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I am gonna let you finish but...

The release of The Life of Pablo has to be one of the most divisive albums of the year, where we question does the music separate the ego that is known as Kanye West, who goes also by the name of "Yeezus". If that is not a God complex, then maybe the track "I Am a God" might lead more insight into this strange, bigger-than-life-itself complex. The purpose of this article is to go through the anthology of an artist who introduced me to hip hop. The three things this article will be focusing on are the humility, the ego, and the music of the artist known as Kanye West.

Star Rating >>

1. "I am a God, no one is better than me Yeezus" complex
2. "I am gonna let you finish but, Beyoncé had the best album of all time" complex
3. "I am going to speak my mind and be politically correct" complex
4. "I want to apologize after the fact but I was (blank)" complex
5. "Hey Mama, I wrote this song for you" complex

The College Dropout (2004)

This was the first studio album for Kanye West, and it is a classic hip hop album that showcases his melodic soulful sides as an artist. Prior to this, West worked with Jay-Z on The Blue Print. The album starts off by tackling theme of his roots, materialism, personal struggles, and race. One of the faults that I take with the album, like most hip hop albums, is the misogyny on tracks like "Workout Plan", though the album is not laced with these tracks. The album concludes with the entire rise-to-fame where "Last Call" tells the story of his success. "Jesus Walks" is one of the leading tracks, where we get a strong sense that his faith in Jesus and how Catholicism is important in his life, rather than comparing himself to the religious figure. "Slow Jamz" highlights the strong R&B side as an artist, and there are also some strong interpersonal albums that are some of my favourites. "Through the Wire" tells the tale about Kanye's fatal car accident that almost took his life, and "Family Business" pays impotence to the his family roots. The College Dropout was critically praised as a debut album, and also lead to West winning the Grammy for Best Rap Album.

Rating >>
Humility: 4/5
Ego: 3/5
Music: 4/5

Late Registration (2005)

This is the album that kickstarted my love for hip hop and rap, and I would call it a definitive album for the genre. First off, this album uses many samples from influential soul and R&B staples. Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up" is heard on "Touch the Sky", Ray Charles' "I've Got a Woman" on "Gold Digger", and Gil Scott-Heron's "Home is Where the Hatred is" makes it to the track "My Way Home". West also uses the album as a platform to address current issues in the African American community with tracks like "Crack Music", "Roses", and "Diamonds from Sierra Leone". He also gets very personal and deep with his track "Hey Mama", an ode to his mother Donda West. This album not only succeeds at showcasing the influences that other genres had on hip hop. It showcases how an album can touch on social issues that are interpersonal and introspective for West. This is probably not West at the height of his career. Late Registration is his most grounded in old school rap, where the beats provided the art form to both tell introspective and interpersonal stories. One thing is for sure, I will never regret the day this album opened my ears to the genre as an art form.

Rating >>
Humility: 4/5
Ego: 5/5
Music: 4/5

Graduation (2007)

Graduation focuses on the electronic, synthesizer, and looping audio. From the "Woo hoooo ooo oooo" heard in the opener "Good Morning", coming from Elton John's song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight", to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" sampled in "Stronger", there is no denying that West wanted to focus on the new era of sound. Then there are the crowd party anthems of "Champion", "Good Life", and "Can't Tell Me Nothing", but nothing can compare to the beautiful melodic bouncing synthesizers in "Flashing Lights". The interpersonal song of someone from his youth in "Homecoming", and his ode to Jay-Z in "Big Brother". This album is a solid crowd pleaser for party people and the fans of some pretty dope electronic synthesizer beats. This would also be the year that Kanye West and 50 Cent held an old school rap battle by dropping their album on the same day. You can say right now who you think won the battle, and as they say the rest is history.

Rating >>
Humility: 3.5/5
Ego: 3/5
Music: 4/5

808s & Heartbreak (2008)

Every artist has their accessible album, and 8080s & Heartbreak was Kanye's. It offers a departure from the rap and hop hop genres and embraces his previous album, Graduation, as an influence. 808s & Heartbreak focuses more on electronic pop with most of the voices distorted by Auto-Tune. Some people might shake their heads and wonder if this was the end of the polo beat rapping Kanye West, I embraced the album. Not only is it accessible, but it is one of his albums where the heightened base does not kill the vibes. From the drum stopping songs of "Love Lockdown" and "Amazing", to the more electronic synth pop of "RoboCop", this album can be seen as an accessible club-based music album for West.

Rating >>
Humility: 4/5
Ego: 3/5 
Music: 3/5

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

Every artist goes through a crisis, but it's how they come back stronger that truly exemplifies them. From the death of his mother and the infamous VMA incident, Kanye West decided to isolate himself from the public eye in Hawaii. The album was released in a deluxe edition, and also included a video musical called "Runaway". There is no doubt that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy can be considered one of West's most interpersonal concept albums. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, Sir Elton John, Stacy 'Fergie' Ferguson, John Legend, Rick Ross, and Nicki Minaj are some of the collaborators that can be herd on the album. West gets reflective about his ego in the drum-based "Power", and the piano plucking auto-tuned track "Runaway". There are also the power rap anthems of "All of the Lights" and "Monster". This album proved to be one of the most critically-acclaimed albums for many people, and as for me, this is my favourite of his most experimental albums.

