June 2, 2009

Album Review: Kanye West & Malik Yusef - 'Present GOOD Morning, GOOD Night'

Another Kanye protege, another disappointment

3 / 10 Proving once more that Kanye West is as reliable a critical bellwether as jumping up and down afterwards is reliable contraception, behold! Hip-hop poet Yusef pulls in a dizzying array of collaborators over 30 tracks, some (KRS-One) more welcome than others (Adam Levine of Maroon 5). Perhaps the overburdened cast-list explains the confused sound, which blends ’90s R&B, laid-back hip-hop and smooth pop over clunky rhymes to overblown effect. The lyrics touch the usual bases, but the undoubted nadir is ‘The Return (Here She Comes Again)’, featuring a litany of puns on the word ‘cum’ (“cummunion wine”? Seriously?). Robotic voices applied to promos as copy-protection normally irritate us, but in this case it was a blessed relief.

Duncan Gillespie

More on this artist:
Malik Yusef NME Artist Page
Malik Yusef MySpace