Last time Kanye did Saturday Night Live he ended “Champion” with a clumsy freestyle that left some viewers convinced he bombed. Tonight’s performance on the Hugh Laurie-hosted Christmas episode likely garnered similar reactions. We’ve already heard how, despite the assistance of live Auto-Tune, Kanye’s vocals on “Love Lockdown” literally fall flat on TV (see Ellen, Kimmel). But because this show was live, KW didn’t attempt the high notes, instead going silent while they piped in a female backup singer. Awkward. “Heartless” brought less strain on his voice, and benefited from the cool rotoscoped video behind him, but halfway through morphed into “Pinocchio Story,” the laughable live track that closes out 808s. “There is no Gucci I could buy/ There is no Louis Vuitton to put on/ There is no YSL that they could sell/ To get my mind out of this hell.” To quote the departing Amy Poehler … REALLY!?!
“Love Lockdown”
“Heartless”/”Pinocchio Story”
Nice shades, though. (Those are not nice shades.)
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Amazing… just amazing.
i can’t wait til his next album comes out in 6 months when he comes down off of all this cocaine
I AM LOST. IT WAS NOT GREAT BUT IT WAS NOT BAD. I AM LOST ON THIS ONE.
the sunglasses display mannequin got into bill and ted excellent phone booth
i want those eight minutes back. now.
Kanye is teh suck.
I was going to question if Kanye has any sort of advisory team who would suggest he not sing live shows and reveal that his voice is terrible and expose the fact that effects and beats are what are keeping his “singing” career afloat, but then I remembered two unfortunate facts:
1) any press is good press.
2) the average music listener, having no sense of tasteful art, is completely won over by said effects and beats; the music, if relevant, is a marginal component.
kanye is the worst. please stop reporting on him, no one gives a shit.
fine tune the next album. ouch
Kanyesucks, I think you’re forgetting just how huge a celebrity Kanye is, aren’t you? You can’t just stop reporting on celebrities– ever.
His performance of Love Lockdown on Letterman was really good, I liked it a lot better than the album version
He didn’t have to do a singing album, I find seeing him stand up and do something that obviously makes him really uncomfortable and something he’s not really all that solid at quite endearing. He seems way out of his element, he seems vulnerable, I like that :)
That’s possible, or maybe he’s just got the kind of ego where he thinks he can pull off anything.
Liked the giant screen backgrounds and the way it shifted to a backlight by the chorus. Truth is Kanye is one cool looking dude.
Eye candy value = A-
Singing on key throughout a song that didn’t even have high notes in it = C
I thought the performance was great, especially Heartless. Of course Kanye doesn’t have a classicly good voice, but neither does a lot of really good artist. It’s about the emotional delivery and Kanye doesn’t lack that at all. And also he deserves kudos for stepping out of the box. A hip hop artists making pop music that sounds like New Order is his backing band…I think it’s great.
no clothes that I could buy to go back in time… are you sure about that Kanye? Maybe you should just contact Dr. Emmett Brown, he could fix that up for ya.
Sorry, I had never heard that song and fell asleep before that performance… SNL was that boring last night. Except for “David Patterson” interrupting
Amy Poehler’s goodbye speech… it was a deadpan fest.
I think it’s exciting to see an artist challenge themselves when they could simply sit on their ass and make the same shit for 20 years. It’s understandable you would shit on this as the only hip hop on this site is mainstream as FUCK or the streets.
I agree with your comment about how artists need to challenge themselves, but don’t you think there is a better way of accomplishing this than to sing out of tune on three national tv broadcasts?
Artists should challenge themselves when they have a diverse set of skills. Kanye West is a skilled producer and a decent rapper. He is not a good singer. The Ramones were the best at being the Ramones and they did essentially the exact same thing throughout their entire career. If you think they were capable of expanding their sound, I advise you to listen to Dee Dee’s rap album.
