KIDS SEE GHOSTS
If *ye*, Kanye West’s solo album released one week prior, was him proudly shouting about his superpower—bipolar disorder—from the peak of a snowcapped mountain, *KIDS SEE GHOSTS* is the fireside therapy session occurring at its base. Both Kid Cudi and West have dealt with controversy and mental illness throughout their intertwined careers. It’s all addressed here, on their long-awaited first joint album, with honesty and innate chemistry. Kanye’s production pulsates and rumbles beneath his signature confessional bars and religious affirmations, but, centered by Cudi’s gift for melodic depth and understated humility, his contributions, and the project overall, feel cathartic rather than bombastic and headline-grabbing. On “Freeee (Ghost Town, Pt. 2),” the sequel to *ye* highlight “Ghost Town,” both men bellow, “Nothing hurts me anymore…I feel free” with such tangible, full-bodied energy, it feels as though this very recording was, in itself, a moment of great healing.
The psychic bond between Kanye and Kid Cudi yields a spacious and melancholy album about brokenness—thoughts are fragmented, relationships are ended, and societal ties are cut.
What is freedom to Kanye West? The answer to that question is becoming exceedingly difficult to understand. He’s always positioned himself as a free thinker in the mold of Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, and other titans of industry (without pausing to note the irony that his free thought brings him to the conclusions of the…
The third instalment in Kanye West's seven-track album trilogy is the finest yet.
This new collaboration sees Kanye West and Kid Cudi catch up with the fragmented, fragile brand of hip-hop that they helped to create
Following the chaotic 'Ye,' Kanye West and longtime collaborator Kid Cudi come up with an album that responds to modern hip-hop trends.
Released a week after Kanye West's messy eighth album, Ye, the eponymous debut effort from Kids See Ghosts -- West and Kid Cudi's rap superduo -- became inseparable from its predecessor's narrative, both warranting that album's merit and improving upon its ideas with superior production, imagination, and listenability.
One week removed from the release of ye, the eighth solo studio album by Kanye West, the (sometimes) misunderstood genius made good on relea...
Ye Season 2018 reached its halfway point with Kids See Ghosts, the long-awaited collaborative work between Kanye West and Kid Cudi.
One week on from the underwhelming, muddled solo album Ye, West is newly galvanised by Cudi’s stoner wisdom
No one may be more responsible for introducing a dark mood to mainstream hip-hop than Kanye West and Kid Cudi.