¥$ - "RIVER"

I listened to Vultures 2 before I listened to Vultures 1. Discourse junkies seem to think that Vultures 1 was better because they don’t actually listen to the music and just pay attention to the allegations of AI enhancement and the rumors about Kanye’s nitrous oxide usage. If you can look and listen past the cloud of fumes, what’s on display is some of the most uplifted and frankly enlightened music that Kanye has made in a long time. This is the sound of a man in middle-age with a hardened heart that he’s finally learning how to thaw. It’s the art of a king who had more than any of us, and lost an incalculable amount— whether the bridges were burned with his own hands or burned for him doesn't really matter, because he’s been through some fires, and every day is another step closer to the other side. 

Maybe he still self sabotages. Maybe he still starts fights. Maybe he's still gone astray. But on “SKY CITY,” I hear someone painfully aware of how many times their life was almost lost, and ever so grateful to have retained it. On “RIVER,” I hear the aching heart of a former psych ward patient locked up against his will, who is so thankful for his own freedom and the sun on his skin and the breeze against his face and the loving arms of his children, but who painfully remembers with every blissful breath that so many more still remain imprisoned and incarcerated and held in the relentless echo chamber that is to be left alone with your mind and only four white walls to call your friends. It is the feeling of loving being alive, while hating how many of your friends are no longer here to partake in this life with you.

Pain and pleasure go together, just like confrontation and promotion. When I want attention, I also disguise it as a post; maybe even this one. It will always be Free YSL, and we’re not talking Saint Laurent either. Trust the process, but trust yourself, and trust Proselyte Magazine too.