14 DAY TRIAL // Reviews for Kanye West’s most recent album, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” call it the work of a genius. If you ask Quincy Jones, though, he doesn’t see what the fuss is all about – after all, Kanye is “just a rapper.”
Us Magazine got a chance to talk to the 27-time Grammy winning musician on the occasion of the launch of his tribute album, “Q: Soul Bossa Nostra,” and he was his usual not-shy self when speaking about the biggest names in the music industry right now.
For instance, Kanye West, a rapper of which many critics agreed he’d cleared his record for good with “Fantasy,” an album so brilliant it even excused him from being so terribly annoying and self-centered.
As the Us Magazine reporter tries to compare Jones with Kanye in the sense that both are producers everybody wants to work with, the legendary musician flips, leaving no room for doubt that he won’t stand to be compared with Kanye.
“How man? No way. Did he write for a symphony orchestra? Does he write for a jazz orchestra? Come on, man. He’s just a rapper. There’s no comparison,” Quincy says.
“I’m not putting him down or making a judgment or anything, but we come from two different sides of the planet. I spent 28 years learning my first skill. I don’t rap. It’s not the same thing. […] No comparison. None,” the musician adds.
He then goes on to say that Kanye is a good rapper, but there are others far better than him – like Ludacris, for instance. A great producer he’s not, though.
Quincy Jones also talks in the same interview about Lady Gaga, whom he compares to Madonna Jr., saying she probably has a very long career ahead of her. He still doesn’t listen to her music, he adds.
As for the upcoming Michael Jackson album, Jones too believes it should never see the light of day, even if that’s Michael singing on it, which Sony Music insists it is.
“It sounds like Michael. But it’s backed up by so many voices where I can’t really dig down deep enough or I haven’t really had time to dig deep enough to identify it. But no way it should be coming out. It should have all stayed in the vault,” Quincy Jones says.
For the full interview with Us Magazine, please refer here.