YMMV / Yeezus

• Broken Base: Sonically, Yeezus is a complete 180 from the soulful, anthemic songs that characterized West's previous studio album and much of his other past work, opting instead for jarring, aggressive beats inspired by the likes of Industrial and similarly abrasive subgenres of Electronic Music. The album's lyrical content is no less abrasive and off-putting, all adding up to create an intentionally polarizing experience. To cite one example of this divide in the fanbase, when Anthony Fantano gave a 5/10 score to the album on his review series The Needle Drop, the video got 19,000 likes to 10,000 dislikes. Co-producer Rick Rubin sums it up best, regarding the decision to open Yeezus with the infamously harsh "On Sight":
  "We hadn’t really heard anything like ["On Sight"] in hip hop before. That may have been one of the inspirations for the minimal direction for the whole album. So we put it first, and it was really non-musical, super aggro, really noisy. I loved it, it made me crazy. A lot of people hate it — it divides people."
• Vindicated by History: The album was met with critical acclaim, but the general public was divided on its industrial influences, with some unfavorably comparing it to Death Grips. However, while still a bit divisive, it's much more fondly looked at in recent years, being widely seen as one of the best hip-hop albums of the decade.

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