For a time Kanye West seemed like the saviour of mainstream hip-hop.
Here was a tasteful, intelligent producer with a fine line in witty wordplay and Gold Digger was an instant classic. Sure it was heavily indebted to the Ray Charles original but it was a great reworking. But since then West has held his indolent interpretation of what sampling is and on Good Life he squeezes the life out of Michael Jackson’s PYT. You wouldn’t mind so much if he had anything to say but the lazy cars and money clichés rendered here confirms West as Puff Daddy for the hip crowd.
