Yeah... I mean, I actually kind of applaud the effort. You can tell he had a vision for how the whole thing was going to go down. He wanted to showcase his new material in a very personal way, with live arrangements and backing vocalists... Some moments are damn powerful, but something got lost in translation, and the end product is quite spotty indeed.

I love Late Orchestration, though! I didn't even know that record existed until about a year ago. I ordered a pricey import edition from Amazon. Imagine my shock when I realized that there was a Yeezy album I didn't own! Granted, it should have been/could have been longer, and the set list didnt have to be so Late Reg-happy. But I think it works.

The cover art is entirely too clever for I its own good. The Kanye bear I am Abbey Road pose, at Abbey Road studios... Too perfect.

Storytellers is awesome, but makes me cringe at moments. It's nuts. It's ultimately a 'failure,' but I feel like it is something that any Kanye fan needs to hear. It has its place for sure.

I mean - what about when he says the thing about OJ and the audience doesn't know what to do. It's so awkward. Then he tries to explain what he meant but makes even less sense. "well, didn't he do his thing when he did what he did?" um... what, Ye?

Late Orch - I agree. (A) cover art is awesome, (B) too much Late Reg stuff, (C) very good performances, (D) should have gotten a US release.

No I'm going to see Kanye tomorrow. Still not sure if he's gonna perform 808's like he did in all his recent concerts.

^ He's not an idiot. He just, like, REFUSES to learn from his mistakes. I can always understand what he's trying to say, what he's getting at, but he NEVER prepares speeches, he NEVER primes for interviews, or goes over possible questions beforehand and once he starts talking-- starts making a point-- he CAN'T just say "you know what? Forget it, I'll get back to this some other time" ... Nope. He just forges ahead, no matter how many times he slips up or says the wrong thing, he pushes forward...

He's obviously not a stupid man, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he had a learning disability, or a autism-spectrum disorder marked by a high preservation of cognitive and linguistic functioning. Perhaps the A-S disorder previously known as "Asperger's Syndrome", (now simply a specific low severity code diagnosis on the Autism spectrum).

This would make sense in a lot of ways. Asperger's has, of course, become a "hot" diagnosis for children with strong creative abilities but persisting behavioral problems (or, in the stereotypical case, areas of savant-like proficiency or hyper-focused attention), but that's become more of a folk-definition at this point. Instead, Asperger's seems to be defined mostly by an inability to operate within the normative range of social and interpersonal communication. There's also some emotion and intimacy-related symptoms, but... can't speak to that really.

I have a nephew who was diagnosed with Asperger's in the late '90s. He's about to graduate from college, and he is quite smart, but he writes term papers about Jay Leno and the Simpsons, avoids math, history and philosophy like the plague, and has the handwriting of a second grader. He has a solid vocabulary, but he tends to ever-so-slightly misuse words, as though he is unaware of underlying meaning, connotation and implication.

He also SUCKS at making jokes. When his dad forces him to send me Birthday cards, he tries very hard to write something clever, but almost always succeeds only in being almost shockingly insulting, which his father inevitably has to apologize for. It was cute for a while, then it started to become grating, now I just don't read his messages anymore.

Yet he went to school on a performing arts scholarship. Sounds more than a little like Mr. West, don't you think?

Guy couldn't survive is one celebrity with any kind of autism. He is just a dumb ass

You sure about that? They don't call it a spectrum disorder for nothing. One can be autistic without knowing it, just as one can be autistic without anyone else knowing it. There are most definitely autistic celebrities. And academics. And doctors, lawyers, scientists..

Temple Grandin ringing any bells?

Not everyone with an autism diagnosis spends their days rocking back and forth in a care facility.

I don't think of "mental states" as things to be overlooked, or forgiven. I was just saying there might be legitimate reasons for his behavior.

Not defending anyone... But I do think it's absurdly short-sighted to call someone with such an untarnished body of creative work "dumb." Kanye wouldn't be Kanye if he was just a dumb guy...

