A Few Thoughts on Kanye’s “Love Lockdown”
Perusing the usual blog suspects, the consensus on “Love Lockdown” seems to be that it’s an awesomely bizarre failure of Edsel proportion. Douglas penned an entire post attacking rappers for their unhealthy reliance on auto-tune, (a trend I’m usually ready to condemn.) The rest largely seemed stuck on some, “b..b..but where’s the rapping?”
Honestly though, Kanye was never that good at rapping in the first place. What made him stand-out was his awesome sense of musicality and dedication to craft. Listening to “Love Lockdown,” his furthest foray into R&B yet, reminds me of an old John Lennon quote that I’m horifically paraphrasing:
“I’m a musician. That’s what I do. I don’t know how to play a tuba but if you gave one to me, I’d figure out how to make it work.”
That’s not to compare Kanye to John Lennon (other than their bloated egos). However, Kanye can’t really sing, sounds pretty stupid on auto-tune (I didn’t even know it was possible to be off-beat on the stupid thing), and still, somehow made this interesting. I hear a lot of Rockwell and Cameo in “Love Lockdown,” partially for the way in which its funk is leadened by a moody paranoia, partially because I think Kanye is halfway to wearing codpieces.
Do I think this is Kanye’s best single ever? No. But it’s good and more importantly, it’s wildly original and takes a massive risk. In a genre filled by hackneyed imitators, Kanye’s continually trying to innovate and clearly doesn’t give a flying fuck what any of us think. And even if there’s no rapping involved, that’s pretty hip-hop.
Download:
MP3: Kanye West-”Love Lockdown”
Stumble It!
September 11th, 2008 at 12:11 am
You know, I said exactly this over on Tom’s blog. Although I liked the song a lot better live, his singing’s oddly mannered and restrained on the studio version. The hook in particular sounds like he’s just singing a reference for someone else. But yeah, if Kanye quit rapping completely and only sang for the rest of his career, the world wouldn’t be losing out on much.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:46 am
couple things:
+ yeah, kanye was never really a great rapper, but he’s one of the wittier and more engaging ones. which is why “love lockdown” kind of disappointed me at first. it’s growing on me, though, and this was a pretty great rebuttal.
+ lennon’s ego amassed to gigantic proportions only after he had realized he was one of the best songwriters in the world.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I like the single although I’m kind of confused at how the chorus can be out of tune when singing through autotune. On the live version he hit some pretty decent high notes but here it just sounds awkward. I can’t imagine this not being an early mix, the drums are way in the back and it totally lacks the quality arangements that defined his last two records.
I hope dude’s smart enough not to do the whole album with the damn robot voice too. Otherwise we’ll have finally reached that point where today’s studio tomfoolery will be as disruptive to quality music as dreaded “80’s production”.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Jeff Weiss has never seen The Departed
September 11th, 2008 at 8:57 am
“Jeff Weiss has never seen The Departed”
That’s a crime in itself. That maybe pound for pound the most rewatchable movie of the decade.
September 11th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Of course, I’ve seen the Departed.
Barry Schwartz has never seen Police Academy V.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Nice analysis. My favorite thing about it is that each chorus seems like an individual take. He lets the phrasing and sound of the lines change throughout the chorus. It provides a nice contrast to the rigid, auto-tuned sound.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I think the idea of this song is brilliant. Sure, there’s some parts hearing him sing where I wince, but I did that a lot during his rhymes on “Graduation.” Frankly, unless Consequence or Rhymefest are ghostwriting, I don’t care to hear Kanye rap anymore.
Dude gets it though–he’s the ONLY mainstream rapper genuinely and intentionally making great art and delivering on that with each album. I like this much better than “Stronger.”
September 11th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
The Departed’s good, but not very rewatchable. The best movies I’ve seen in the past 5 or so years are Zodiac and The Host.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Fuck that. Where’s the originality? I know there’s nothing new under the sun, but he’s only jumping on the auto-tune bandwagon and doing what Andre and Mos Def have done in the past.
The song sucks. Rapping may have helped, but the song would still suck because of the off-tune auto-tuning and random clapping on the chorus.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Nice analysis as always. I dig the song.
September 11th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
@Deen: Mos Def and Andre? You’re reaching, buddy. This is probably the most interesting use of autotune since it hit the hip-hop scene (although that’s not saying much, but I digress)…
September 11th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Of course I’ve seen Police Academy V you ninkumpoop. How else would I be able understand Police Academy VI?
The Departed is probably one of the most rewatchable movies ever. It’s up there with Shawshank Redemption and Eight Below.
Dr. Chet Rockstone says, “Love Lockdown probably sounds awesome in the club and girls are gonna sing and dance to it and I like when chicks do that. It means their pussies are getting wet. I give it a 10.5″
September 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Jordan…
I’m referring to the eclectic turn he’s taking. Andre and Mos are critically acclaimed rappers that decided to get all weird to differing results, depending on who you ask.
The Auto-tune shit is basically ripping off T-Pain and every other rapper that had the balls to do first. Not that the auto-tune shit in rapper is a good thing. Sure it’s an interesting use of the thing, but interesting ain’t good. The song is still shit.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
with a little more seasoning and a bridge this song could’ve been good. I think he should have tucked this one away, maybe release it as a b-side one day. Nice try though.
September 11th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
song is shit. nothing new/original here. gettin credit for using auto tune? sad state of affairs…
September 11th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
How can you say that John Lennon had a bloated ego? He was one of the most important people in music in the last 100 years.
As for Kanye, it’s nice to see someone recognize that the boy is not a great rapper. On his last record, he rhymed “blond dyke” with “Klondike.” Mercy.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
“partially for the way in which its funk is leadened by a moody paranoia, partially because I think Kanye is halfway to wearing codpieces.”
G.O.A.T. Weiss line.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
“This is probably the most interesting use of autotune since it hit the hip-hop scene (although that’s not saying much, but I digress)…”
It isn’t fashionable to say anything nice about 50 these days, but his autotuned hook and “whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa” on Rider Pt. 2 blows this out of the water.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:28 am
weiss is just sucking up so kanye doesn’t break his camera.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I admire Kanye for his attempt to step outside of the box, but he better stick to what he does well. That’s nothing more than a very poor Andre 3000 knock off. Or maybe a terrible version of Sexual Eruption? It also kind of reminded me of those Bad Boy Records tracks Jealous Guy and Playa Hater. Except Kanye was trying to be serious and put out a good track, while they were intentionally trying to be funny and sound bad.
http://www.imeem.com/sexciililmama/music/Dpabnjcl/jealous_guys/