Blood On The Leaves

I guess this is where I talk about Yeezus.


Kanye West is far from the first rapper to sample “Strange Fruit," one of the more haunting and significant songs in American music, but he is by far the most popular. Many of the critics I have read (and I have read dozens of reviews of this album) seem to believe that Kanye should treat the Civil Rights ballad with appropriate reverence, that he should use the sample to make a grand statement about race relations in America. Divorced from context, however, the phrase “black bodies swinging in the summer breeze," can have multiple meanings. Is it distasteful to warp the original meaning of the phrase into a euphemism for sex? Kanye may be oblivious to some things, but he definitely understands the power of “Strange Fruit." In this case, however, his social consciousness gives way to his search for the perfect beat. In “Blood on the Leaves," he might have found it.

Kanye might be the only person in the world who would have thought to combine “Strange Fruit" with TNGHT’s monstrous "R U Ready." The moment at 1:07 when Nina Simone’s piano gives way to TNGHT’s trademark maximalist brass (Chris Ott called them "Inception-horns," which is perfect) is visceral and thrilling. The most mind-blowing single moment in music since…well, I might have to go back to the first time I heard "Maggot Brain." The rest of the track manages to keep up the high, with Kanye’s impassioned autotune matching the beat’s intensity, building to an ecstatic climax as the beat tapers off and the vocals escalate. Even on a a great album full of amazing sounds, the unique cocktail of “Blood on the Leaves" stands out.

I only wish that Kanye would maybe go back and edit his fucking lyrics.

I never pay attention to lyrics for the first several times I listen to a piece of music (unless the music is sparse enough that the lyrics are what stand out). I absorb the rest of the track, pay attention to the drums, the bass, the melody most of all, and the vocals become just another instrument to me. So I spent my first several listens of Yeezus obsessing over the beats, ignoring the words give or take a croissant. I have played Yeezus ten to twenty times since last Friday, and the half-assed lyrics have begun to stand out like a moustache on the Mona Lisa. And I don’t mean classic Kanye’s awkward failed jokes and mispronunciations. Those just add charm, and Yeezus, for all of its strengths, is charmless. I mean lazy and unfinished ideas that he should have fleshed out during the editing process.

"Blood On the Leaves," as many critics have pointed out, could have furthered the grand political themes Kanye expounds upon on “Black Skinheads" and “New Slaves" (the most lyrically focused tracks on the album; also, probably not coincidentally, the songs he performed prior to the album’s 11th hour finish). Or not. It’s his prerogative and he can do whatever he wants with his beat. Kanye chose to talk about relationships; the challenges of being committed to one person while an ex sits across the room, and how that brings back memories of shared intimacies, and you worry that you haven’t shared the same feelings with the person you’re with. You can see the broad strokes; he’s working with complex adult themes here. However, the rushed recording process limits Ye’s ability to express his ideas properly. Instead, Kanye slaps together tired bars about alimony that lack the humor and insight of the last time he rapped about it. On MBDTF, Kanye leveled up lyrically, improving his flow and sharpening his wordplay, with help from his many collaborators and his lengthy recording and editing process. A little bit more time in the studio would have allowed Kanye to focus his thoughts and create a lyrics sheet that could approach the beat tape.

If Kanye spent more time in the studio with these tracks, we likely would have gotten a more polished record, and presumably some of the more questionable lines would have been whittled out. But Yeezus is a record that is more powerful for its frayed edges, and “Blood on the Leaves" is an excellent track despite its lyrical shortcomings. And the beats are fucking dope. I am thrilled with the record Kanye has released, and I will listen to it constantly this Summer, but I can’t help thinking that it could be that much better.