Dear Tribune, It’s a frightening time to be a North American Jew. Kanye West’s rants are only the most visible example of the shocking re-entry of anti-Semitism into the American public sphere. Last week, I exchanged worried messages with friends after the Newark FBI warned of a “broad threat to[Read More…]
Tag: Kanye West
Kanye West and the spectre of toxic masculinity on Twitter
Content Warning: Discussions of hate speech, bullying, and harassment. Since the inception of social media, online bullying and harassment have abounded, with platforms being used by certain figures to hide behind a screen without facing consequences head-on. At the scale of celebrities, the impacts of such bullying are magnified. People[Read More…]
‘Donda (Deluxe)’ is hardly an upgrade
Choosing to not leave his fans waiting, Kanye West released the deluxe version of his album Donda on Nov. 14, 11 weeks after the original, adding five new tracks. This release reinvigorated fans’ appetite for Ye, but only one memorable song serves to fill it; the new tracks leaving listeners[Read More…]
Kanye West’s ‘Jesus is King’ is both unexceptional and transcendent
Kanye West may be a problematic, belligerent, and generally irritating person, but many consider him to be one of the most gifted artists of his generation. On Oct. 25, West finally released the long-awaited album Jesus is King, his ninth solo project, alongside a half-hour film by the same name.[Read More…]
‘Sunday Service’ is a sonic delight crippled by contradiction
At 9:00 a.m. on the morning of Easter Sunday, Kanye West led the first public ‘Sunday Service‘ from atop a grassy hill at Coachella. This unconventional, but overtly Christian take on Easter was not the artist’s foray into the spiritual: Accessible only to those on a Hollywood guest list, weekly[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: Taylor Swift is her own hot take
As soon as Taylor Swift deleted her Instagram account, her fans (known as “Swifties”) predictably anticipated a new album, which recently was revealed to be entitled Reputation, scheduled for release Nov. 10. Using social media stunts as teasers is commonplace among pop stars and cultural icons, but Swift’s release of[Read More…]
Best Music of 2016
Compiled by our Arts & Entertainment staff editors and writers, here is the best music of 2016. Best Albums of 2016 rollingstone.com[/caption] 1. Blonde Throughout Blonde, Frank Ocean expresses the small victories and big heartbreaks of everyday life. The album is a mosaic of pop and R&B songs that each tell[Read More…]
Pop Rhetoric: Is it okay to laugh at Kim K?
A woman was physically restrained and robbed at gunpoint by five men in Paris. Does the horror of this statement change when considering that said woman is Kim Kardashian West, celebrity and reality show star? According to thousands of people online, the woman’s identity renders the situation laughable. Several million[Read More…]
Marketing overshadows innovation at New York Fashion Week
New York Fashion Week (NYFW) came to a close last night, relieving its captive audience of Snapchat users from the endless onslaught of coverage. NYFW features mostly American designers and is considered one of the Big 4 Fashion Weeks—the others being held in London, Paris, and Milan. Though there was[Read More…]
Album Review: Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight – Travis Scott
Houston rapper Travis Scott has followed up his 2015 debut studio album Rodeo, with the highly anticipated sophomore album Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight (BTSM). MC and producer Travis Scott originally burst into the limelight as Kanye West’s wunderkind, earning himself production credits in West’s 2013 album Yeezus. Scott[Read More…]
