There’s a ton of Kim Kardashian & Kanye West stuff this weekend, so this is only part of it. I’ll do more (mostly about Kim) on Monday. I sort of forgot that Kanye was doing Glastonbury this year – I’m seriously shocked and surprised that the Brits invited him to another prestigious music festival after the debacle at last year’s Verizon festival in London. Remember that? Kanye stopped mid-song to rant for 20 minutes about the art of genius or something. Well, at Glastonbury on Saturday, Kanye was still doing Kanye. Except someone else tried to pull a Kanye by jumping on stage and pretending he was part of the act. That guy? Lee Nelson, aka Leezus, aka Simon Brodkin. Leezus stage-rushed Kanye in the middle of “Black Skinhead” (one of the better songs on Yeezus). Leezus was escorted off stage by security and Kanye demanded that they just start the song over. Here’s the video – you can skip ahead to about the 45-second mark.
Leezus later tweeted, “Some people were saying Kanye shouldn’t headline Glastonbury so I thought I’d give him a hand.” Sure. Is this a big deal? Eh. I have to give Kanye a slow clap for not throwing a hissy and refusing to finish the song. He just started the song over and did it again. Also: the BBC airs Glastonbury performances and they accidentally didn’t censor some of Kanye’s many n-words.
Meanwhile, did you know that David Crosby hates Kanye West? It’s true. Crosby has a history of throwing major shade at Yeezus, previously telling journalists that Kanye is “an idiot and a poser…has no talent at all.” On Friday, Crosby told HuffPo: “Kanye West can’t write, sing or play, so I have trouble with him as anything but a poser.” When the reporter said, “But he can produce,” Crosby replied, “Produce. That means he sits in a chair while the engineer does the work. He’s a poser. I’m not backing off it.” Um… I like Crosby and everything and more power to him for speaking his mind, but Kanye DOES write and play music and if he gets out of his own way, he is legitimately talented.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
For some reason I was expecting “Leezus” to be Lego Jesus.
Lol
A little Lego Kanye West dressed as Jesus? I’d buy that. With his plastic bubble-butt wife? They would sit under my monitor on my desk.
Leezus means toady, sacophant in Polish (it’s pronounced the same but spelled with “i”). My first thought was that Kanye should have an entire team of Leezuses following him around everywhere, smiling and nodding at his rants, telling him how wonderful he is and how flattering Kim’s outfits are.
hahaha
It looked like Yeezy took a moment to realise what was going on. Maybe I was just far too tired to know what was going on, but it looked like he was going to rap along with him for a bit!
Still. It was entertaining to see Kanye learn the hard way that Bohemian Rhapsody is too high for most karaoke singers.
Absolutely nothing about the president singing.
That got me choked up, no lie.
That clip got played on our TV news and I hadn’t really been listening so missed the intro. And even this cynical old boot here in Britland welled up, Kiddo.
I choked up, too. It was awesome of him to sing.
That was such a beautiful moment, sigh, and 4 black churches have been targeted by arsonists.
Seriously, loved that
Thanks for reminding me, just watching it on youtube for the first time and had to have a little cry.
It was written bij John Newton, originally a slave trader (18th century). Later in life he became a Christian minister and a activist against slavery.
It is said (but not proven) that the melody was inspired by the songs the slaves would sing during the horrible voyage from Africa.
Personally whenever I hear a song that effects me like this one does, I want to know the background of it. Hence this little history note.
Genuinely one of the worst Glastonbury performances I have ever seen. My favourite part was when he had to ask John (who?) to raise the lights so he could jump. That was the most exciting part of the show and I’m a Kanye fan – Runaway is a song that speaks to me the most!
I just watched some of it and it truly was dire. Skipped on to the next iPlayer offering.
Happily, I’m now onto Sleaford Mods – who seem to be somewhat confounding the branded wellies crowd.
Oh Glasto, how far you have fallen.
Yes. Pharrell Williams was brilliant just before Kanye. He really worked the audience and seemed genuinely moved to be there. Kanye then came on totally ignored the crowd, much of whom left. The start of his show was visually quite spectacular but it quickly became dull. I’d say the other headlining bands were all much better. I thought the Libertines and the Who were brilliant.
The photo of Leezus and security looks like they’re waltzing.
HAHA.
Ha! And…one two three, one two three…
The twitter response from people in the UK watching him at Glastonbury was great…
Otherwise, Kanye isn’t as gifted as he believes himself to be, but The College Dropout is an excellent album, as was My Dark Twisted Fantasy; I still listen to and enjoy both albums a lot so I don’t think it’s fair to describe him as talentless. He’s a massive d**khead but there are worse things people can be and he’s generally quite entertaining. He’s the best thing about Kim, put it that way.