People think Kim Gordon is dumb too. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and I think she may have put a decisive end to rumors about her alleged stupidity and lack of talent with Girl in a Band and Body/Head (the most musically sophisticated major post-Sonic Youth project by fucking light years) ... But in the end, it doesn't really matter does it?

Got the new Underachievers.... that's all I'm going to say until I have some time to think.

...

The Concert Was A Dream Come True. I Was Front Row, Right In Front Of Kanye!!!!!!!

Ok so as soon as they opened the gates I ran to the front row line as if my life depended on it. I had to wait for hours until Kanye showed up and my battery was dying, meanwhile I started asking random people in the crowd about their fav Ye album and stuff to pass the time.. some of them were pretty knowledgable. It was crowded af, I had a headache and my legs were killing me.. but as soon as Kanye showed up I forgot about EVERYTHING, I was starstruck!!

He opened with Stronger which was amazing cuz when the song started you couldn't see him, then he came out of the dark. That shit got everyone TURNT. He did so many songs. I liked how he repeated the line "Shit is real, got me feelin Israelian/ Like Bar Refaeli" at the end of Clique. Also, when he did Good Life he changed the lyric to "It feel like Tel Aviv".

I noticed he added extra touches to a couple of songs, Flashing Lights and No Church in the Wild to be more specific. Mike Dean was shredding on the guitar on No Church chorus. All Falls Down was my fav moment.. when that sample kicked in out loud it just made me so happy. The crowd was amazing, everyone around me knew all the words (was a bit worried about this before the concert tbh). He even said we were the best crowd he's had all this year!

So yeah, it was definitely one of the best concert experiences I've ever had in my life, and if I got him right I think he'll even wanna come here again someday in the future.

Thanks for sharing man. To be completely honest, I kinda hate you a little bit right now. Envy and whatnot. But I'm happy for you too.

...

Wow. I was gonna say something about the new Jay Rock, Fetty Wap and Underachievers albums.... see if you were into any of it. But now... seems silly. I mean, that shit's probably the last thing you're thinking about.

I want to hear more- any new songs? You know he premiered his collab with Post Malone and Ty$ during the trailer for YEEZY Season 2. Did you hear that? What about other 2015 tracks?

Well, Meow the Jewels certainly is a waste of fucking time.

I'm pretty into cats, so I was hoping the album would be nothing but cat sounds. Like, no rapping... just meowing... All beats made up entirely of spliced together cat samples.

Sounds pretty fucking crazy, but at least it would be weird. This is just absolute fucking nonsense.

Im actually bummed that this project slowed down rtj3

Well yeah, so am I.

But why did it slow it down? All the tracks are remixes with a few "meows" tossed into the titles. I don't understand why it was necessary for El-P to audition a hundred cats in person (or in feline)

I'm genuinely upset that this doesn't have more cat stuff on it though, and that troubles me a tad.

I just mean any focus or time on this was not on it.

Bloody hell, it's not that big of a deal. Chill.

Lol sorry dude. You need to go see Kanye when you have a chance! That experience is a must. YES!!

Jay Rock - Good. Better than "These Days.." and "Oxymoron", but not as good as Clivia Demo.

Fetty Wap - Doesn't interest me if I'm being honest. *shrug* The tracklist makes it seem to be more a compilation of his singles and loosies, rather than a cohesive album with direction.

Underachievers - Haven't heard it yet. Indigoism was my shit when it came out, but I've lost interest in them a long time ago.

Yeah I know about that new collab (he premiered an unfinished version), he didn't do that. He did All Day, Only One and 4 5 Seconds. Not any material that was unheard of before.

New Lil Herb is good. More mature and introspective than Welcome to Fazoland (which is a drill classic).

Sorry I was kinda just ranting for effect there... I do love cats, though.

Sev, you heard the vsnares album songs about my cats right?