As summer rolled in to bring some hot days, it also carried with it some hot new music as well. Among the usually large amount of summer album releases, there was an unusually large amount of rap album releases. From the likes of newcomers such as Mac Miller and J. Cole, to the heavyweights of the business in Kanye West and Jay Z, there was plenty of new scenery in the iTunes Hip-Hop/Rap section this summer.

Releasing his first solo album since My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in November 2010, Kanye West released his much anticipated album Yeezus. Along with the controversial name came some controversial music as well. Those who were familiar with his previous work would most likely say it was a new style of his music that you either loved or hated. Almost two months after it was released the album has sold more than 500,000 copies and can now declare itself Gold.

With J. Cole and Mac Miller all debuting their albums on the 18th of June, West had competition as far as sales go.

My first thought on the album was how different it was in comparison to his other work, of which I have a lot. What stood out the most to me was the heavier base lines and the slowed down and relaxed lyrics.
“It wasn’t his greatest album but was still worth listening to,” sophomore Aaron Gusler said, a longtime listener of Kanye West.

“My favorite song would have to be Black Skinhead because of the crazy baseline and good lyrics. On Sight is my least favorite because there was just too much going on through the bass in the background and the lyrics.” Gusler said.

As there were a couple good songs on the album one in particular, Blood On the Leaves, stood out above all others with its heavy base lies with calm breaks in between them in addition to the complex lyrics which contained an actual storyline. Hold My liquor, featuring Chief Keef and Bon Iver, was probably the least appealing of the 10 track album as nothing stood out and the featured artists didn’t do much to help its case either.
As of September 25, Yeezus is placed at number 83 on the Billboard 200 chart, which ranks albums based on popularity and sales.

“The album is way more electronic than any of his other work, which wasn’t exactly a good or bad thing, it’s just that some of the songs didn’t seem to glue together quite right individually. Overall the songs ran together well and the last track, [Bound 2], rounded it all out.” Gusler said.

Debuting at number one and selling more than 300,000 copies in its first week, it took a major drop in sales the following week, making it the fourth-largest second week sales decline for a No. 1 album in history.

“The artists featured on the album were a good addition, but at the same time they kind of messed up the flow of some songs.” Gusler says.
I would hope that on his next work West would lessen the amount of electronics and heavy baselines in his music and venture back to the days of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch the Throne. If the listener can tolerate a wide range of rap music then they should get along just fine with this album.
“I think it got a lot of mixed reviews, but in my opinion it’s one of those pieces that one person might like and the next might hate, you just have to listen to it yourself to make the final judgement.” Gusler said.