Furthermore, ask yourself how challenging 808′s and Heartbreak really is. If it were put out by a new artist, it would not even be noticed. It is a departure for Kanye, yes, but there’s nothing revolutionary about pedestrian lyrics sung in a slightly distorted autotune over minimalist backing.
And speaking of mainstream as FUCK hip-hop, Lil Wayne deserves no credit for pretending to play a guitar, but at least he doesn’t put out entire albums of his noodling.
…what the fuck is kanye doing? did i just see a goose step?
Hey “Heartless” was actually pretty good. I liked the new version of the song, I hope a studio version of that gets released someday, it’s my favourite song on the record.
As for “Love Lockdown”, major major letdown. The guy couldn’t sing, he’s forcing his voice way too much on every live performance he does on TV. If he continues to do that, in five years he will sound like Bob Dylan does now. Bob Dylan is great, but his voice has been getting worse and worse in the last couple of years.
So, Kanye, please, please, RAP on your next album. Please. What comes after Graduation? “A Good Ass Job”, so, release that, please! And, yes, use autotune, it’s fun indeed. I installed it in my computer and I can’t stop singing.
Hey Ruben how did you install that. If Kanye can get hit record using that maybe I could too. I came up with a tooth brush/tooth paste song and dance. People would pay for anything so im gonna be confident like Kanye and give it a try. lol
Momentum is a magical thing…last nights episode had it. (even instant yard sale was selling it). Now if there were a real pepsi commercial using “let X =X”… Good luck Amy!
jesus christ, kanye sounds horrible and totally UNENJOYABLE! as a longtime kanye fan, this is embarrassing..
maybe its not so impossible for me to have a successful music career.
Yikes, Kanye scared the crap out of me last night. Does anyone think that he had a cold or some illness? I noticed that he was sweating like a pig right when he came out for his first song. He was so off key, even my 11 yr old noticed. I felt sad for Kanye last night. He was pretty horrible. And I am a big fan.
Dammit! WTF is up with these rappers singing?! He sounds absolutely horrible. But what’s worse is that people are eating this shit up and no one cares that his voice is god awful, even with the autotuner.
I will give him credit for being a showman though. His energy is good, in terms of performances, he is entertaining to watch. But I can’t respect that autotuning, voice digitized, “II’m going to pretend I can sing” crap. It just pisses me off. *rolls eyes*
Rappers should leave the singing to real vocalists…
I am by no means a Kanye fan, but i was impressed by his SNL performance. in so much that he is just about as mainstrem as it gets, and yet his songs sounded like something new, and that he was willing to go out there and sing without a backing track (for the most part) and sound really raw.
i didnt enjoy it for the music so much as the idea
Either that, or he’s so full of himself that he thinks he sounds great.
Impressive. To be able to sing off key while still using Autotune. And he’s waaay off. Really, that’s quite a feat. It takes a zen like concentration to completely ignore every tone going on around you.
Also, Kanye kind of dances like an awkward white dude.
And yes, whoever mentioned it, I’m pretty sure I also saw a goose step in there.
Utter, utter crap. What an overblown, overhyped talentless tool. Take away the Autotune, cartoon screens, way- gay dance moves and there’s just nothing there. Hard to listen to, hard to watch.
And someone please tell SNL their recent constant string of crap-hop “musical” guests is getting reallllllly old. Please, hold off on the goddamned rappers for a while, huh?
Kanye dances like a white boy.
Wow. I still want my $8.99 back for his shit album.
I’ll give you $0.99 and a Spice Girls album (one of the greatest albums in music HISTORY!)
as someone who is only familiar with kanye’s singles….i have to say….those performances were like 80% laughable shit but like 20% incredible. like at the end of love lockdown when the drums come in it’s awesome. the lyrics in general though sound like a 12 year old wrote it. if he just produced and got a great singer in this style of production it could be amazing.
i am so tired of kanye. like, really?? people find this impressive?? i don’t get it.
It’s great that he pushes himself out of his comfort zone, but that doesn’t mean the results are good. I think he’s a terrific songwriter and producer, and he knows how to work a studio, and I like his sincerity and energy. But none of those things make him a singer, and unfortunately, he’s a remarkably poor singer.
