Does Not Live Up To the Hype

My wife is a hairdresser and it is amazing how loyal her customers are to her.

We both have heard the hype about the Kanye West CD and she mentioned that to one of her regulars. Lo and behold, he brought her his extra copy. So we got to listen to it yesterday afternoon since she actually had a Saturday off.

Now, I admit that hip hop or rap is not my first choice in music. Hell, it isn't even my last choice. I have liked some songs because of certain qualities, namely a melody. But rapping just to rap is not my forte.

So we started listening to it and immediately I was put off. It has this unintelligible person saying something like, "Kanye, give us sometin fo the people." The first song was good, with a good beat and melody.

Then something started to happen. My wife and I have heard how this was supposed to be intelligent music, about how he was an intelligent guy. The music degenerated. I really and truly felt like it was the same song repeated over and over. I could not distinguish between one song and another.

And the worst part is that I was getting disgusted by the language. I am no prude, but I only believe in swearing when there is a point to it. The movie Malcolm X has the character that teaches Malcolm in prison. He says, "A man curses because he doesn't have the words to say what's on his mind." I believe that. When every sentence starts having a "MFer" and it keeps repeating the "N" word, I get turned off because of its harshness and its lack of expressiveness.

I turned it off halfway through. That may not be fair but I gave him at least a half hour of my time. I wanted to listen to it all the way through but my ten year old daughter Morgan came home from playing outside. I was not going to subject her to that.

Kanye, you do not live up to the hype. In fact, you have reverted to a stereotype that I thought you were supposed to transcend.