Dissecting Kanye West's Turning Point, In Microscopic Detail
When America took to the polls in record numbers to vote in last November's historic election, the fate of the nation wasn't the only thing hanging in the balance. In a sense, the next season of Dissect was, too.
Cole Cuchna, host of the Spotify podcast made notable thanks to his meticulous "note by note and line by line" dissections of the most iconic hip-hop and R&B albums in recent history, had already selected the LP and scripted most of the new season. But he knew that releasing an in-depth consideration of the album — and specifically the artist — in question in a year as tumultuous as 2020 could prove flammable.
Needless to say, Kanye West has inspired that kind of reaction continuously over the last decade. But Cuchna didn't select him and one of his most polarizing albums, Yeezus, as the focus for season eight of Dissect for that reason. He chose Yeezus because it's among his favorites "by any artist of all time." And when the classically trained Cuchna refers to "all time," best believe he's including the likes of everyone from Beethoven to Bob Dylan.
"From a historical perspective, I can't help but as this kind of clear marker in history that aligns with so many artists that stand the test of time," Cuchna says, "where we can look back and say that moment defined the next 50 to 60 years of music."