He’s still got a perfect right to try it, but I was fascinated by the spectacle of a man who cannot sing being given a national forum to do so.
I’m not seeing why these are so bad. I mean he’s not a great singer but it’s a good performance of the material and he’s putting effort into it. His singing voice isn’t great but it isn’t terrible. As a fan of Kanye I enjoyed these. I guess if you’re out to get him then you could pick these apart and make fun of it though, and what else is the internet for? :P
I think everyone who is defending him is missing the point. If you want to step out of your comfort zone as a vocalist (a loosely applied term), you do it in your basement, or while playing Rockband with some very close friends. You do not do it on international television. I don’t watch SNL to see someone try something they are not good at, I watch to see professional comics and musical acts make me laugh or impress me with their skill as musicians. If I was an advertiser paying huge money to have some spots during last night’s show, I’d demand my money back, cause I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who changed the channel during both of KW’s performances. What a joke! Maybe his auto-tuner was switched to “de-tune.”
I hope he goes away soon. When his vocals cut out on the high parts, that was just embarrassing for him. It served no artistic purpose other than that he couldn’t reach them! Well Kanye, if you can’t reach a note live, maybe you shouldn’t put it on your record. Apart from that, most of those notes he hit sound out of tune. It comes across as a young person with no vocal talent/training trying to perform. Does he start half yelling during the final chorus because he is so into the music and vibing hard or is it just because his voice is done?
if they hate then let them hate and watch the money pile up
After watching these videos I find myself wondering what would happen if Kanye went on American Idol. I’m guessing the judges would all snicker under their breath because he can’t sing in key. Simon would then tell him he was terrible and he would then begin crying, put on some big ass sunglasses and walk out yelling that everyone sucks and he’s the best. He’s lucky he’s so famous, otherwise the public would drop him in a second. He should stop wasting our time, step-aside and let someone with vocal talent take all these tv spots.
right on. because american idol is exactly what we need to tell us what is credible music and what isn’t.
Yawn.
He’s worse at singing than Puffy is at rapping. Way worse.
I’m sorry, what is laughable about publicly acknowledging the shortcomings of a modern materialist lifestyle?
Kanye can’t sing. So what? We already knew that (p.s. So does he). Obviously he has some things he needs to get off his chest; most of which he’s talked about at length in interview after interview explaining his new (very personal) direction.
Why don’t you buzzards find a new bone to pick?
Kanye’s voice is shot. We know that. Just hearing him talk, you can hear that’s it’s hoarse and rough.
But he cares enough about his music that he’ll do whatever it takes to get it out there.
Personally, these were my favorite performances of these two songs thus far. Pinocchio Story has clunky lines, yes, undeniably, but I thought the overall effect of that modification of Heartless was pretty awesome.
agreed.
The visuals were really cool. I enjoy Kanye’s evolution as an artist.
Even if he makes mistakes I applaud him for having the balls to fall flat on his face.
I hope and believe he will make music that he wants rather then cave to what his fans expect.
This was a really awkward three minutes.
Yeah well maybe you shouldn’t masturbate in a phone booth next time.
holy shit that is bad. So fucking out of tune. Terrifyingly bad.
This is what happens when you sing in ALL CAPS.
What’s so endearing about this “era” of his career is how willing he is to be pretty much vocally “naked” in front of an international television audience. He knows he’s missing a few notes, he knows he’s just screaming the last chorus on “Love Lockdown” but – he’s also smart enough to realize that the technical shortcomings of someone’s music don’t really matter in the end. It’s what you were trying to say, and how successfully you said it. Kanye is feeling vulnerable, heartbroken, emotional, etc. and it’s coming through in his music. 808s and Heartbreak (and the live performances that accompany it) portrays that. It’s an artistic success. Might I remind you, Bob Dylan (for example, not necessarily comparing the two) was never able to sing “well” – but he kept saying what he wanted to say.
