Five weeks, five records: Kanye's Wyoming Sessions
July 7, 2018 2:50 PM   Subscribe

Kanye publicized a daunting plan to release five records in five weeks back in late April, sparking much anticipation. All artists involved stuck to the release schedule and now it's been a bit over a week since the completion of the so-called "Wyoming Sessions," named for the recording and record release party location of the following records*: Pusha-T - Daytona (May 25); Kanye - ye (June 1); Kanye and Kid Cudi - Kids See Ghosts (June 8); Nas - Nasir (June 15); and Teyana Taylor - K.T.S.E. (June 22) [5x official audio YouTube playlists]. NME has a recap of the records and picks their top 10 tracks, cutting the almost two hours down to around 35 minutes.

* While these are probably more in "Extended Play" territory, with 7 tracks each (except for Taylor, whose release had 8), and under 30 minutes of total run time each, coverage often refers to these as albums. Side-stepping that debate, I'm calling them records.

If you want to spend more time musing and reviewing the records, here are a few more links:

Pusha-T - Daytona: Wikipedia; Genius (annotated lyrics); Who Sampled; Pitchfork review (8.3/10); HipHopDX review (4.3/5)

Kanye West - ye: Wikipedia; Genius; Who Sampled; Pitchfork review (7.1/10); HipHopDX review (4.0/5); bonus: cover generator, using Kanye's spur of the moment cover image and a web-based free-form text editor to add your own text

Kanye and Kid Cudi aka Kids See Ghosts - Kids See Ghosts: Wikipedia; Genius; Who Sampled; Pitchfork review (7.6/10); HipHopDX review (4.4/5)

Nas - Nasir: Wikipedia; Genius; Who Sampled; Pitchfork review (6.1/10); HipHopDX review (3.8/5)

Teyana Taylor - K.T.S.E. (Keep That Same Energy): Wikipedia; Genius; Who Sampled; Pitchfork review (7.8/10); Consequence of Sound (B-)
posted by filthy light thief (19 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Speaking personally I enjoyed Pusha T's album, parts of the Kids See Ghosts album, and one or two tracks from Ye. Overall, sort of underwhelming, but the Pusha T album felt like a perfect 7 song capsule collection.
posted by cell divide at 3:11 PM on July 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


I feel like Pitchfork's weird pro-Kanye bias, which results in glowing reviews of his meh and shitty records, is the other side of the same coin that results in their weird, anti-U2 bias.
posted by eustacescrubb at 3:13 PM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Speaking personally I enjoyed Pusha T's album

If you know you know.
posted by Fizz at 3:16 PM on July 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


I really don't know if Pitchfork's review of Ye was "glowing", tbh.

The Pusha T record is absurdly great. There are some production-gems on Nasir, which are hobbled by Nas's (really bad) raps. The rest of the records just haven't stuck with me, and I've listened to all of them multiple times. Kinda bummed, tbh.

Good year for drug raps between Pusha T, Freddie Gibbs and Westside Gunn, tbh.
posted by raihan_ at 3:31 PM on July 7, 2018


Somewhat related from The Atlantic: What Classical Music Can Learn From Kanye West.

I thought about posting this when I read it, but it's probably better as a comment here.
posted by fremen at 3:43 PM on July 7, 2018


I really don't know if Pitchfork's review of Ye was "glowing", tbh.

They rated it above a 7, which is Pitchfork for "we liked this", despite the saying it was a "low point." Compare that with any U2 records they've reviewed that wasn't a reissue - ye scored higher than all of them. ye is really a better album by 1/5 than All That You Can't Leave Behind?

I wish Big Ghost were still reviewing albums. Here's his review of the very meh The Life Of Pablo and compare that with Pitchfork's near-worship of the same album.

I was a big Kanye fan up to Yeezus, but pretty much everything Ye has done post- Watch The Throne has been mediocre at best. Some of his production on the Pusha album is ok, but this is the producer who produced some of Jay-Z and Common's hottest tracks.
posted by eustacescrubb at 3:56 PM on July 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


Well, Yknow, that’s just, like, your opinion, man.

