Reddit Reddit reviews Kanye West: God and Monster

We found 4 Reddit comments about Kanye West: God and Monster. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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Kanye West: God and Monster
Overlook Press
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4 Reddit comments about Kanye West: God and Monster:

u/HeTalksToComputers · 4 pointsr/Kanye

Kanye West: God and Monster by Mark Beaumont is a great book that goes into extensive detail on the recording of each album up to and including Yeezus.

u/Roton7 · 1 pointr/Kanye

You can read a preview here if you click on "Look Inside".. sounds interesting!

u/FrontpageWatch · 1 pointr/longtail

>Introduction
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>Since "The Life of Pablo" was released it has been criticised, even by Kanye fans as being random and disorganized. I disagree. If anything, TLOP may have the strongest and most coherent artistic vision of any of his albums (other than maybe Yeezus). The narrative portion is fairly straight forward: it's literally Kanye's life in two parts. The first half describes what has happened in his life up until the creation of the album. The second half describes what it is like to live as Kanye West in the present tense. Thematically, the idea of "Which/One?" is apparent from the cover art: are we the higher self or do we submit to our baser desires. We see how this dilemma haunts Kanye in many different ways throughout his life. Additionally, there are the meta aspects which intend to tie the album the greater artistic work: the videos, the tweets, the concerts, the media appearances, etc. This the album that has been most influenced by Kim in that regard with her ability to manage media and perception at all stages.
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>#Part 1 - The Biography of Pablo
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>Ultralight Beam - The beginning, born into faith. In "Raising Kanye", Donda writes about Kanye came from a religious home, steeped in the church. Kanye's first exposure to music is the Gospel and Soul music of his youth. This song is an homage to that origin. Chance plays the role of "old Kanye" with his verse, being a young spiritual rapper from the south side of chicago. Kirk Franklin's prayer at the end foreshadows the entire "which/one" spiritual conflict that we see through the rest of the album.
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>Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1 - Crash to reality of being a mortal man. FSMH continues on with that same gospel style as ULB. At the start of the song Kanye is still presenting his spiritual side. The brilliance of the "bleached asshole" line comes in that it is the first explicit line in the album. It reflects the shocking contrast he sees between the spiritual self he aspires to and actual reality. In "Kanye West: God & Monster" the author claims that Kanye "became like a sex addict" around the time that we was first discovering hip hop and this track reflects that Gospel to Hip Hop transition mirroring the Spiritual to the Material transition.
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>Pt. 2 - This track covers Kanye's rise to greatness, from his first deal to Graduation. Kanye first runs through his brief biography (his father, parents divorce, car accident, mom dying). Then he goes into "show" not "tell" by literally producing a smash hit in "Panda" showing that he became a great producer and hip hop legend. This is another "meta" aspect of the album. Kanye signed Desiigner and produced "Panda" making (edit: Panda was originally produced by Menace) promoted it to a top hit just before TLOP was being released, almost like a companion piece and the hype of TLOP only increased the popularity of "Panda" .
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>Famous - The legendary Taylor swift line is again I think one of the strongest on the album. Not only does it work as an extremely vivid reminder about his past, as a strong commentary on the nature of fame, but also works on the meta level, generating massive amounts of hype and controversy. Kim's touch is very heavy here: we can see she planned the snakes decapitation from the very beginning. The song and its reception tie directly into the music video reinforcing again the nature of fame and celebrity. He describes how fame changes his life. Feeling invincible (we never gonna die)
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>Feedback - Angry reactions from the fans, the media, and the public. This song comes as a counterpoint to "Famous". At this point in Kanye's life he is under constant scrutiny and this song reflects how he reacts to that kind of pressure. Lots of bragging while ignoring his critics (PETA, "no pussy getting bloggers"). Proudly out of control ("driving in the same car they killed Pac in". "I'm the ghetto Oprah").
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>Low lights - Come to god moment. Looks to god for salvation for the first time since ULB. I imagine this is the quiet space between the 2009 VMAs and the release of MBDTF where he seeks solitude and turns inward.
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>Highlights - Post 808s and MBDTF. This is the first time he mentions Kim and his "super star family". He feels he has achieved everything, that he has it all. No need to choose "which/one"?