I thought both tracks were great. He’s giving everything he can to put on a great emotional and visually stunning performance. Its funny that there are a few mentions of Dylan on this thread. Remember how well Dylan’s change of direction was received in ’64? You should be ashamed of yourselves for knocking someone for expressing their creativity in a new and interesting way. I can’t think of any other rappers or top 40 artists that are willing to take the risks Kanye is taking with his music and his reputation.
Comparing Kanye to Bob Dylan? I guess Kanye is the ‘voice of a generation.’
Dylan had something interesting to say. Kanye does not–unless you are into fashion references. I get it, he’s sad, but if you think his lyricism at all compares to Dylan you’re sad.
really missed the point here…
nobody compared kanye’s lyricism or importance to that of dylan. nobody..
Wow…..I’m pretty surprised by all the Kanye hate. 808s was a pretty surprising album, i really enjoyed it. Like so many people have said, these performances are more about energy and emotion…..Sure he’s off-tune a few times but that is nowhere near ruining these songs……the songs themselves are just too strong to be ruined.
Great performances.
If you think all Kanye does is vain fashion references, then you have never heard We Don’t Care, Spaceship, Family Business, All Falls Down, Two Words, Jesus Walks, School Spirit, Heard Em Say, Drive Slow, Bring Me Down, Diamonds from Sierra Leone (+ the remix), his verse on Put On, his verse on Go Hard, Hey Mama, Touch the Sky, Homecoming, Crack Music, Roses, Addiction, Late, Gone, I Wonder, Big Brother, Everything I Am, or any song from 808s & Heartbreaks.
but of course, these are all a very small part of Kanye West’s output.
You need to get off Kanye’s d*ck. It’s harming your hearing.
If Kanye wants to think he is the voice of this generation, he needs to listen to the playback from the SNL performances. That was truly aweful. He sounded equally horrible on the AMAs. Maybe Kanye shouldn’t attempt singing…just rap. Rap a tap tap. Even though rap is pretty dead. That’s another topic to discuss.
Man….you’re missing the point. I’m not comparing Kanye to Dylan. I’m comparing your response to Kanye to the responses of the music snobs of 64 who thought that Dylan was joke for his new sell-out music that they thought was complete nonsense…you know…those crappy songs like Like A Rolling Stone, Ballad of the Thin Man, Maggie’s Farm. Kanye’s music may not be comparable to Dylan’s but the way he’s putting himself out there and creating the music that he wants to create in the face of a widely negative reaction, I think, is definitely comparable.
That’s why you don’t see Eminem performing that song he sang for Hailie–it belongs on the ALBUM. And Em didn’t even use an auto-tuner!!!
I ain’t loving this, the way he wants me to
I want him to stop, killing me with the autotune
His vocal chords are getting shot each time he performs
You loose ‘Ye you loose…
I wish I could say that I hated this, but it just looks too cool.
I love Kanye West but I do think the first performance is bad. Really bad. He shouldn’t have sang the song if he can’t hit that high note live. But I thought the second song was really great though. I really admire his courage to express himself however and whenever he can. To people who lurk on message boards and spout hateful bullshit from cyberspace but do nothing creative or worthwhile with your lives: he trumps you anyday. You’ve probably never listened to his albums but of course have joined the fray of ‘haters’ because you think you’re cool. He actually DOES SOMETHING with his life. Do you?
I hate that everyone is FREAKING OUT on the internet about how terrible Kanye’s performance….
YET
Weeks ago everyone championed Britney Spears’ comeback “performances”
The reason everyone is so hard on Kanye is because he claimed to be the voice of this generation. He is never humbled and he thinks he deserves all the recognition, awards and respect from the world. So when he makes mistakes, we have to call him out on it. Kanye should have brought some of that arrogance and bad attitude to the performance maybe that would have helped him sound better. by the way, Britney isnt out there telling everyone shes the best one is the voice of this generation, so she gets a second chance.
MY FUCKIN’ MACBOOK AIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this blog tears down this guy every time he blinks. if you hate him so much, why are you on his every move??
