Kanye West

Disliking Kanye Doesn't Make Me a Racist

It's OK to be a white person who is frustrated by Kanye West. That might seem obvious, but the aftermath of West's epic Twitter rant against Jimmy Kimmel necessitates it be reiterated. The feud is nothing more than the clash of two pop personalitiies, but it became something much bigger than that. O ... More >>

Magna Carta Holy Marketing

[Editor's note: LA Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on our sister paper's music blog every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] When we look back on 2013, we'll consider it the year of the event album. What's less clear is whether we'll remember the music or simply ... More >>

The Craziest Musical Gambles That Paid Off

Every year it's a guarantee someone will grouse about record labels and musicians never taking risks anymore, and never producing anything exciting or unique. While that's probably true to a certain extent, it's not been true in much of 2013. For instance, first there was Kanye West's Yeezus and the ... More >>

Kanye Producer Mike Dean Talks Yeezus

Producer/engineer extraordinaire Mike Dean has worked with Tupac and Rap-A_Lot's best. But he's perhaps best known for having worked on every Kanye West album (save 808 & Heartbreaks--the only Kanye album not to win a Grammy). Currently in New York to work on "a few projects," we talked to Dean abou ... More >>

Why Kanye and Kim Named Their Baby North

Well, it happened. We knew it would be crazy and annoying and that we'd talk and tweet and giggle about it anyway. Kim and Kanye named their baby North. North West. For those of you who arrived here by simply googling " WHYYYYYYYYYYY?," here are our most reasoned and intelligent guesses.

Kanye West Thinks He's a God; He May Not be Wrong

Rap Game Steve Jobs

Yeezus: Innovative or Simply Another Example of the Mainstream Aping the Underground?

As you might have noticed, Kanye West's feverishly anticipated Yeezus arrives today. If you're reading this, chances are you were aware that Yeezus leaked last Friday, and maybe you've already been listening to it obsessively all weekend. Maybe you found a way to work "Hurry up with my damn croissan ... More >>

Dead Prez React to Kanye's New York Times Comments About Them

Thank God for the remix. Without it Dead Prez and Kanye West may never have established a working relationship and thus shared a certain kinship. Although his contribution to the seminal Dead Prez debut Let's Get Free was just a remix to their most popular song, the bass heavy "Hip Hop," (a beat so ... More >>

The Six Stages of Waiting Six Hours to See Kanye West Live

With headliners at music festivals you have to be of supreme dedication to get to the front row. Being dedicated means waiting by the barrier all day just to stay close and be in the middle of it all. With Kanye West, who played Sunday night's headlining spot at Governors Ball, his unpredictabilit ... More >>

Rejected YEEZUS Cover Art

Kanye West surprised and disappointed many fans (and non-fans) last week after releasing the very stark CD cover art for his controversially-named newest album, YEEZUS. After a string of album covers featuring broken hearts, flying cartoon bears, and film-noir doorway stances, we celebrate Kanye's n ... More >>

Kanye West Gets Dark and Political on SNL

In true finale fashion, Saturday Night Live didn't mess around with the season's closing episode--and the musical guest successfully (and rightfully) upstaged not only the host and the cast and every single performer that hit the stage before him in recent memory, but the departure of STEFON, and th ... More >>

My Casting Ideas For Pippin The Movie

MOMI Makes a Spectacle of YouTube and MTV's Best

The afterlife of the video star

TNGHT

Sorry, But Kanye Is the GOAT

Kanye West is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time. He's made the best albums and changed the game the most, and his music is the most likely to endure. One thing before we get going: This isn't one of those arguments meant to piss people off or "start a conversation." We really mean it. And, c ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Rob Sheffield, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

The Kanye You Once Loved Is Dead and Gone

Well, thanks for getting Kim Kardashian knocked up, Kanye? Ever since the rapper announced from the stage that the world's most famous (and least talented) Armenian is now carrying his seed, everyone's on Kimye baby alert. To tell the truth, I'm starting to think that all the attention being paid t ... More >>

'The Concert for Sandy Relief'

Review: Kanye's Sex Tape G.O.O.D. Music, Cruel Summer

By David Thorpe [Note: I thought I had a pretty hot scoop when I snagged a copy of Kanye West's notorious sex tape, which remains unseen by most of the public. Unfortunately, my editor didn't think a review of an ill-gotten celebrity porn clip was appropriate for a reputable family blog like Sound ... More >>

Bi-Polar Bear Roams Park Slope

There's a dilapidated storefront on Park Slope's Fifth Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets where Brooklyn-based hip-hop duo Bi-Polar Bear (Gabe Karter and Andy Kaufman) decided to film a man dressed up in an over-sized bear head there as part of their "Been Hiding" video. With Bi-Polar Bear's new alb ... More >>