It was a mixed reaction. Some loved it some hated it. I saw him live a few years ago and I was bored to sleep And I was a fan ( at the time)…
I meant great as in people were tweeting really funny stuff about him, not that they thought he performed well.. probably should have phrased it differently
I’ve liked and bought a few of his albums but found his performance last night boring.
“Otherwise, Kanye isn’t as gifted as he believes himself to be, but The College Dropout is an excellent album, as was My Dark Twisted Fantasy; I still listen to and enjoy both albums a lot so I don’t think it’s fair to describe him as talentless.”
+1 to everything you said. Kanye is *NOT* as talented as he believes himself to be, and the fact that him referring himself a genius has lead to others repeating it honestly makes me think that a lot of people are just engaging in “the emperor’s new clothes” behavior. Kanye has made some great music, but great as in fun to listen to. He is not a great lyricist. He is NOT writing substantial lyrics with a great, meaningful message. The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation are all albums with songs on them that were the soundtrack to a lot of good times in my life, but can anyone REALLY say Kanye’s music inspired some kind of epiphany or changed their lives? Let’s be serious. He makes “bangers” and on any track he has been on that features anyone else, his verse is always the weakest.
Let’s stop putting Kanye in line with masterful lyricists with actual messages like Tupac, Talib Kweli, Mos Def… the list goes on or even Eminem, who is ingenious in his wordplay. There are so many hip hop artists who have exhibited genuine talent in their wordplay, knowledge of language, and sheer intelligence. Kanye has never been one of them and he is painfully overhyped.
Hehe, agree with all of that although I always think Jay-Z is the weakest verse – especially on ‘Monster’.
Agree. He’s good but not as great as he thinks he is. He runs into problems when he compares himself to Steve Jobs and Walt Disney. Good rapper and producer he certainly is. College Dropout was great and I love Black Skinhead and Monster but is he a creative genius? No.
Amen! Someone finally put my thoughts into words.
And NAS. you forgot NAS @Bella
@Kiki – I mentioned Nas in another post when I responded to someone else 🙂 It pisses me off to no end that people are really lining Kanye up with the greats when this man makes music that is FUN but has zero substance.
I was in the crowd. He was incredible. No ranting no messing just awesome talent.
You did Glasto wrong if youre up and at it at 8:40am the day afterwards…
What an unnecessarily catty and snobbish comment to make when you have no idea why I was up and what I was doing.
If she was at Glasto, she’s in England (duh) so the time zone is different. It’s afternoon there.
Somewhere Beck is giggling to himself.
Oh, I do hope so!
What David said is absolutely right. He can’t play an instrument so how does he play music? Finally someone is coming out and speaking the truth about this guy. Standing O to Mr. Cosby for saying out loud what many of us have been pointing out for years.
I’m with you and Croz, Dawn. He’s a poser.
Im so with David and good on him for calling this dickhead out
Very much agree with this. He’s a product, just like everything around him.
Dawn you are right on.We must be old school.If this is talent I am glad I grew up in the sixties and seventies.The only person that is rock is Dave Grohl now.
What I don’t understand is why do they need all the props that they use while on stage? The pyrotechnics, the jumping, the over the top theatrics, etc? I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s also. My fondest memory of a concert was given by Santana at my small (at the time, not so much any more) college. It was in a small auditorium and at intermission, Santana came out on stage, sitting on a chair with just his guitar and sang all the popular “bubble gum” songs of the day. It was the best!!!
Dave Grohl is awesome, but he’s not the only rock star out there, if the “rockstar” in the traditional sense still exists.
The Emporer His Majesty Shiny Heiny Highness Yeezus has no clothes – !
As a hip hop fan I can only say that Kanye is a mediocre rapper. It annoys me that people who don’t listen to rap thinks Kanye is it, because he really isn’t a very good rapper. He gets a lot of attention but if you compare him to other big rappers he’s nothing special.His back catalogue is nowhere near as strong as jay z. kendrick is vastly superior technically, intellectually, lyrically . Drake is more commercially successful these days. Kanyes best work is as a producer. There’s no doubt some of the early stuff he produced was great. However his biggest talent may be attention whoring. The attention he gets compared to how many records he sells these days is highly disporportinate.
but there was no attention seeking last night. Headlining at glastonbury and no self indulgent nonsense just performing. Florence stripped off headlining on the Friday could call that attention seeking.
And there you go. Strip him off the attention whoring and the kardashians he’s really is a rather underwhelming performer let alone rapper (his singing was terrible). The problem is he thinks he can hold the stage alone for 1hr. Very few performers can and he certainly cant. Maybe his hardcore fans are satisfied but to anyone else watching it just looks self indulgent and frankly was pretty boring. I have seen him live in the past and my conclusion was that he’s not one of those rappers that can deliver live. As I said his biggest talent lies in producing in the studio but he gets sidetrack because his ego craves fame, status and attention.. He could have become a really great producer if he had continued on that path.
