Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Before reading this, go back and listen to the three songs that made Kanye West famous as a solo entity – “All Falls Down,” “Through the Wire” and “Jesus Walks.” Amidst the ecstatic production, there’s a unifying theme to West’s character, and it’s something that he’s never given up, even up to this, his GOOD Music label’s first group release, Cruel Summer. Kanye West, philanthropist and philanderer, only ever really wanted to be a Holy Man.
Religion is difficult to quantify, but what West has forced upon modern hip-hop these past nearly ten years could be close. He’s officially surpassed his mentor, Jay-Z, in cache, transcendence and power. He has reached pop’s pinnacle, now only looking up at Michael Jackson, whom West may never want to eclipse anyway. And now he has his disciples, a rag-tag, disparate group of rappers, singers and production phenoms that have come together to create this, Ye’s Acts of the Apostles. If Fantasy was intended to be a bizarre art project about the limits of hip-hop, then Cruel Summer is a baffling religious studies thesis, asking the question “exactly how hedonist, morally corruptible and wild can we be and still get the masses to flock to us?”
For most of its running time, Cruel Summer is almost impossible to turn off. West fires the big guns first, leading off with the grandiose and wonderful “To The World” with a typically all over the vocal spectrum R. Kelly. Then it’s off to “Clique,” where West flat out murders Jay-Z, adding another track to the almost open and shut case file that Hova needs to retire for real this time. “Mercy” is the sort of track West shoves his kids (Big Sean and 2 Chainz here) onto because there’s almost no way to screw it up. By the time he’s finished his blitz through the record’s first half, West takes a backseat and watches his descendants fend for themselves.
This is when things go off the rails. Safe to say that some of West’s apostolate may not be quite as ready for primetime. Consistently the weakest parts of his tracks, Cyhi Da Prince can probably at this point be stamped a bust. Big Sean has the voice and malevolence of an up and coming superstar, but can take whole songs off (“Don’t Like”), and refers to spa days far too often. There are no mathematical ways of predicting what version of 2 Chainz will show up at any given moment, the acceptably baritone rapper or the apathetic druggie. Marsha Ambrosius makes a passable attempt at being Alicia Keys on the snare-heavy ballad “The One,” and John Legend and Common show up for just long enough to prove they really don’t belong.
The real star of the record, though, is Pusha T. Fresh off his bonkers rap on the otherwise pristine “Runaway,” Pusha delivers an inspired set of verses here that, while not necessarily coming close to his early Clipse work, seem to indicate he has a good future as Kanye’s sidekick. When he introduces the masterful “New God Flow” with the snarling line “I believe there’s a god above me / I’m just the god of everything else,” it entrenches Pusha as the prince of GOOD Music. But, as he inadvertently notes, there is a god above him. Not a an actual deity, per se, but a similarly spiritually inclined Chicago rapper.
While the B-listers muck up the proceedings, Kanye hovers over Cruel Summer, curating to perfection the facets of the end product he can control. The beats are consistent and engaging, the most powerful of which coming from arena-bound phenom Hudson Mohawke and “Clique” progenitor Hit-Boy. Kanye’s uber-controlled persona gives rise to a slight maturation in even the unlikeliest of places – Kid Cudi. “Creepers” is one of the better songs Cudi has done since “Day n’ Nite,” and it’s right in his wheelhouse. Lately Cudi has taken to overcooking his self-effacing pop-hop. Kanye just makes sure the mixture comes out right.
More than an album, Cruel Summer feels like Kanye flexing his considerable rap muscle and seeing what sort of product he can create under his own themes: hedonism, introspection and warped gospel. Many of his disciples haven’t totally bought into the formula yet, but Cruel Summer is an interesting enough trinket from the World of West, somewhat succinctly putting a point on why he is such a fascinating and often frustrating pop giant.
GOOD Music – Cruel Summer tracklist:
- “To the World” (feat. Kanye West & R. Kelly)
- “Clique” (feat. Kanye West, Jay-Z & Big Sean)
- “Mercy” (feat. Kanye West, Pusha T, Big Sean & 2 Chainz)
- “New God Flow” (feat. Kanye West, Pusha T & Ghostface Killah)
- “The Morning” (feat. Pusha T, Raekwon, Common, Kid Cudi, 2 Chainz, Cyhi The Prynce & D’Banj)
- “Cold” (feat. Kanye West & DJ Khaled)
- “Higher” (feat. Pusha T, The-DREAM, Cocaine 80s & Ma$e)
- “Sin City” (feat. John Legend, Cyhi The Prynce, Malik Yusef, Teyana Taylor & Travi$ Scott)
- “The One” (feat. Kanye West, Big Sean, 2 Chainz & Marsha Ambrosius)
- “Creepers” (feat. Kid Cudi)
- “Bliss” (feat. John Legend & Teyana Taylor)
- “Don’t Like” (feat. Kanye West, Pusha T, Chief Keef, Jadakiss & Big Sean)
