At one point, Ja was bigger than Jay, but for a brief period. You just had to be there unc

Whenever he collabed with Ashanti, you know it was something Wicked

Yep. It was called "Murder Inc."

AI verses on this and Preacher man btw

Another fun fact: Ja Rule started to call himself "Loki" around the mid 2000's as an alter ego meant to be a more aggressive and controversial version of him.

People thought that Ja would clap back at 50 under that persona but it never transpired and people basically erased this phase of Ja Rule from existence.

Believe it or not, 50 was such a polarizing figure in rap around 2005-2007 that some rap forums were actually cheering on "Loki" to help stop 50's reign just like they were cheering on Game and Jadakiss.

complex.com/music/a/angel-diaz/ja-rule-loki-name-change-throwback-thursday

88keys blew up on me for suggesting someone like Kanye shouldn’t be using AI

Jesus Is King still remains one of the biggest "What If's" in Kanye's career imho.

What if Kanye dropped Yandhi instead?

What If Kanye dropped Jesus Is Born as a solo album meant to be more Gospel based with SS than Gospel rap?

Would Kanye even feel the need to make Donda if JIK was positively received and acclaimed?

Also, I really do think that the Vultures albums would've been better received combined as one condensed album.

With the right tracklist and sequencing, it could've been Cruel Summer 2.0 essentially as a holdover album full of bangers to keep people's attention until the next solo Ye album.

1. Back To Me
2. Do It
3. Burn
4. Fuk Sumn
5. Carnival
6. Beg Forgiveness
7. Good
8. King
9. Slide
10. Field Trip
11. 530(with the fixed verse)
12. Forever Rolling
13. River
14. Lifestyle
15. Take Off Your Dress

Instead, the albums were essentially promoted as Kanye's "comeback" albums with Ty vocals and, of course, it didn't live up to the hype.

But I really do think if there was a singular Vultures album that was essentially meant to be a "side quest" before the real album like when Cole dropped Might Delete Later, it would be received better.

Fr? What happened exactly?

same topics, the same answers

With Donda he was actually back again, he regained his popularity and the narrative switched from that horrible maga/slavery timeline. The doc was a classic, reinvented the listening session with stadiums and creating a show, Yeezy Adidas/gap, billionaire status

Man everything was so hard

I do think the Wyoming era is underrated. While I don't like the Ye solo album...forget it exists pretty much I did enjoy the wholesomeness of it. Camp fires, trucks, mountains, flying everyone out then the maga s***

Yeah I remember was collecting The Source back then and Can I Get A... was one of the first rap songs I learned every word to. Just saying it's weird because him and DMX have pretty similar vocal style. But then so did Ad-Rock and Mike D.

Yeah neph I was there and hated Jashanti bops from day 1

Havent listened to vultures 2 and generally indifferent to the idea of him making trap music or just the generic diet Kanye thing he’s been doing where he regurgiates the same sounds and tropes of “2010’s Kanye”

Go completely new sound and era/aesthetic like he seems to be trying with Bully or bring back the 04-07 sound if you can make trap music over and over

I asked him if preacher man was ai and he said the only thing a song ‘needs to be’ is how an artist wants to release it (which is true) so I told him it lacked integrity and he told me don’t listen to it then

Then I said if you told me the former greatest artist of all time was using ai 3 years ago I’d call you crazy, to which he replied ‘The Death of Adam’ which is the title of one of keys own albums

Seems his camp knows he’s chalked

s*** wasn't good

True. Honestly, both the Wyoming and Sunday Service eras are underrated when you focus on everything else but the actual Ye albums lol.

Wyoming era had tons of strong albums coming from the GOOD Music camp and awesome listening parties.

Even the worst albums from that run, Ye and Nasir, had gems on them that I revisit often like Ghost Town, Violent Crimes, Everything, and Adam and Eve. Honestly, Ye and Nasir are some of the few albums that suffered from the opposite of being bloated. They both felt more like borderline demo projects or mixtapes than full fledged albums. But I wouldn't call them bad albums either.

Sunday Service was also a fantastic move for Ye performance wise and Jesus Is Born was an actually good Gospel album coordinated by Ye. Jesus Is King was a disappointment because it not only watered down the Yandhi songs but it pushed Sunday Service aside too in favor of JIB. So, it felt watered down on both fronts. Apparently, kids on Tik Tok are f***ing with the album heavy though so maybe it's aging better than expected.

That Donda era was something else though. This site was just as electrified as the Kendrick/Drake battle during the era and everything was lining up perfectly until October 4th 2022. There was Kanye appreciation threads every other week and the Larry Hoover concert was praised a lot. Nothing was the same after that.....

Tough

@op fell off with unoriginal threads

Imagine thinking he fell off when he continues to sell albums and remain in top 20% of artists for streaming every year. Puts audiences in seats at shows to LISTEN TO MUSIC and not even have to perform it.

I'm still not convinced TLOP is a tier above Donda quality wise. The first 6 Ye albums? Absolutely. But TLOP? Eh.

I love TLOP but nostalgia does play a role into that.

Looking at it with the nostalgia glasses off, TLOP's best songs aren't necessarily that much better than Donda's best songs and they both have some duds that are thankfully outnumbered by the good songs.

Donda's biggest problem is the bloat but Ye himself was pissed at the Part 2's not being bonus tracks so that's something that even he didn't truly intend.

If the Part 2's were bonuses as intended and LOTP with Andre replaced Tell The Vision, I'd say Donda > TLOP with ease tbh.

Eh....Sales and streams are a poor metric to measure if one fell off.

Nas had a whole new prime this decade without a single number 1 album.

And Drake can boast the same exact thing: highest grossing rap tour and still outstreams the competition.

When people talk about Ye falling off, it's more so about quality of music and not his sales/streams.

Lol well damn

Damn ..