Kanye West's Waves
I've given myself the task of writing about one song a week for 2024 because, well, I think it'd be fun.
Kanye West's Waves
You know, we might reflect decades later that this is a transitional period for Kanye. I really hope it is. One of two or three. If you're a Kanye hater and think he'll never come back: how many times have people discounted Miles Davis? And Ye never beat women.
Since "Life of Pablo", his music has been...sluggish. Paunchy. Missing sharpness and speed. It really began after "Yeezus", which is so confident of itself, but "Life of Pablo", which is undecided as to what it wants to be, was still deft and cohesive enough to stave off some criticism. "ye"? Hoo boy, darker than "Pablo", sure, but not different enough sonically. "KIDS SEE GHOSTS" is just...bad, pondering, meandering. "JESUS IS KING" is too much a regression toward "College Dropout" territory, which I've always been indifferent to. And there's not much to say about "Donda" or "VULTURES 1".
But... "Ghost Town" is interesting. It's great, even. "Moon" on "Donda" is also a highlight. Let's just break it down. Kanye from the early 2000s to 2008's "808s & Heartbreak" was merely a freak mutation of rap at the time, braggadocious, quick-witted, overly clever, and characterized by deftness verging on complete dispassion, Rakim without the hunger. He would've been forgotten, a footnote (as Common is, honestly), if the aforementioned album did not appear. Kanye, from 2008 onward, crafted the idea of Rapper-as-Artist over Rapper-as-Novelist, someone less interested in meaning and more mood or concept. This is probably why "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" took off. Oh, I'll get my fair share of critique for saying this, but the rapping on "MBDTF" is fine. Kanye was always a fine rapper. He gets outshined by Raekwon and Pusha. What's more important is that he's the eye of the storm - he keeps all the instrumentals, all the guests together around his kinda-lurid-but-not-really story. He's a Big Ideas guy, knowing when to pull the right contributions from the right people at the right time. I think that's why I still love "Yeezus" the most: it's, by contradiction, his smallest album and also his biggest album, orgiastic in its violence and pathetic within it.
Kanye, I think, is in the third phase of his career, trying to figure out his Next Big Idea. The guy, in his weird way - and I do think I can say this, at least for now, given his oeuvre - is usually ahead of every generation of hip-hop. I'm not sure if I can imagine a world where SZA's "SOS" exists without "ye" preceding it. (To clarify, this doesn't mean he is a trendsetter.) We're approaching the point where only the beat is important to its DNA - Kim Gordon's "The Collective" is a delight to listen to - so Kanye is constantly trying to give the actual music more precedence than the rapping. His most interesting work in the last five years have come from departures from rap. His rapping is shitty almost as if he's trying to emphasize the lyrical qualities of music, because, well, who actually listens to Drake or Kendrick's music over what the lyrics say, treating them as influencers over artists? (Well, given "VULTURES 1", I'm beginning to think I'm too optimistic.)
To this, I say: Kanye, if you're reading this, just remember that Bob Dylan can't sing either. Keep trying, brother.
Well, ok, this sounds ridiculous, and it's not fair because I kinda hate where mainstream rap is right now. I can recognize the skill of a Megan Thee Stallion or Kendrick or Lil Uzi Vert but it's all horribly boring and designed to grab headlines than, well, express something. The bullet style of most rappers are meant to intimidate and excite the audience, but ... what does it actually express? The slow, steady style of Slick Rick, that influenced other New Yorker like the Wu and Prodigy, was designed to tell the stories of the streets. It emphasized the singer's coolness and intellect in the face of danger. (My favorite verse of late, Killah Priest's: "I judge wisely, as if nothing ever surprised me, / lounging between two pillars of ivory, I'm lively, / my dome piece is like the building stones of Greece, / our poems are deep, from ancient thrones I speak." I'm an old soul.) I don't quite get the belligerence of mainstream rap - particularly when the singer has million-dollar deals with shoe companies - except in its athletic bars attempting to mimic the feats of basketball heroes, which is kinda neat. (Man, I miss Young Thug. Not commending what he did, though.) All this being said, I'm pleased that the guy wearing "pinkass polos with a fucking backpack" is trying something new.
"Waves", from 2016's "Life of Pablo", is that new thing. It is so new Kanye himself has not caught up to it. It's so new that rap's then-new generation, via Chance the Rapper, had to argue to Kanye to include it on "Pablo". (Chance himself is struggling to catch up with "Coloring Book" which came from nowhere, preceded by nothing and succeeded by nothing, yet. 2016 was a hell of a year for hip-hop, huh?)
