Kanye West Ruined Rap Music with Yeezus

You are welcome

Jun 9, 2020

I hate to say it, but it’s true.

When Kanye dropped Yeezus it was a guillotine for the culture. In hindsight almost everyone can agree that all of the essential music from the last decade, the sort of resurgence of rap after the ring tone era, the peak of the internet mixtape. All of this happened from 2009 - 2013.
Somehow the internet was going ballistic over all these true rappers rappers, street guys like Meek Mill, intellectuals like Wale and stone cold hustlers like Rick Ross. The industry had entered a new groove and found a way to thrive. It was the closest the culture had ever been to the mid 90s in terms of just influencers, movers, and shakers out here doing it.

It was the time when Kendrick and Drake would cement their legacies as two of the greatest to do it. It was a time when everyone could appreciate good kid, m.A.A.d. City.

The era of rap that occurred then, the post Lil Wayne era which finally heralded a new entry way for new leaders.

Then Kanye West does something so left field, so against what the culture was about. He goes around parading his face on the walls of the most expensive buildings in major cities. Calls everyone in the culture New Slaves, and removes the essence of truly great lyrical rap from all his music. He introduces industrial noise, grows the influence of Chief Keef and ushers in a new era of “artists”. People like Young Thug, the abomination that Future became, Travis $cott.

These dudes aren’t rapping, they’re yelping like dogs, mewling like kittens, and drenching their voices in auto tune and after effects like the make up that paints the faces of the women they idolize in their videos and lyrics. Kanye West comes in with Yeezus and throws away everything the culture had been building up to with that point. Suddenly all these left field artists start taking over and Kendrick makes an album that is without a doubt one of the most important cultural masterpieces of the century for black rights in To Pimp a Butterfly. An album on which Kendrick himself states that the people will eventually riot in the streets because of the racial injustice going on still. An album that should be viewed as a cornerstone that captures the emotion of the ongoing world today. And yet it gets ignored because Birdman found some new young boys to spend unnatural amounts of time with. Because Kanye decides to tear down everything he worked towards and herald in a new age of artists that make A$AP Rocky look more Jay Z than Cam’Ron.

The culture was lost. Lil Uzi tried to rap, but he can’t match the level of wordplay that emerged from that time.

When Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y was still worth listening to. When Freddie Gibbs was still rocking the streets instead of the record store. When someone thought Action Bronson would be more successful as a musician than in the food industry. When people remembered who Danny Brown was and talked about him outside of the internet.

Lord save us all and condemn Yeezus to an untimely demise.