January 10, 2011

• If you haven't heard "All of the Lights" by Kanye yet, I highly suggest listening to it. Someone in the comments said (I know, I shouldn't use YouTube as my barometer for judging society at large) that, while the music was great, the song wasn't saying anything of importance.

  Well, I haven't reviewed any music in a long while (and, yes, the Archaic Word of the Day will come...soon), so, I may as well respond.

  First off, Kanye easily (okay, probably not easily) accomplishes what I'd want to do with rap if I was any ways along the lines of competency when it comes to producing and sampling.

  Essentially, you have the traditional form of beat production which is generally lo-fi samples that stress simplicity. Sure, you also have G-funk but it's generally readily evident that some form of repetition (given that it is a sample being repeated) is at work in the beat.

  I would love to really go beyond that. Don't just sample, say, horns or piano but actually have it do something as well. Have it shift and sound live and elaborate while still encompassed by the cadence.

  All of the lights is one example where Kanye does this. Rich horns, intermingled with piano. Yet it doesn't just stop there. At one point, the cadence drops out as you just get this fan-fair of horns. At another point, the piano gets its spotlight while a hook is sung over them. "All of the Lights" isn't the utmost best example of this type of dynamic sampling but it's a sufficient one. And it sounds gorgeous.

  And the very next thing I love about this track is once again in the production. Loud and defiant, the beat alone (not including the fact it's backed by a great refrain sung by Rhianna) sounds joyous really. Add in the deliciously scattered drums that back most of the song and it really just sounds completely energetic.

  And, given the refrain, nothing seems to contradict this: "Turn up the lights in here baby/Extra bright, I want y'all to see this/Turn up the lights in here, baby/You know what I need, want you to see everything, want you to see all of the lights," Rhianna starts off, sounding perfectly fine like a normal pop song. It's uproarious and sounds utterly (simplistically) hedonistic. Rhianna goes on to also mention, "Fast cars, shooting stars, all of the lights, all of the lights," sounding off traditional bravado that we've heard from rap time and time again. But, in the next line of the refrain, she rattles off, "Until they see exactly where we are." Not really menacingly or forebodingly but almost matter-of-factly. What else would you expect with the spotlight/limelight? You want to be watched because you wanted the attention to begin with. In the next lines, delivered in the same vein as the last, she tells us, "If you want, you can get it for the rest of your life," amid harmonizing vocals that continue to build up the soaring refrain. Rather than offer anything new with the last line, she just repeats the fact.

  Enter a Kanye that delivers his next two couplets with such perfect building franticness to highlight the utter genius of them that I'm willing to forgive the use of the n-word and appreciate the way the childlike naïveté in his last line (almost refusing to believe it possible that people - or particular people - can die) highlights the point even better: "Something wrong/I hold my head/MJ gone/Our nigga dead!"

  Ignoring the many times that Kanye has referenced/used Michael in his work in the past, it perfectly captures 1. the iconic stature of MJ as a figure and, in some cases, a symbol and what that might mean to people but 2. it also gets at how close to home that death really is. For Kanye, he would've grown up with Michael.  Death of an artist who deteriorated just like Kanye often seems to, death of his childhood, death of memories of the very first notions of black artists becoming major (lasting) pop icons during the time of MJ's rise to popularity, to list a few things I've read and thought of off the top of my head. Who's to say whether Kanye meant any of them but it's easy to understand the feeling of the very world you understood falling apart under such gigantic changes.

  Understandably, that's what continues to follow. A man (narrated through Kanye) goes to jail for hitting his wife. When he comes back, he goes home to find his wife with another man. The verse ends with Kanye declaring, "I had to take him to that Ghetto University!"

  And throughout all of this, Kanye sounds utterly paranoid. Which is perfect. Before Rhianna gets to sing the refrain again, Kanye blurts out in venting fashion, "Cop lights, flash lights, spotlights, strobe lights, street lights," before Rhianna joins his for a sung, "All of the lights," after which Kanye gets in again with, "Fast life, drug life, thug life, rock life, every night!"

  Which, of course, only makes sense. If you're in the spotlight, everything you do is going to be shown and fully present: the good and the ugly. And it's under those lights that Kanye is so frantic, so desperately paranoid. Because, the lights ensure one other thing - you can't hide. The world is falling apart, (probably even more terrifyingly because) it's your fault, and all of this is on sight for everyone. It's no wonder that Kanye delivers his lines with a near delirium.

  The second verse is about as short as the first, opening with, "Restraining order/Can't see my daughter:/Her mother, brother, grandmother hate me in that order," and detailing the narrator's desire to see his daughter, even going as far to stupidly say, "Told her, she take me back -/I'll be more supportive." The verse ends with the lines, echoing the end of the first verse, "She need her daddy/Baby, please/Can't let her grow up in that Ghetto University!"

  The first time I heard the phrase, I thought it was stupid. Most poor phrasing from Kanye to vaguely describe thoughts that aren't fully fleshed out. But then I thought about the contrast he's making between the first verse and the second.

  In the first, he delivers the lines with an almost brag, despite the obvious hastiness in his voice. There's not really a sense that he feels like he did anything wrong, at least. Sure, he hit his wife. But she's with another man; clearly he should teach them a lesson and beat the crap out of the guy. School him in the ghetto: violence. You cross/fuck with me, I beat your ass.

  However, by the second verse, each line seems to be increasing the fear in his voice. By the time he hits, "Baby, please," it sounds like a terrible beg that's fighting to hold back tears. The Ghetto University line, however, sounds like downright fear. And it isn't the same as the first verse; no one is getting beaten up here. But both times something is getting schooled in the ghetto.

  And, really, what is a university? It's not just a school. It's higher education, that which is supposed to prepare you for life, give you the life lessons that you keep for life and will ensure your survival in the world. Yet this is not what he wants for his daughter. What would be the result? We might imagine it'd be the exact same as the father. When he shouts for her not to grow up in the Ghetto University, he's literally pleading for his ex-wife to not continue the cycle. Beautifully, Kanye is illistrating the way in which systems like the ghetto just wind up creating a cycle that falls back on itself (father's not there, kid grows up messed up, winds up in jail, repeats the same thing for his kids).

  Does this forgive the father? No; just as much as it doesn't forgive Kanye's outburst on the stage with Taylor Swift (or many of the other uniquely Kanye things Yeezy's good at). But it does make him more sympathetic.

  Honestly, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is an incredibly impressive album. I'm not sure if it's a perfect album yet (Kanye has an incredible knack for getting guest apprearances that completely don't realize what he was intending to do with the song. Nicki Minaj doesn't ruin "All of the Lights", though she doesn't add much either; though, in her defense, Kanye gave a lot of his guests strangely small space (Fergie's verse is, literally, like 4 lines), plus Nicki Minaj delivers one of the best verses of last year on "Monster"). Regardless, though, there are utter gems like this one on the album, plus - even if the verses aren't perfect - all of the production is absolutely perfect on every song. No lie. I'm not exagerating, 100%. If anything, it'll be wonderful ear candy for you.

  I highly suggest getting it.

  • 7:40 am
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