He does the same thing on “New Slaves,” which, at the 2:50 second mark, trades its gnarled anger towards the fashion industry for Frank Ocean vocals and an obscure Hungarian rock sample, both of which sound transcendently beautiful. Sure, there are times where the discord of “On Sight” becomes jarring and uncomfortable to listen to, yet in a flash Kanye takes us somewhere magical with an inspired sample. Yeezus is about finding beauty amid the chaos. But to only label Yeezus as an act of self-mutilation would be lazy. As Kanye taunts: “How much do I not give a fuck? / Let me show you right now before you give it up!” it’s clear he’s taking great pride in violently ripping apart the script to a magnum opus, much like The Velvet Underground ( White Light / White Heat) and Radiohead ( Kid A) before him. While 2010’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was grandiose rap built around maximalist compositions, the very first thing we hear on 2013 follow-up Yeezus is a TB-303 synthesizer that’s so distorted it sounds like it’s letting out a death rattle. Pablo Picasso famously said: “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” With that said, arguably, no record follows this philosophy more enthusiastically than Kanye West’s Yeezus. Photo Credit: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images) As Yeezus celebrates its anniversary, Thomas Hobbs argues the case for this divisive album being Kanye West’s crowning achievement.
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