I gave in!

This Kanye album, Yeezus, is some disturbing, deranged shit. I've listened to alot of music that is, to put it bluntly, creepy. I've seen Gary Numan and Nine Inch Nails perform. I saw Eminem when he was throwing blow up dolls of his wife out in to an audience. Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, all of that, but this is really disturbing music on a level of disturbed that those guys would never accomplish. Watch the video - it's hard to really describe how bizarre Kanye has become in words:

I listened to all of his album in its entirety. Kanye seriously needs some help. I have heavily criticized modern treatments for mental illness but that doesn't mean that mental illness is not real - just that the way we deal with and treat it is seriously flawed. Yeezus is one of the worst, most nihilistic albums I've ever heard. I didn't really know it was possible for our culture to go as low as to produce garbage like this but apparently it has.

One could say that there has always been a degree of nihilism in hip-hop as a genre and maybe that is true. Before, however, it had a tinge of hope to it - Tupac would rap about his mother, heaven, getting out of the ghetto, etc., 50 Cent was really pursuing "what's mine" - his materialism was a reflection of society's values, Eminem loaded some pretty vulgar stuff with humor, devotion to his children and a good musical sound.

Nothing about Kanye as he is now is good. His image is empty and void, with a dedication to a spouse he is obviously not very in to, his performances are bizarre - with haunted eyes and the presence of weird attire like a leather skirt. Some of the lyrics on here are genuinely offensive, and that's from someone who has listened to ALOT of rap music - "I'll put my fist in her like a civil rights sign" and another verse about being dead so get Tupac on the phone. I don't know the exact lyrics because this album is bullshit that I don't want to hear again.

Why this sudden shift toward darkness? Right after his 2007 album Graduation, Kanye West's mother Donda passed from botched breast augmentation surgery. The two were very close - he dedicated songs to her before her passing. Ever since then, Kanye and his music have gotten weirder, more demented and a bit more scary. I think he needs to take a break for his own mental health. Believe me, it does work - I did it. I spent well over a year only writing periodically and rethinking what I thought of myself and my relation to the world around me. Alot of people have. Life is hard.

No one will blame you, Kanye. Who knows - after a year or two totally out of the public eye, spent focusing on your newborn baby girl, you will come back the Kanye who made "Jesus Walks," produced Common's Be album and beat 50 Cent in a sales war. Fatherhood may give you a whole new world of artistic inspiration.

With alot of your antics and album titles like Yeezus and song titles like "I Am A God" - it's pretty obvious that whatever is plaguing you mentally has alot to do with some serious self-absorption. I can attest that self-absorption is often a way of avoiding being harmed by others and it may provide a similar security blanket for you - but it's a false one, trust me.

A daughter is the perfect opportunity to stop focusing on yourself and focus on the needs of someone else. Just stop doing what you are currently doing.