New On The Hot 100 This Week: Taylor Swift's "Ronan," PSY's "Gangnam Style," And More

This week's Hot 100 debuts include big names and the viral video of the year—and, surprisingly, a nearly year-old track by Beyoncé. "Dance For You" was released on the deluxe version of 4 a little less than year ago and has been on the Hot R&B Songs chart since April; for a good but nowhere n ... More >>

The Fall Of Curtis: How September 11, 2007 Changed Everything For 50 Cent

Let me indulge in a little bit of Jay-Z/Kanye fan fiction in the least 50 Shades of Grey way possible: Def Jam President and retired rapper Jay-Z was fed up. 50 Cent had been sending subliminal barbs Jay's way for eight years, starting with a shot Mr. Carter's way on "How To Rob" when they were b ... More >>

Oddsmaker: Do Beyoncé And André 3000 Have Enough Swagu To Beat Kanye And His Dozens Of Friends At The Grammys?

​The Grammys created the awkwardly named Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category ten years ago, around the time Ja Rule's various "thug love" duets were dominating the airwaves. The award recognized a growing sector of popular music that didn't quite fit into the preexisting rap, R&B or pop song ... More >>

Help Me, Drs. Jay And Ye: Six Images I Saw In The Rorschach Test That Is The "Paris" Video

The video for Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Paris" has finally come out, and it's probably not surprising that the setting is one of the giddy live performances of the track that closed the Watch The Throne Tour last year. This is no straight-up "check us out live" video interspersed with shots of the two ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Who Will Win This Year's Best New Artist Trophy At The Grammys?

In this week's Voice I wrote about Skrillex, the emo-dude-gone-dubstep-auteur who's spawned a bunch of funny-Photoshop blogs and garnered five Grammy nominations. One of the categories he's nominated in is one of the Big Four—Best New Artist, which seems to have shaken off its "one-way ticket ... More >>

Jay-Z and Kanye West Guard the Throne

And try to bring back the group listen

Pazz & Jop 2011: Nick Minichino On Funkmaster Flex's ALL-CAPS Premiere Of Jay-Z And Kanye West's "Otis"

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. This is from Nick Minichino, who voted specifically for Funkmaster Flex's premiere of Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Otis" this summer. ​That was the driving force of i ... More >>

2011: The Year In Kanye

Remember the time?​Does Kanye West exist because the world gives him so much attention? Or does the world exist because he gives it something to pay attention to? Heavy stuff, man. Whatever the answer is, the rapper-cum-producer has both dominated critics' best-ofs and been a celebrity-news st ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, The Finale: Jay-Z And Kanye West Fiddle While The Underground Gets Wasted

Smell that money burning. ​This concludes Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, a conversation about pop music in 2011 between Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph. Read it all again. Thanks for the handoff, Nick, and thanks to Katherine, Tom and esp ... More >>

Q&A: Amy Sheridan, The Woman Who Commits Kanye West's Greatest Tweets To Thread

​Now available on Etsy for your gift-giving needs: hand-stitched cloth versions of Kanye West's tweets. The commemorations of West's epic 140-character missives ("Sometimes I get the usage of puns and double en- tundras mixed up. I know sometimes one thing can be both. Rap God issues!!! LOL!!! ... More >>

Will Bon Iver Be The Arcade Fire Of 2012? And Other Pre-Grammy Nomination Show Questions

Tonight's Grammy nomination concert, airing at 10 p.m. on CBS, will not only jam-pack a bunch of performances by the likes of Lady Gaga and Jason Aldean into its 60 minutes, it'll also let us know which artists will be prostrating themselves in front of the globe and thanking their families and God ... More >>

A List Of Things That One Should Get If One Pays $1500 To See Jay-Z And Kanye West

"I thought you said you'd take me to McDonald's" ​Saturday night, after reading a flurry of tweets from Jay-Z and Kanye West's show at the Izod Center, I bought tickets to nosebleed seats for last night's Watch The Throne show at the Garden. It was worth it, though—especially since yeste ... More >>

Live: Jay-Z and Kanye Bring The Throne To The Decidedly Un-Regal Izod Center

Jay-Z/Kanye West Izod Center Saturday, November 5 Better than: New Jersey's usual offerings. "I hear the show is a big fucking deal! I hear you disappearing and things, running around the fucking venue, coming in from behind the people, singing those hit tunes... Dudes is wiggling their foot from ... More >>

fun.