I agree Kanye is beyond a mediocre rapper. And most of the lyrics in Yeezus were atrocious, like an afterthought, and poor rapping skills on it. His attention to production, to the samples used, and everything else put into his songs are where he’s talented, bringing together the finished product.
This ^
I’m intrigued more by your name. What if? indeed.
Peg bat usus
@Hannah – You took the words right out of my mouth! Really refreshing to see someone who isn’t a Kanye apologist on this site. Even his harshest critics on here seem to still give him props for his “talent,” of which he has so very little! I’ve said over and over–every single track that features Kanye and any other artist, his verse is ALWAYS the weakest. Kanye is a great producer, that is as far as his “immense talent” goes. His wordplay is garbage, and it really annoys me that there are so many other talented hip hop artists out there who exhibit so much intelligence and even a strong message behind their music and they get ZERO recognition from society. The tracks that got Kanye recognized by mainstream society were 1) Stronger and 2) Gold digger, and yet neither of those tracks were even remotely original. One was him rapping over a Daft Punk song, and the other was him rapping over Jamie Fox singing like Ray Charles. Yet he is lauded like some original mastermind creative genius.
I care less about Kanye’s ego than I do about the clueless people who stroke it for him. Kanye is only a genius to people who don’t know hip hop. He makes fun music, there is no major talent behind it.
THANK YOU
When they say he’s an amazing producer he is, because he can take everyone else’s talent (including his own semi-average) and masterfully produce it in such a way that you’re presented the most beautiful side of it.
Kanye by himself with just his lyrics? Sometimes they’re embarrassingly bad.
toally agree I hate it so much when they remix classics and massacre them (which is 99 %) .. very annoying to this old gen x ..extremely not shanti when it comes to this goon !!!
Unfortunately I came home in time to catch him on stage – Ive never listened to him before so thought id giv him a chance -o dear – dire doesnt even come close. Although I concede I am of th generation that listened to bands who actually play instruments so hav never been able to understand th concept of rapping – ie shouting swear words while a beat plays in th background. Music festivals hav no integrity anymore – they r pop concerts full of teenyboppers n old hipsters kidding on they r young and cool. Meh – wont b watching again.
The rap i can enjoy is true poetry, amazingly articulate word play and a perfect dance rythm. What is sad about Kanye is that he’s intellegent enough to see problems within and industry that he wants to change and is even sharp enough to know that to affect change he’ll need to be infuential from the inside but, he’s stuck. His fans want the rapper he set himself up to be but I think even he knows that that isnt his strength and is definitely not his passion as much as his other pursuits.
Rhythmic beautyfull lyrics, very relaxed and mellow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlMuAE5iRm0
@Mytbean – I agree with you that Kanye knows he can’t provide the hype he has set up for himself, and I think this is why he is slowly but surely moving away from actually rapping. I saw video footage of him ATTEMPTING to sing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, which it seems most of the audience was appalled by. I read that people on Twitter were going nuts saying he did a terrible job and that it was an insult to Queen’s music. He has also begun referring to himself as a “rockstar” these days instead of a rapper, which he used to call himself. He made that horrible track with Paul McCartney. I wouldn’t be surprised if his next album has more of a rock influence. This will probably end up just like when Lil Wayne insisted on being seen holding a guitar but never actually did anything with it.
I didn’t get rap either until a week ago. A 20-something druggie got in the bus and started rapping to some 4 second sample in loop, he didn’t write the lyrics (just gang stuff) but his timing was really good, even old people gave him money.
That made me think rap belongs in everyday life, with normal people, not with super rich ego maniacs.
They gave him money for a 4 second loop?!
Where do you live and what route??? I know at least a dozen songs in their entirety and I can bust-a-move too! 😀
Go, Kym!
What no hissy rant by Kanye i just can’t believe it, lol lmao
Wait, what does Kanye play? I’m sorry but generating canned beats and melodies off of a computer is NOT the same thing as playing an actual instrument. That’s insulting to instrumentalists who have learned music inside and out and breathe life and soul and passion into the instrument they play. Also, Kanye’s music consists of using samples of beats and melodies that someone else has taken the time to conceptualize in their mind, compose and arrange. He’s great at putting together a song with bits and pieces of other people’s work. At one point, his music consisted of playing an old song sped up to sound like chipmunks (listen to Twista’s Overnight Celebrity) which he had Miri Ben Ari play her violín over. He doesn’t sing either. Does he compose? He writes bars and lines for his raps but he doesn’t write lyrics. That requires arranging a melody to go along with the music.
