Do you listen to Kanye West?

[GeneralMacArthur]

Yes, his music pre-Yeezus was really really good and the fact that he completely lost his mind over the last decade doesn't change that.

Frankly he started losing his mind as soon as his mother died... you had the VMA Awards thing a year later, and then MBDTF was all driven by the changes in his personality to slowly become more of an egomaniacal asshole.  But that by itself, and the evolution to that personality type from a pop star who used to rap about working for the GAP and sharing a bed with his cousins, was a really interesting subject.  And of course the music was exquisite.

But after MBDTF, the subject was no longer "this formerly humble and relatable rapper is being transformed by tragedy, wealth and fame into an egomaniacal asshole"... it was just "Kanye is an egomaniacal asshole, Episode II, Episode III, Episode IV, Episode V...." and that's not an interesting subject.  And it's not surprising that after making a dozen albums about what an asshole he is, he just keeps becoming more and more of an asshole.

Anyway, The College Dropout and MBDTF are both all-time great rap albums, Late Registration and Graduation are more weighed down by filler but still have plenty of bangers, and 808s and Heartbreak, although not very good, was the experimental work Kanye needed to prepare him for MBDTF, and still has a couple great songs.

Also the song Moon on Donda is really really good, but that's largely because it's a Kid Cudi and Don Toliver song that Kanye merely produced.  I'd kill for an entire album of this kind of music.