I’m a big fan of Kanye! 808s & Heartbreak is a daring, fascinating album and while far from perfect, it’s got a handful of great pop songs. (We indicated as much in our Premature Evaluation.). But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t taken a critical look at his recent performances. I don’t buy the “Kanye’s bad singing is ok because it’s art” argument.
Don’t you think some of Kanye’s singing moves in “Love Lockdown” were kinda Chris Martin-esque? All that emoting while hopping around? Seriously, when he wasn’t doing quintessential rapping motions (ie. pumping his chest, etc.) he looked like Mr. Paltrow.
i think he did a good job on heartless
at least we know he doesnt lip singg except on the high notes
what’s wrong with kanye!!!!:C
his songs are great, what a pity for the shit performances!
Mother Fuckers act like they forgot about ‘Ye..
Good thing he had his Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses… he couldn’t see how all the poor non-deaf people in the audience cringin’ and cryin’
On that “Love Lockdown” song I was under the impression Kanye was going to fall down dancing. I don’t find the song anything to write home about. That “Heartless” thing was just kind of corny. That image of the female in the background looks like it should be on an ad for a women’s shoe store. It’s too easy to pick apart. Yeah, he has talent but w/o ProTools, on stage he’s a lost man.
I think this dude is the oasis of the 21st century. these songs MIGHT sound good to high schoolers now, but NO ONE will return to this sh!t in 10 yrs.
the world needs more Arcade Fire!!
instead of this quarrel over whether or not kanye’s latest work is respectable (which will always be up in the air), can’t we just agree that this snl performance is still better than ashlee simpson’s?
Didnt he recently say somet stupid shit like he was more important than every othe artist in our generation? Kanye went from being some indie guy everyone rooted for to Britney Spears, or more appropriately because of this SNL thing Ashley Simpson.
Since when did vocal perfection become the point of live music? I agree that it can be distracting when someone falls off key like Kanye does here, but this ISN’T American Idol, and I think that the general readership of this site listens to music with aesthetic claims outside of that show’s interests.
I found “Love Lockdown” really affecting. The production on that song is sick, the melody memorable, the light show great.
Can we just remove the claim that we’re talking about Kanye’s performance? Isn’t this more a backlash to the Kanye brand, the loud, annoying, arrogant, egoistic persona he’s throwing out there? People want to see this guy fail. We’ve got a culture of schadenfreude going on here, guised by some shaky claims to “musical standards” or someshit.
Oh ok, I will give you this: the second song is kind of awful. Couldn’t he have played Paranoid or Street Lights?
This guy has been behind the scenes on a lot of classic material. He has also crafted some great music himself. I just get sick of this whole “Im better than just rap” phenomenon. Andre, Kanye, Mos Def…I mean all great rappers – in the case of Andre – one of the best ever. Stick to yoru strengths.
http://www.justinpopovic.com
Even Bill O’Reilly put Kanye on his “pinhead” list the other night because of this performance. Aside from production on 808s, Kanye doesn’t really step outside of the rest of shitty music I hear when perusing the radio.
The “voice of this generation” can’t sing.
For every one here that says “he’s showing vulnerability”… LOL. I can come over to your house, warble some 8th grade poetry into a hairbrush whilst playing Daft Punk or The Knife on a ghetto blaster for you.
Ghee, Somebody thinks he’s Michael Jackson!
For the first time since College Dropout though I am interested to see what Kanye has got.
Sorry for my english, I’m french.
First: you hate him, so why can’t you talk about someone esle???
Second: You write about live perfomance, but I think you don’t know what you’re writting about if you think the purpose of singing live is to sing like Celine Dion…
Third: Kanye is an artist, and your blog is prouving it with more than 80 comms. The mission of an artist is to make people wonder about, to question their visions.
Well well well. The self proclaimed “voice of the generation” is showing what he’s made of–BS. I’m not a psychology expert so I don’t know if his grand self proclamations are derived from feeling so inferior as to overcompensate with delusions, or if his mamma built him up so much that he truly believes he is a genius, but in layman’s terms, this guy is a D-bag.