I personally don’t think a single Kanye album has been overrated, which is an increasingly difficult opinion to hold in my head while at the same time (a) being unable to convince myself he doesn’t have terrible mental health issues (b) confronted with a problematic public image that is problematic in new and unusual ways for black hip hop artists. Like Yeezus is mediocre in the sense that it’s some really genius tracks with some profoundly lazy lyrics. And not lazy in the sense of “banal” or “uninspired” but lazy in the sense Kanye wrote them in an afternoon because he didn’t want to put real effort into them. But there are still so many genius beats and sublime moments. It’s like the early Fiery Furnaces, as flawed and failed as hey are I still want to listen to it all the time.

Likewise I don’t think a single U2 album since 2002 has been underappreciated. I get that U2 is awesome and great arena rockers and have friends that follow them on tour but... man... there’s so much new and more exciting music out there.
posted by midmarch snowman at 4:19 PM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


there’s so much new and more exciting music out there.

Absolutely. I'm not gonna argue against the idea that U2 did their most daring work in the early 90s - hell, even they admit that. But are you saying ye is "new and exciting"? Kanye's career up to 2011 still feels that way. But now?
posted by eustacescrubb at 4:55 PM on July 7, 2018


Well I came here to discuss relative merits of U2 and Kanye West but damn looks like I am way too late
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:36 PM on July 7, 2018 [12 favorites]


Ahhhh yeah I originally meant it as an offhand "isn't Pitchfork weird" observation, not a thread derail.
posted by eustacescrubb at 5:49 PM on July 7, 2018


Correct me if I'm wrong, but is he now a Trumpet?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:13 PM on July 7, 2018


If by "Trumpet" you mean rabid Trump supporter, it seems so (Daily Mail link). But good news (!?) -- CNN states that Kanye West's first album since going MAGA isn't MAGA at all, at least according to
"analysis*" by Hunter Schwarz, for CNN's COVER/LINE.

* Not sure why Hunter is credited with "analysis" instead of the usual "by," but that's their term, not mine.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:50 PM on July 7, 2018


Kanye's career up to 2011 still feels that way. But now?

Yeezus/2013 felt pretty exciting and new. He's been mediocre to bad since then, though.
posted by bootlegpop at 8:07 PM on July 7, 2018


Kanye? More like Kan-meh...

Autechre released an album this year that was four 2 hour live sessions, once each week, this past April. We had assumed it was going to be a one off (as they've done 10 and 12 hour live dj sets previously). But nope - they released it as their album.

(Oh and I see he "announced" this ... near the end of April? After AE did their thing? wow, totally doing the Picasso "great artists steal")

Try harder, slacker. Oh, and they're like older than you.
posted by symbioid at 8:54 PM on July 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


Kanye is a jerk, but I don't see how the Autechre thing relates exactly. If he wanted to rip them off, he'd just sample one of their whole songs and mumble over it like he did to Section 25.
posted by bootlegpop at 9:10 PM on July 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


i honestly don't know why i even go into music threads on this website.
posted by JimBennett at 10:00 PM on July 7, 2018 [12 favorites]


Do we benefit by having this much music released from one artist in such a short period? Like I'm still here waiting for a Tool album.
posted by Brocktoon at 10:41 PM on July 7, 2018


A Kanye/Tool collab would be great to alienate everyone.
posted by solarion at 12:15 AM on July 8, 2018 [3 favorites]


Kanye? More like Kan-meh...

Autechre released an album this year that was four 2 hour live sessions, once each week, this past April. We had assumed it was going to be a one off (as they've done 10 and 12 hour live dj sets previously). But nope - they released it as their album.


Musing on this: it takes a while to make a song based on samples, even if you're recording new samples yourself. Add in coordination with other musicians, and it's a slow process by its nature. By comparison, performing new music can be spontaneous or composed, even when collaborating with others. And if Autechre write out "scores" for their live music, they could have spent months or years pulling it all together.

Then again, Kanye probably has a treasure trove of samples and ideas for tracks. But it sounds like he's an endless tinkerer on these records, as he was/is on Life of Pablo, so it's slightly impressive that he could let these go out on their determined release dates.


i honestly don't know why i even go into music threads on this website.

There are many kinds of music threads, ranging from the love-hate for Smashmouth, to general love for a range of artists, from Nine Inch Nails to Weird Al, and a bunch of new-to-someone music posts between.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:19 PM on July 9, 2018


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