I remember it clearly.
When I was a freshman in high school, everyone really liked the singles “Love Lockdown” and “Heartless,” and then one night I was roaming iTunes and saw the album had come out earlier that day.
I immediately walked into my mom’s room and gave her the $10 in quarters I had just scrambled together from my change cup, random drawers and the family change cup that was supposed to be used for monthly trips to Kroger to use in the Coinstar machine.
“Mom, here’s $10,” I said. “Kanye’s new album just came out today and I need to buy it.”
I thought she wouldn’t let me use her iTunes account, but she just said, “OK, thanks,” and that was that.
Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak was the first album I ever bought with my own money, and very shortly after that purchase, I was hooked.
Since my admiration for West’s music has only grown since then, you can imagine my excitement when I found out he was launching The Yeezus Tour this fall. And almost as if it were scheduled just for me, West’s tour stops in Detroit on Nov. 10, almost five years to the day when I bought 808s.
And I’ve bought every album, two solos and two collaborations, since then.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was the soundtrack to my junior year of high school. I couldn’t go anywhere in my car without listening to a song. The next album, Watch The Throne, was what I often referenced in awkward conversations with new people I met at The Post when I first got to Ohio University (those conversations probably contributed to them thinking I’m cray).
Being a collaboration with Jay Z, Watch The Throne is what got me liking Jay’s music. I saw the Detroit show of the album’s accompanying tour with one of my best friends from high school.
Then there was Cruel Summer, a collaboration with some folks on West’s G.O.O.D. Music label. Its promotional single “Cold” — formerly known as “Theraflu” — was the subject of a column I wrote that appeared in The Post my freshman year at OU.
And then there’s Yeezus, the critically-lauded album West dropped this summer.
It took a few listens to fully appreciate it, but now that I do, I still listen to it probably way more than I should.
So that’s why I’m going to see The Yeezus Tour with whoever will go with me.
And I strongly encourage anyone reading this to go too.
If you’re thinking about going but you’re on the fence, just stop, reflect and really ask yourself: What would Yeezus do?
Joshua Jamerson is a junior studying journalism and local editor at The Post, where he blasts Kanye West’s music during editing sessions with his reporters. Are you going to The Yeezus Tour? Chat about it with him at jj360410@ohiou.edu.