Oh, that was kayne west?!? I thought he was a stand-in for Kim yung-Il who happens to be a lover of western music.
Could it be any worst? He would have definitly been kicked off American Idol!!!! Just goes to show, ANYONE can get a singing contract
you stupid people cant feel the fucking emotion and heart he puts into his music ..kanye doesnt give a shit how it sounds becuz hes doin what it takes to express his feelings and emotions
Umm..Everyone Knows That Kanye West Is Not A Singer. He Is A Rapper. Duh? Of Course He Can’t Really Sing That Well But The Auto-tune Was In the Song To Make It Sound Better. He Isn’t Claiming To Be Usher, But He Is A Great Rapper. His Performance Wasn’t As Bad As Everyone Wanted To Say It Was. He Is Cocky Because He Can Be. HAve U Heard Rihanna Sing Live, Can Lil Wayne Sing? Helllll Noooo! Just Cause TI Tried o Carry a Pitch in Whatever U Like Does That Mean He Can Sing Now. NOOO! Get Off His STick!
WEAK performance. I can’t wait until Kanye realizes he is a good rapper and a horrible singer. I think deep down he knows it, but his ego won’t let him admit it.
The excuse for the “Love Lockdown” performance (according to Kanye’s publicists) is that the autotune wasn’t working. okay, that makes sense. but they got it working for “Heartless” and it sucked. Even the singing on his album sucks and they were in a studio. KANYE WEST CAN’T SING. End of story. Just like Lil Wayne can’t play guitar. And believe me, he can’t.
GREATEST MOMENTS IN TV HISTORY: The Beatles’ performance of, “I want to hold your hand,” on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 – - The last episode of M.A.S.H. in 1983 – - Kanye West’s performance of, “Love lock down,” on Saturday Night Live, 2008.
this is really funny because i swear i saw some carlton from the fresh prince of bel air in there.
“Love Lockdown” WTF happend Kanye? Does autotune not work Live? First part was him singing flat for what seemed like forever. Then some woman we can’t see on camera starts signing the parts of the song that involve Kanye having to hit any note that isn’t just yelling in microphone like some drunk karaoke singer. All I know is that I didn’t even mind that poor singing. Just the outfit alone blew me away. I mean good thing for that mullet, or else Kanye might have looked alittlebitdumb. Add in the lights, screen graphics, what i can only take as a silhouette interpretive dance by Kanye, and the random number of people who seem to be joining in on the drunken karaoke jamboree and hitting all the notes Kanye can’t. My personal favorite part came at about 3:07. Kanye totally fucking loses it and just resorts to straight up shouting into the microphone while striking random poses. I don’t think people applauded enough.
Rating: three out of four mullets
I would like to thank the entire music industry for giving the American public this type of pure unadulterated shit and passing it off as music. Are record executives too lazy or scared to use A&R people any more? What’s really sad is that singer/songwriter/musicians who actually have talent may never be heard. Yet untalented people like Kanye West who don’t write their own material, don’t play instruments, can’t sing get heard because they nobody who knows somebody in the business. Give this guy another Grammy.
Wow. Kanye West doesn’t just need a little help from auto-tune, he is such a bad singer that auto-tune can’t help him at all. It is actually quite a feat to be able to sing out of tune through the auto-tune. This is a PATHETIC display of singing, showmanship, and songwriting. Any half-assed pro singer can sing their way through a sore thoat. It’s called studying your craft. Kanye is not a singer. Maybe he is a good rapper but anybody associated with him singing on an album or him singing in front of any audience should be ashamed. Anybody that thinks this is a good performance is an IDIOT and proves that there now is a generation of people brought up listening to auto-tuned vocals who can’t tell real singing from fake, and good singing from bad. Real albums by real singers should start putting “No Auto-tune” stickers on them. Get off the F***ing stage Kanye, you CAN’T SING!