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>Freestyle 4 - The illusion is broken. Pure ego takes over "This that rap god shit nigga". Very reminiscent of the first half of Yeezus. Despite his apparent family life, the temptations of the flesh keep dragging him down. This Kanye at his self destructive worst, completely out of control and not giving a fuck. The horrorcore and harsh production unsettle the listener reflecting Kanye's inner turmoil.
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>#Intermission
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>I Love Kanye - This is the centerpiece, and I think the midpoint narratively speaking. No music, just Kanye talking to himself. This delves into the deepest part of Kanye's soul. He questions everything he's done up to this point and rediscovers his true self. On another level this is him giving a nod to his fans. The old kanye / new Kanye dichotomy that winds through all his solo albums is addressed explicitly here (shout out /u/watchingthethronepod) It ends with a little chuckle so that we know not to take it too seriously and that happy Kanye is back.
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>#Part 2 - How Pablo Lives
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>Waves - Kanye at peace. At this point Kanye is talking about the present instead of the past. He "wakes up" from the intermission at peace with things that have come and things that are yet to be. I think "Sometime when people go away, people don't really go away" is him finally at peace with losing his mother
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>FML - Commitment to his family when he is surrounded by temptation. He sees that has a fresh start in life and is ready fight for what he believes in: Kim ("I been waiting for a minute / For my lady / So I can't jeopardize that for one of these hoes") Nori and Saint ("For my children / I will die for those I love") Kanye makes a clear decision on "Which/One"? To do that he needs to check the hoes that are jeopardizing his future.
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>Real Friends - Kanye explores what it is like to be real to his friends and his extended family in the face of the fame and power that he has. You can see the progression from tracks like "Family Business" and "Roses", but this more akin to "Welcome to Heartbreak". Kanye acknowledges how his fame as separated him from his extended family and now he is a "dead beat cousin".
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>Wolves/Frank's Track - Life a celebrity, surrounded by fans, the media, and people out to get something from you. The Wolves music video reinforces this with the imagery of the glitz, the glamour, the fashion, the feeling always being on the runway or under the camera flashes. First mention of Nori and Saint and how he needs to protect them from the destructive effects of celebrity status. Being "surrounded by the fucking wolves" is just Kanye's lifestyle now, constantly on guard from predators.
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>Silver Surfer Intermission - Greatest Track of all Time Time! Seriously, though, this is just a "show not tell" of Wolves, someone calling and asking you for something. It is also another "meta" reference, as TLOP was originally called Waves, so this bit is also about the making of the album itself.
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>30 Hours - Frame song about making a song. Wake up, eat breakfast, head to the studio. Starts making a song about some old girlfriend. Half way through he is just ad libbing, talking about laying down beats with Andre. "This is a shoutout track". When his phone rings and he picks up he is breaking the 4th wall, literally saying "I'm just doing an adlib track right now".
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>No More Parties in LA - The social scene as an LA celebrity. This has two parts. Just like with Chance in ULB, Kendrick plays Kanye's wild partying older self. Kendrick talks about the girl with the spray tan, partying till the early morning, the liquor, the debauchery. Then we hear about the flip side from grown up Ye: the therapist, worrying about nori and kim, his "rich nigger problems". The title takes on two meanings: "No more Parties in LA" could mean there are no parties left that can compare to his parties and it can mean that he can't party anymore in LA. It is both bragging and humbling: Damn! We can't party like that anymore.
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>Facts - Kanye's vision as the Merchant / Creator. In his interviews he constantly talks about wanting be the next steve jobs, henry ford, or walt disney. This song is about that vision. Bragging about Yeezys becoming the best selling shoe, shitting on Nike hyping Adidas. Another strong meta point: this song also works as an advertisement for the products he is talking about. Talking about the artistic collaborations he wants to make. Starting his own hotel. Running the 2020 election. He makes some topical references here to steve harvey and bill cosby so you know this track takes place in the present (Timbuk2 dies less than two months before the release of TLOP)
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>Fade - The "end" of the TLOP. This is the original fade out track signifying the end of the album as released.
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