I can't agree with WTT, The Joy, Murder to Excellence are two of his strongest performances of his career. Top 10 imo.
nikkas in Paris is one of the best club songs of the 2000s imo as well.
It's a different style to the music, instead of spitting game about using Kweli to pick up broads. He spits outrageous lines about laws of polygamy, which is just as dope imo.
As far as Cruel Summer, shyt was average but it was club shyt.
And an album with Cyhi, 2 Chainz, Teyanna Taylor, flabby n sick Mase, bunch of young producers etc has it's limits.
Just that Wu-tang joint White Dress alone is as good micwise as any other Kanye West track, but he's not a true spitta. His magic is creating songs for himself and great Mc's. The only songs he produced on Cruel Summer was New God Flow with Ghost and Pusha, and that shyt is amazing and The Morning which I thought was dope as well. I'm one of the biggest "haters" of his Haaa sound, but I understand that he what he's doing. He's having fun, that's why that shyt isn't on his own albums. He's enjoying the feeling of having
#1 joints in the hood, strip club joints and on. If you look at his whole career, there is nothing he hasn't done at this point. From trap music to Katy Perry pop to mashing Bieber and Wu-tang, to backpacker music, to musicals and on. But none of that shyt ends up on his albums unless it's 5 mics.