Kanye West has certainly become one to collaborate. Single All
of the Lights from his 2010 album ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’
features no less than fourteen additional vocalists (most of which can barely be heard). And of course there’s last
year’s lauded collaborative album ‘Watch The Throne’ with Jay-Z.
And now he releases the first mixtape from his G.O.O.D
record label, set up back in 2004 (standing for Getting Out Our Dreams). ‘Cruel Summer’ features the
majority of artists signed to the label, including the likes of John Legend, Big
Sean and Kid Cudi, as well as guest additions from Jay-Z and R. Kelly. West is at the centre of it all, on both
rapping and production duties. It’s good
to see he’s as ego-centric as ever, but creating this album has surely been a
test of whether he can keep not only his own ego in check, but those of his
collaborators. For the most part, ‘Cruel
Summer’ is a little bit special.
Lyrically, this contains the usual vitriol and expletives spouted
by rappers. The most talked about is
West’s mention of girlfriend Kim Kardashian in Clique with the line “eat breakfast at Gucci, my girl a superstar
all from a home movie". And
there’s room for political leaning too, with mentions of Mitt Romney (he “don’t
pay no tax” – To The World) and Sarah
Palin (“white girls politicking, that’s that Sarah Palin” – Mercy). It’s race that is
the most prominent theme across the album, which is understandable from an
album of black artists. West himself is
perhaps the most outright on Clique –
“you know white people get money don’t spend it…blame it on the pigment” and
later “I’m way too black to burn from sunrays”- a line that seems to sum up
West’s ego and sense of cool. It’s not
just the guys though: on Higher The-Dream
states “my shit, not make niggas get guns but the white girls say ‘where you
get that cool beat from?’”, noting a divide in the status of ‘black’ music between
black and white musical cultures.
As you’d expect from West’s output though, ‘Cruel Summer’ is full
of “cool beats”. In line with the
lyrics, the production is dark, explosive and aggressive. The beat of Clique is one of the hardest you’ll hear all year, only emphasised
by the repeats of “ain’t nobody fuckin’ with my clique”. Other tracks offer something altogether more
atmospheric – To The World features a
vocal from R.Kelly accompanied by a syncopated beat and swirling synths. Penultimate track Bliss, featuring vocals from Teyana Taylor and John Legend, is positively
vibrant with its stabs of neon amongst the darkness of the rest of the
album. The production follows on from ‘My
Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ and ‘Watch The Throne’ – for some this will
disappoint, but for others it’s hardly a bad template.
That said, this is an inconsistent album, as you’d perhaps
expect from so many artists fighting for attention. Some tracks are less imaginative in their
construction and some rappers have better cadences than others. Crucially, the best tracks are those with the
least artists and, thus, the greater focus.
Even so, ‘Cruel Summer’ doesn’t quite hang together as a complete album,
with tracks ending suddenly and bleeding from one to the next.
The end result is an album that can’t quite stand up to West’s
solo efforts, with some of his protégés in further need of his expertise. But when it’s G.O.O.D, it’s downright
awesome.
4/5
Gizzle’s choice:
* To the world
* Clique
* Bliss