As a rapper, he is entertaining but he’s no where near being a G.O.A.T. There are about a dozen rappers I can mention that flow and freestyle better than he can. Kendrick, Eminem JayZ, Immortal Technique, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Drake, J. Cole, most of the older, Hip Hop Golden Age rappers and a slew of underground rappers that don’t get radio play because their stuff isn’t commercial enough to make it to the airwaves and because it’s seems Drake, Nicki, Jay and Kanye have oversaturated the market with their endless collaborations and it’s gotten tiring.
Wale is underrated, hasn’t hit his full potential (yet), but he’s talented. I really enjoy him. Love this song off of The Gifted, Wale’s single, LoveHate Thing, featuring Sam Dew.
And I love the official music video for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ojLucG2Z78
I loved Wales early stuff his mix tapes were great. Did you ever listen to mixtape about nothing?
That’s what modern “music” is these days, just “sampling” (more like doing copy paste) old riffs that proved to be popular.
I used to love Hardstyle music, these days it’s just normal songs speed up and with a few added beats.
I’m sure it has been this way for decades but we didn’t notice it. Now I even question if rock bands have ever made their own music.
But anyway, there are still good musicians out there, it’s just a matter of spending a lot of time finding them.
I am with Crosby on this one,Kanye has no talent.I have friend’s that busted their butt’s playing in club’s,lived on no money and had to work two to three job’s to get somewhere and this fool has something to show for nothing.I am old school.Kaiser can say what they want but he does not have any musical talent.Just rage.
I will say I’m one of those who doesn’t associate music strictly with an instrument and isn’t throwing a hissy fit over it.
Spoken verse and rhythm have its roots in African culture and the role of the story teller was a revered one. Music is more than instrument just as painting is more than the Golden Age.
Taking that spoken word and artfully arranging it to beats, adding in melodies, choosing the right tone and force of words…it’s like saying slam poetry isn’t poetry because it’s not written in a book with a predictable rhythm.
Open your minds folks, there’s more to this world than your perspective.
Eta: That being said Kanye is a better producer than rapper and he regularly gets spayed on his own colab songs by other rappers.
Also, call and response in musical form and/or democratic participation.
someone had a flag to Kanyes gig with a pic from Kims video.
I would love to have seen that.
you can google it, i dont think its SWF.
He needs to get over himself. I remember all too well when he made a fool of himself when Taylor Swift won an award. Self centered douche.
He can’t get over himself.That is his problem.I do remember the whole Taylor Swift thing too.She was real young and that was her moment not his.I heard he left not to soon after that.On that night he was drinking openly on the Red Carpet.It doesn’t excuse what he did though.He is just one messed up person.
I am with the people who said Kanye isn’t Particulary talented as a rapper. Good maybe even great producer. But rapper no.
For the people who diss rap music as just samples I don’t agree with this. Musicians have always been influenced by the past.. Rolling stones and Beatles stole from black music, blues when they first came on the scene.
The point here isn’t that he can’t play instruments. Hip hop as an art form was Never about your ability to play a solo On the guitar.The point is that within his art form he’s distinctly average. Yet somehow he convinced everyone His talent is immense. That he is the best / most importabt rapper in the game. People who don’t really get hip hop have bought into it.The media are guilty of hyping him beyond belief.
I am old school but id b willing to listen to rap if it was done well – i am open to listening to different styles of music – th problem I have iis that kanye makes himself out to be some sort of rap god who defines the genre and I thought he was awful.
I do not know what old school means, maybe traditonal?
But whatever, imagine my schock to see my music as world music? What is that supposed to mean?
Kanye West is a court jester.
Also big artists who played Glasto had their guestlist cut so Kanye West could have his entourage. He had so many people with him that big line acts in the UK were only allowed one guest each which is pretty shitty. Like a child has a tantrum someone needs tell him no.
I proud to say that I’m not as annoyed with Kanye and Kim K than I am with Beyonce n jayz. AT least I know they aren’t trying to fake their marriage. Plus Kanye is more entertaining to watch on stage than Jay.
“I like Crosby and everything and more power to him for speaking his mind, but Kanye DOES write and play music and if he gets out of his own way, he is legitimately talented.”
sorry but whether or not he is talented is subjective. it’s not wrong to think he has none.
Crosby is right that Kanye CANNOT sing. That is why he heavily uses autotune in songs that he mostly sings. I’m not some kind of rap connoisseur but I guess he raps okay and has rhythm and knows how to find a beat. But I often think his lyrics are weird and his music videos try to be these conceptual performance art pieces that I’m left puzzling over.
2 days later and I’m still cringing at his set. That Queen bit was like a drunk singing karaoke….. badly.
Possibly if he removed his head from his arse then he might sound better.