Rating >>
Humility: 3/5
Ego: 2/5
Music: 4/5

Yeezus (2013)

You don't need to call it a reinvention of the artist formally known as Kanye West, even though the album embraces more of the new-age sounds of Auto-Tune. This is a dark, grungy album mixed with horns, electronic guitars, and reggae-tones underlines this new industrial sound. West provides a social commentary about race and consumerism with tracks like "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves". The album is less substantial with egotistical tracks like "I Am a God" and the misogynistic tracks like "Blood on the Leaves" and "I'm in It". The album is less than a hip hop concept album, and rather an interpersonal album about his relationship with Kim Kardashian, as the album concludes with "Bound 2". As much as West tries to experiment with new sounds, most of the tracks lack creativity when it comes to the lyrics.

Rating >>
Humility: 1/5 
Ego: 1/5 
Music: 2/5

The Life of Pablo (2016)

Everyone was speculating when the album would be released. After the event in Madison Square Garden, Yeezy Season 2, and an appearance on Saturday Night Live where Kanye shouted, "www.kanyewest.com!", I thought the day had finally come. I was greeted to a taped message from Mos Def with more of a social-commentary message, and found out the only way I could listen to the album was through the Tidal streaming service. Not becoming a sucker for the streaming services, I held out hope as Kanye went on Twitter rants about being broke and other socially-awkward tweets. Finally, he tweeted out that his album would be released via his website. It has to be the most time I've spent thinking about an album all year, and it is the album that I have listened to the most. As for music, it blends together the music styles of Yezzus and gets your ears treated to an overload of bass. I had enough at one point, and had to switch to bass-reducer mode to appreciate the album, even though that is not the way he intended the album to be. The tracks are more self-loathing about his new life and status with tracks like "Famous". The only old Kanye that we get is his self-loathing reflections in "I Love Kanye". Even though The Life of Pablo is an album that I keep on going back to in my repeat section this year, there is no depth lyrically and that takes me away from this album compared to others.

Rating >>
Humility: 1/5 
Ego: 1/5 
Music: 2.5/5

It's kind of hard to respect an artist that has made you fall in love with a genre of music when he is socially awkward. His most recent publicity stunt involves his music video for "Famous", where he is asking people to sue him, not taking into account that he is dealing with personal debt. All I can say is that I miss the old Kanye.

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CJLO CHARTMANIA! >> TOP 5 ALBUMS 7/4/16 >> 1. Braids - Companion EP (Flemish Eye) - 2. Gypsy Chief Goliath - Citizens of Nowhere (Pitch Black) 3. Nails - You Will Never Be One Of Us (Nuclear Blast) - 4. Odonis Odonis - Post Plague (Telephone Explosion) 5. Mogwai - Atomic (Rock Action) >> Go to our official Charts page to see the full list of albums that charted this week!

PROGRAMMING NOTE >> DJ Brian 'Döc' Holidæ is set to retire his long-running hip hop music show, Phantastiq Cypha, to begin a brand new talk show called Geektastiq Cypha this week! Catch the first edition Wednesday, July 6th at 9PM, only on CJLO - 1690AM.

As part of our "On Rotation" artist residency program, set up with the generosity of the Community Radio Fund of Canada, we invite you to an amazing night as Strange Froots, our hip-hop group in residence, launches their EP on Thursday, July 14th at Groove Nation (410 Rachel E.). Doors open at 20:00. The event is PWYC with a $10 suggested donation, and all proceeds benefit Nobad Sound Studio.

We've teamed up with the folks at the KickDrum Summer Marathon in July for seven wonderful days of 100% Montreal-based music. Tune in to Champions of the Local Scene at 6PM on Wednesday, July 13th for our live broadcast and pre-show festivities at Blanc de Blanc (248 Villeneuve W.).

You'll definitely want to stick around to catch Jesse Speed, Constance, and Pallice. Doors open at 18:30, the show starts at 19:00, and tickets are only $7 + $1 (Plus One) = $8. That $1 from every ticket will go to support USC Canada - Seeds of Survival and their work to build resilience through ecological agriculture! Check out the Facebook event page for the latest news announcements.

CJLO - 1690 AM is looking for a new General Manager who will guide, organize, and motivate our dedicated and independent volunteers and staff. The chosen candidate will help take CJLO to the next level in its development and continued growth as one of North America's most well-respected campus and community radio stations. The deadline to apply is Thursday, July 7th at 11:59:59 PM. All the details are available on our Job Postings page.

PROGRAMMING NOTE >> Check out CJLO's brand new addition to our schedule, In Between Rounds! Our first ever show about the fighting ring. Your host DJ MILLZ will breakdown fights, talk with special guests, and bring you the weekly news on the fight universe Mondays at 2PM. Tune in!

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Tune into In Between Rounds on Monday, the 4th of July at 2pm for some amazing interviews with The Beast and Big Daddy by Emilio Greco!

Blake “The Beast” McKernan is an upcoming fighter from Sacramento California, fighting in the cruiserweight division in boxing. With an undefeated record he recently just signed to one of the greatest boxing promotions in Golden Boy Promotions. His debut fight is July 7 at Cache Creek Casino in California! He will be talking with Emilio Greco on the first half of In Between Rounds!

Gary Goodridge also known as “Big Daddy” in the fighting world is a former top contender in MMA and kickboxing, former Arm Wrestling Champion and former Super Heavyweight Amateur Boxing Champion of Canada. Fought in the early days of UFC, Pride Championships, and K-1 Big Daddy fought the who’s who in combat sports. He will be joining the second half of In Between Rounds with Emilio Greco.

In Between Rounds is CJLO's first talk show about fighting! Every week, Emilio breakdowns fights with speical guests. Tune in for weekly fight updates - Mondays at 2pm!