G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer: A Cruel Tease.

G.O.O.D. Music’s Cruel Summer: A Cruel Tease.

Real Talk – Certain producers in this game set the bar so high that anything less than perfection is average at best. When you’re wrapped in Kanye’s world you can hear his voice mimicking Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate screaming a VMA scream, “Who in their right mind could deny that 2011 was all mine?!!”.

It certainly was Mr. West. My Beautiful Twisted Dark Fantasy, the heralded 2011 album, quickly replaced Late Registration as the critical and fan favorite on many music lists. In fact, Rolling Stone  placed it at 353 on its top 500 albums of all-time list. Praised for his manic production and aggressive boundary pushing, who could argue, it did reinvent Kanye once again.

Instead of resting on the accolades, Kanye released another critically and fan acclaimed album, Watch the Throne, in August of 2011. Hits like Otis, N****s in Paris, and No Church in the Wild pushed the album to platinum status very quickly and cemented it on several top 10 album lists. It even made us forget about the disaster that was the Jay-Z and R-Kelly collaboration Best of Both Worlds. Sorry for reminding you. Throne was so good that Kanye was competing with himself at Grammy time, just as he would love it.

After a superstar 2011 comes Cruel Summer by Kanye’s GOOD Music Posse. A collection of rushed singles, polished remixes, and throw-a-way beats featuring Kanye, Jay-Z, R. Kelly, DJ Khaled, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, and a good healthy dose of Pusha T.  I’m sure after hearing Mercy, the lead single off the album, hopes were high for a speed induced Kan-gasm.  However, this album is more foreplay than a music deviant’s dark twisted fantasy.

But foreplay can be sexy as well! The album hints at its possibilities with the lead single Mercy of course, but one of the most powerful tracks on the album is the single New God Flow featuring a Ghostface Killah sighting and a significant guest spot by Pusha T. Pure Kanye genius. Another brainstorm is  Higher  featuring The Dream, Pusha-T, Ma$e, and Cocaine 80s and they all bring the A-game.  Higher will be an air-play favorite once its released; believe that. T

The other tracks including Cold, Sin City,and The Morning could be remixed into club favorites but they are adequate tracks at best.

Cruel Summer simply is not a collaboration of artistry but a good party album which on its face is the best collaboration album in the past three years, but it fails to be memorable.  However, Pusha-T’s efforts on Cruel Summer could lead to his best album instead of a cruel tease.