It's so interesting and exciting precisely because there's so little rapping in it. It's simply music; that Chris Brown features is a strong indication (not commending him, either). Bars, bars, bars... all well and good, but who raps like The R nowadays? I don't know if the bars even serve the music anymore - remember, bars are literally the measure of the music, they refer to the rapper's ability to keep up with the music's rhythm - they seem to only serve to call Drake a pedophile. Rap's origins begin with beat poetry and emceeing; as with any music, it's concerned with how they make the audience feel, means be damned.
As a result, it's amusing the song samples the Fantastic Freaks, beginning with that joyous "TURN IT UP!" There are few things in the world more addicting than that chopped and looped sample of the chorus's momentary jubilation, of what amounts probably to less than a second of audio. It's a reminder that Spinoza argued joy is our sole connection to God; whatever one believes, this infinite loop of real people's real joy somehow connotes to us, in spite of Kanye's hedonistic and frankly boorish lyrics, the feeling of ascending to heaven.
But... Kanye's lyrics are essential to the song's identity. Some would argue you could repeat that loop for 8 hours and it would still be a great song. Fine, but not to me. Yes, Kanye is singing about taking your girl and fighting other men, you know, what seem to be symptoms of male insecurity, but in the context of this song he seems woozy, dizzy with exhilaration. It's a conscious ignorance of sin and his flaws and, as it were, an immoderate drink from the fountain of life. If Kanye has any connection to a god, it would be Jupiter, that ever-reveling, ever-horny lord of the pantheon who has somewhat earned to be an asshole after all the shit he went through as a child. Ye instinctually seemed to understand this and phoned up the "second most hated nigga in America" to sing a transcendent chorus about the ephemerality of life. Once done, Kanye enters the supremely pretentious lyrics, "Sun don't shine in the shade, / bird can't fly in a cage," which, again, is supremely fitting for a song about accepting the reality of things i.e. one can't make things perfect and might as well write out some highschool poetry. "No lie", I think this is a wonderful message in its own way.
The song enters a bridge where Kanye and Kid Cudi duel in autotune. Much as I mentioned with Bladee, the corniness comes off as a sincere prayer for peace - sincerity from Kanye is rare and should be seen as divine. Too, where there could have been only one vocal, the interchange between the two is almost like a reconciliation of the dueling aspects of the soul. (That being said, I do not accept the sincerity of "KIDS SEE GHOSTS".) From thereon, there's that heaven-soaring "NO LIEEEEEEE" from Chris, who exits the song as the chorus grows only louder and louder over that melancholy synth, finally leaving the plain of mortality.
It's a truly great song. It's a highlight of the 2010s. I think it's more influential than perhaps is realized, signalling rap's transition from stunting to mood music, as had been presaged by Future and Ty Dolla $ign. But here, the evolution is complete: there is no compromise, it cannot be broken into its constituent parts, "Waves" is music itself. It is more holy than anything on "Jesus is King" because of its miraculous combination of rap, pop and house and whatever else genres you can ascribe to it.
Which is what rap needs: miscegenation. As Chuck D said, "What's wrong with some color in your family tree?" This obsession with "bars" - which to me has really devolved into obsession with punchlines over their execution - is rather unhealthy. Rock has ballooned into a million genres - prog, punk, post, kraut, metal - whereas most of the genres in rap are some variation of the content sung or the instrumentals used. "Waves" is an actual integration of different elements from different genres where the rapping is a prominent and crucial part of the song but shares its responsibilities with the other parts. This, along with several songs on "Coloring Book" ("How Great", "Finish Line"), is a substantial development. That no one has really followed up on. Besides the occasional team-up with pop stars, rap has collapsed into itself, returning, again, to a false obsession with its own purity, somewhat heralded by Nicki's rap-only "Queen" (2018), ensuring the genres remain firmly separated. (As a note, I really like "Super Bass" and "Your Love".) I do indeed gleam how insensitive this metaphor is, but it's disturbingly apt. I think that's why emo rap, as popularized by XXXTENTACION and Lil Peep, is so popular now; it's a genuinely unique mutation of rap where the approach to the lyrics and music combine for a certain effect. I'm waiting for emo rap to evolve or mutate further; I'm not the biggest fan of it at the moment, but it's hard to listen to it without thinking of the places it can go.
Anyway. "Waves". Best track on "Pablo". Kanye, its creator. Because I've been giving great advice lately, Kanye: go full Andre 3K. C'mon, you know what I mean. No, you don't have to go full flute music, go Dilla. Allow Dilla's minimalist arty-farty spirit flow through you. You have been kinda spinning tires with this whole fucking-hoes and being-an-asshole shtick. After that... I don't have any advice on content or lyrics. You got it from here, man.