Production Breakdown: Welcome Back, Kanye! (Video)

Is it humanly possible not to have an opinion on Kanye West? I doubt it. If I were to lace up my hiking boots, trek out into the wilderness, and ask my local cave-dwelling hermit what he thought of the superstar rapper producer... well, that would be a pretty ridiculous waste of time. But you see what I'm getting at.

We can all agree that his music is dope (though I wasn't as dazzled by 808s as the rest of the universe), but how about the man himself? President Barack Obama thinks Yeezy's a jackass, and I can't entirely disagree – at the very least, he's a little bit of a lunatic. At the end of the day, however, I can't find it in my heart to dislike a lunatic who makes the often banal world of celebrity gossip so much more interesting – much less a lunatic who announces his triumphant return to rap and rabblerousing with a banger sampling the title line of progressive-rock group King Crimson's “21st Century Schizoid Man.” (Credit should also be given to co-producer Symbolyc One, of course) What could be more perfect? I mean, setting aside the fact that the song is actually about Spiro Agnew and the Vietnam War.



You know, I forgot how great this song was. Damn. But I digress. My favorite thing about Kanye is the way in which he seems to listen to music. His damn-near-obsessive level of eclecticism, and the ironic, often hilariously self-conscious manner in which he marshals his army of influences. I imagine Kanye's a guy who doesn't hear anything without turning it over and over in his head, pondering how it could be recontextualized. The results range from the “Why didn't I think of that?!” variety (say, his Daft Punk-inspired smash “Stronger,” to the completely crazy, “What the f*ck?” tracks that, despite being utterly bizarre, follow their own peculiar logic. Take “Drunk and Hot Girls, a cut which found West and Mos Def sing/slurring the praises of, well, drunk and hot girls.



Weird as hell, even for a hip-hop record in 6/8 time. When you go back to the source, though, it seems a little less inexplicable – the root of “Drunk and Hot Girls”actually lies in “Sing Swan Song,” a track off German experimental rock group Can's '72 album Ege Banyamsi.



Not too far into the record, you'll hear vocalist Damo Suzki deliver the titular line of Yeezy's song – which was actually misheard by West. The actual line is, as far as I can tell “Shaking her cold hand to hear you've been just the drunky hot bowls.” And if that makes no sense to you, that's probably because it makes no freaking sense. Seriously, try not to think too hard about it.

In my book, “D&HG” is still a weird, only semi-listenable experiment, but I also think mainstream rap needs more heavyweight artists crazy enough to base an entire record around a single misheard lyric from a song that 99.99 percent of their target audience have not, and will never hear. Not only because it keeps obscurantists like myself entertained, but because that openness to experimentation can also lead to crazy-in-an-awesome-way cuts like “Power.”

So, I guess, what I'm trying to say is: welcome back to the rap game, Kanye. Things were getting a little too sane without you.