Egotistical writer reviews egotistical rapper : Kanye West 6/30/11

I had reservations. Admittedly, I haven't been as much of a fan of Kanye West's latter half of his career as the first half. It's not difficult to see that Kanye's success has given him the ego of Puff Daddy. Er, P-Diddy. Er wait, Diddy. No, I believe it's Diddy Dirty Money these days. At least Kanye sticks to one name.

Kanye's 808s and Heartbreaks left a sour taste in my mouth. I've never liked the auto-tune sound and the album was much more R&B than hip-hop/rap. I know, I've been told that his stab at an auto-tune album was to prove his versatility, that he's great at everything. That's an ethos I can get down with -- I love to prove, especially to ladies, that I'm good at everything too. But I draw the line at auto-tuned R&B. I digress, though. While I don't give Kanye's newest effort, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, as much acclaim as the five-stars that Pitchfork.com awarded it, there are many impressive tracks which re-piqued my interest in Kanye's musical direction.

I wasn't completely surprised that the Kanye West/Kid CuDi billing at Summerfest's Marcus Amphitheater on June 30 didn't sell out (I'd estimate attendance at 20,000; full capacity is 23,000) but the crowd truly did bring the heat. I've been to my fair share of concerts where fans sat on their hands, and contrarily, bounced off the walls. This show certainly gravitated toward the latter, proving itself a sing-along throw-down that primarily consisted of all of Kanye's greatest hits, new and old.

After coming on 15 minutes past when he should have, Kanye predictably opened the show with "Dark Fantasy," the opening track from his latest release. He performed this song, and most of the other tracks from Fantasy, flanked by dancers, or ballerinas, or some artistic combination of the two. Surprisingly, amidst f- and n-bombs, the artsy tutu-clad dancers worked. Don't ask...maybe it was a "had-to-be-there" thing. It flowed naturally into "POWER," with 20,000 strong chanting the backing vocals, which pretty much amped up everyone in the crowd and set the bar pretty high for the remainder of the show. "Jesus Walks" (admittedly lower on my totem pole of favorite Kanye songs) and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" followed, showcasing some of West's fancy footwork and lyrical prowess.

My show-mate, an admitted Kanye West fanboy, kept talking about how West is just there to give you the best show ever. And, usually when I hear this sort of thing, I dismiss it. I'm not sure if Kanye really does walk out on stage with the sole intention of giving "the fans" the best show they've ever seen; I guess only Kanye himself would know that. But, I must say, he is quite the showman and truly does put on an impressive performance, especially considering that most rap concerts are terrible stage shows. Kanye exhibited a huge Greek-goddess backdrop, featured the aforementioned artsy dancers throughout the newer tracks, and beyond that simply kept things interesting on stage through dancing and maintaining the crowd's attention. Not bad, West.

Beyond the impressive stage presence, it's tough to not get into a show that features, simply put, a lot of good songs. The middle of the show turned into a greatest hits hour, with Kanye hitting on "Touch the Sky," "Gold Digger," "Through the Wire," "All Falls Down," Flashing Lights," "Good Life," and "Homecoming," before closing his main set with "Stronger." He even brought out Kid CuDi for their mixed-tape bomb "Poke Her Face," which I played on the way to the show because there was "no way they're playing this tonight." Damn you for making me look like a foolish n00b, Kanye.




I really only found two, perhaps three, disappointing aspects to Kanye's show. The first, which is something that is quite typical at most rap shows: he performed only a verse of many of his older songs. On one hand, I'm happy to hear the song instead of it not being played at all, but to hear only a verse of "Through the Wire," "All Falls Down," and "Homecoming" is really more than a tease. Secondly, and this is just the jaded snob in me, I wish he would have hit on a few more older tunes, specifically "Breathe In Breathe Out" and "Get 'Em High" -- although, to be fair, I pretty much wish this at every concert I see.

The third reason for disappointment was a noodle-scratcher altogether. After Kanye's rendition of Stronger, the artsy ballerinas draped the entire stage in a huge white sheet while the backing DJ played "Chariots of Fire" for about 3 minutes. I suppose this served as an encore break, which I didn't think was a negative aspect to the show, but the song selection after the sheet-incident was questionable at best. Kanye re-emerged with new wardrobe and proceded to close the show with "Runaway," one of his dragged-out, over-produced songs off Fantasy, then an 808s & Heartbreaks tune (see above comments on 808s), and finally wrapped things up with a fake-emotional rendition of "Hey Mama," complete with (probably) fake tears after he collapsed to the stage floor. After a show full of raw energy and ass-shaking beats, to end on such a melancholy note with presumably fake crying seemed odd, if not altogether poor.

Aside from the final three songs, the show was not only a fun one, but was surprisingly good to these hyper-critical ears.

Young Hov' "the billionaire":
accept no substitutes

Post-review note: To the youngins out there, the same who probably don't know that "Stronger" is a Daft Punk song that Kanye West just raps over, the whole "diamond" sign that you make?  Yeah, that's a Jay-Z thing. I can maybe understand doing it during Kanye's song "Diamonds from Sierra Leone" -- maybe. But seriously, it's a Jay-Z thing, and as good as Kanye may have been, he is no Jay-Z, so stop giving it up for Kanye like he's Young Hov' himself.