THE KING’S TWO BODIES

Jay-Z and Kanye conquer Jersey

Jay-Z And Kanye West Will Be At Madison Square Garden Next Month

​Jay-Z and Kanye West will follow up their Izod Center performances as The Throne with two shows at Madison Square Garden, November 7 and 8. Tickets go on sale to those people who have an in with Citibank on Wednesday at 10 a.m., and the rest of the world can get tickets on Friday at 10 a.m. ( ... More >>

Here Is Video Of Kanye West Standing With The People (But Not Talking) At Occupy Wall Street Yesterday

​The news that Kanye West stopped by Occupy Wall Street yesterday had the Internet atwitter for a chunk of the afternoon. Now, there's video documentation of Kanye standing around Zuccotti Park and letting Russell Simmons do the talking for him (he "didn't want to do any media at all"), explai ... More >>

Kanye West Shows Up At Occupy Wall Street Long Enough For The Internet To Freak Out About It

Liveblogging the news that Kanye West was going to bring all his power to Occupy Wall Street, first broken to the world in a tweet from Russell Simmons, after the fact: 3:45 p.m.: Runnin' Scared's Rosie Gray informs me that Kanye is at OWS. 3:46 p.m.: Let the retweeting commence. 3:47 p.m.: Let ... More >>

Jay-Z And Kanye West Spared No Expense To Watch Watch The Throne

​That Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne didn't leak until about half an hour before its iTunes release is a noteworthy story in this age of Rapidshare and Megaupload being as stuffed with digital versions of new releases as iTunes and Amazon. And it turns out that the business decisions ... More >>

The "Otis" Video Debuts Tomorrow Night; Get Ready For Lots Of Smoke And Broing Down

The press release announcing tomorrow night's debut of the "Otis" video (on MTV, MTV2, mtvU, BET and Centric, at 8:56 p.m. ET) has a bit of a boxing-ring flair to it; Watch The Throne, the Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration that the track comes from, gets dubbed "the Undisputed Number One Album in ... More >>

Ten Trends That Watch The Throne Could Kickstart

​It's way too early to have a critical judgment on Watch The Throne; didn't you read the rules? But since Kanye West and Jay-Z's colossal collaboration plopped into the raging waters of Internet opinion early Monday morning, I've been watching for ripples. Here are ten new things that Watch Th ... More >>

The Watch The Throne Trailer: Twenty Seconds Of Footage That Will Tell You Pretty Much Nothing At All

​ After lots of speculation, and singles, and events you weren't invited to, Jay-Z and Kanye West's collaborative album Watch The Throne comes out Monday, with a tour following later this year. For some reason, someone (maybe Live Nation? maybe Roc Nation? maybe a superfan with too much time o ... More >>

Those Jay-Z/Kanye West Concerts At The Izod Center Have Been Pushed Back To November

​Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne Tour has been shuffled around a bit, and the two concerts at the Izod Center originally scheduled for the end of September are now taking place at the Meadowlands' arena on November 5 and 6. The presale starts at 10 a.m. on August 2 (yes, that's today!) ... More >>

Live: People Gather To Watch Jay-Z And Kanye's Throne, See The Stars

​ The Throne (Watch The Throne listening session) Hayden Planetarium Monday, August 1 Better than: any listening session I've ever been to. Album listening parties have almost always existed as excuses to drink on the record company's dwindling dime, the music itself largely ignored; backgro ... More >>

Jay-Z And Kanye West Reign From On High With "Otis"

​Jay-Z and Kanye West are not like us mere mortals. These are celestial bodies, ones who can sample seminal Otis Redding tracks ("Try a Little Tenderness") and not worry for a second about clearance. Hell, Hova isn't even worried about cops anymore, bragging "I got five passports, I'm never go ... More >>

The Video Music Awards' Nominations Play To The Internet (Again)

​Last night MTV announced the nominees for this year's installment of their annual pseudo-event extravaganza, the 2011 Video Music Awards, and once again, the nominees for Video Of The Year have three pop picks ("Rolling In The Deep," "Firework," "Grenade"), one sop to the olds in the crowd wh ... More >>

Big Sean Heads Into the Spotlight

With an assist from Kanye, the rapper is Finally Famous

If You Leaked Kanye West's "Mama's Boy," You'd Better Watch Your Back

​The leak earlier this week of Kanye West's "Mama's Boy" (known first to the Internet as "Mama's Boyfriend") has, as you might expect, greatly displeased the moody MC and those people with interests in the business of his music. Last night Kanye's label Island Def Jam released a statement sayi ... More >>

Nas And Kanye West Leak Tracks, Lead The Pack (Again)

"Queensbridge, y'all ready to see Nasty Nas?" Thus begins Nas' "Nasty," a return to form that justifies the answer to that question always being "Yes, duh!" With rugged, street-level bars about the finer things in life and being better than other rappers that recall his legendary post-Jay-Z battle ... More >>