50 - LL Cool J just performed one of his classics, and it pisses me off as a television viewer that I only caught a snippet of that. Again MTV, quit trying to do so much in one show.
10:52 - Nominees for best pop video:: Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, Tokio Hotel, Danity kane, and Panic at the Disco...And the winner is Britney Spears...I swear, sleep is better than this awards show.
10:59 - This next performer is Kid Rock? Really, just hurry up so I can go to bed. I haven't really messed with Kid rock since "Bawitdaba", but I do respect his musicianship. He always seemed to have a good sense of history when it came to his music. I do respect him, but seriously, if I were to judge where the music industry is at by this year's VMAs, I'd say they need a Barack Obama to come in and make some sort of change.
11:02 - Lil Wayne joins Kid Rock for a hot sixteen, which is cool, and it's kind of in the spirit of VMas of yesteryear, where you'd have these moments that seemed totally spontaneous, but this moment is still missing the mark.
11:10 - Kobe Bryant comes out to "Grindin", that's song's pretty dope. He's presenting video of the year, here are the nominees: Britney Spears, Jonas Brothers, Chris Brown, Pussycat Dollas, The Ting Tings. You could tell Kobe doesn't listen to any of these acts with the exception of Chris Brown. And Britney Spears wins again...
11:13 - Here's the debut of Kanye West's new song "Love Lockdown" and got damn, is that man using the vocoder again?!
11:15 - What the hell is Kanye West doing? Does he not give a damn about being one of the best MCs in the game anymore? He's doing an Andre 3000, and he isn't even at that point in his career where he could be taking those sorts of liberties. This is a waste of time and energy for kanye to do. it's not like the song was bad, but honestly, this is a man who has lit up some guest appearances this year, and now he thinks he can just do a song without rappign? Nobody wants to hear you sing Kanye West? Get back in the booth and try again. MTV, go back to the drawing board and do liek I'm telling West to do, try again.
