Velvet Underground guitarist and vocalist Lou Reed is a huge, huge fan of hip-hop artist Kanye West. Reed wrote a rave review of West's latest album, "Yeezus," for TheTalkhouse.com, describing the record as "majestic and inspiring," "glorious," "beautiful" and "seriously smart."
Reed swoons:
Kanye West is a child of social networking and hip-hop. And he knows about all kinds of music and popular culture. The guy has a real wide palette to play with. That's all over Yeezus. There are moments of supreme beauty and greatness on this record, and then some of it is the same old shit. But the guy really, really, really is talented. He's really trying to raise the bar. No one's near doing what he's doing, it's not even on the same planet.
Addressing the most controversial aspect of "Yeezus"-- West's lyrics -- he says that West is "just having fun":
Many lyrics seem like the same old b.s. Maybe because he made up so much of it at the last minute. But it's the energy behind it, the aggression. Usually the Kanye lyrics I like are funny, and he's very funny here. Although he thinks that getting head from nuns and eating Asian pussy with sweet and sour sauce is funny, and it might be, to a 14-year-old — but it has nothing to do with me. Then there's the obligatory endless blowjobs and menages-a-trois.
But it's just ridiculous that people are getting upset about "Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign"? C'mon, he's just having fun. That's no more serious than if he said he's going to drop a bomb on the Vatican. How can you take that seriously?
To Reed, at least, West lives up to his own hype.
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