Finally a book that can adequately express the exquisite ambition and ego of the one and only Kanye Omari West, the man behind such stirring religious texts as “Jesus Walks” and “New God Flow.” Kanye reportedly considered naming his sixth album I Am God (it was actually named Yeezus) but then settled for merely calling one song on it “I Am a God.” In an interview with BBC News in September 2013 Kanye defended himself on his use of the title by in effect crying racism:
 

I just told you who I thought I was: A god. I just told you. That’’s who I think I am. Would it have been better if I had a song that said “I am a n*gger” or if I had a song that said “I am a gangster” or if I had a song that said “I am a pimp”? All those colours and patinas fit better on a person like me, right?

 
Well, maybe, Yeezus. The opposite of naming a song “I Am a God” isn’t naming a song “I Am a Pimp,” it’s opting not to name a song “I Am a God” in the first place! And the end result is that you do seem to spend an awful lot of time wondering if you are God. So there’s that.
 

 
Seemingly designed to mock at least as much as honor Kanye, you can now buy a bound edition of the Book of Genesis in which “God” or “Y——A” has been replaced “Kanye” and “Yeezus.” So for instance, the first sentence of The Book of Yeezus is, “In the beginning Kanye created the heavens and the earth.” The books costs $20 but includes “a 300-word social commentary on the religion and spectacle of media icons in the 21st-century.”

Kanye West, “Jesus Walks”:
 

 
via Consequence of Sound
 

 
I’m a loser baby so why don’t you kill me?
 
Despite being an awards show junkie I make an exception for the Grammy Awards and usually avoid it. But thanks to Kanye West bumrushing Beck on stage it was impossible to avoid that part of the show. It was everywhere. At first I found West’s actions amusing and then not. The amusing part was Kanye seemingly poking fun at himself for his Taylor Swiftboating routine at the VMA Awards in 2009. Unfortunately, the funny part was quickly erased from my brain by West’s backstage comments about Beck being undeserving of the award, not artistic enough or something like that, and that Beyoncé should have won. Unless you’ve been on a media fast the past week, you’ve been exposed to West’s tiresome bullshit which essentially boils down to him disrespecting Beck’s worth as a musician and songwriter. West backed-down a bit when he claimed that “voices in his head” made him do it:

So the voices in my head told me go and then I just walked up like halfway up the stage.

Beck’s win for album of the year was a surprise to most people (they called it an “upset”).  But really it’s one of the rare moments in Grammy history where the voters got it right. Morning Phase is a brilliant work on all levels: performance, production and songwriting. It’s an album every bit as good as another favorite of mine:  My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. Too bad West couldn’t recognize an artistic peer when he saw one. Beck did. He called West “a genius.” With one classy choice of words, Beck wiped the self-satisfied smirk from West’s ever-present and often intrusive face.

Last night Kanye West played an outdoor concert in the Flatiron district of New York City and was greeted by some Flatiron dwellers with an allegiance to Beck and a sense of humor. Ad agency PNYC and some anonymous neighbors had highly visible messages for Kanye. I’m hoping that West interrupted the voices in his head for a moment and looked skyward and realized that karma is a bitch.
 

 

 
Via The Gothamist.

 
Managing to sound simultaneously authentically retro and yet still very cutting edge at the same time is a neat trick and youthful Aussie psychsters Tame Impala balance it wonderfully, surfing the fine line between something obviously influenced by early Pink Floyd and Marc Bolan and something totally new and unexpected. (I saw Tame Impala in concert recently in Pomana, CA and they were impressive indeed, zigging where lesser bands would have zagged. It sounded very familiar and yet was never derivative.)

The same can be said of love him or hate him, you just can’t ignore him, Kanye West. He brings back a lot of the spirit of spontaneity and innovation not heard in hip-hop for some time, and yet still West is pushing sonic boundaries beyond what some of his fans are ready or willing to process.

Normally I’m not one for “mash-ups” unless they’re done really, really well but this clever remix that pits of Tame Impala’s “Elephant” hit against “Black Skinhead,” the first single from Yeezus hits the spot. It’s the work of Washington, D.C.-based producer Nate Belasco.
 

 
Via Consequence of Sound

Photo credit: AB SOTO.

I love this!

Via World of Wonder

 
Supervelma’s hand-stitched Kanye West tweets on Etsy are hilarious! Sadly, it appears Supervelma’s shop is sold out of Kanye tweets, but you can message her about special orders here.
 

 

 
(via Boing Boing)

 
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