Kanye West's <em>Monster</em>

I've been reserving my thoughts on Kanye's latest until the video came out, partly because my opinion tends to change when visuals are introduced and partly because I heard it was going to be insanely amazingly stupendously sick. And it was. So.





--I love that Bon Iver is getting more attention because of this song. They deserve it.

--I don't understand why Rick Ross sounds so muted. I like his rap but, uhm, yeah. Pissing me off.

--Kanye is kind of reminding me of how he was in the College Dropout. Rapid fire, smoother. Also, "Run This Town"

--Hehe, "pussy in a sarcophegus."

--Jay-Z is thouroughly unimpressive. I heard one critic call it his best verse in ages, but I disagree. The delivery is fine and all, but the lyrics are more of a rant. Which I'm find with, if the writer can turn a phrase right. But Jay-Z is too busy trying to make his decidedly unclever lyrics sound sharp to bother.

--Oh who cares, he wipes his ass with hundred dollar bills.

--Nicki! Nicki! Nicki!

--I love her. I've loved her since I heard her verse in "Bedrock". She's my fucking hero and she can do no wrong.

--Okay, she can. Fuck you "Bottoms Up."

--But yeah. She gets two bars, half of which is a fuck you to all the haters (probably Lil' Kim, just sayinn) the other a rather bombastic-in-a-good-way ego boosting thing rappers tend to do. She jumps from personality to personality in one breath that highlights her years spent in acting school. Also, she's frikken brilliant and if anyone disagrees they can come at me. Anytime, son.

--Video is gorgeous in that way artfully hung models tend to be. But then, maybe that's just the pretty girls.

--I want a screen shot of everything in it to put on my wall and look at forever.