Kanye, Fiancee Call It Quits

'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy ' is also the rapper's best effort yet

(NEWSER) - Kanye West is officially back: "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the best album of 2010 and the best album of West's career," asserts Jonah Weiner on Slate . The rapper, always unable to keep quiet about things he finds unjust, has "managed to channel his sense of injustice into his music more fully and thrillingly than ever before. It's a seething and sad album, full of tales of transgression, betrayal, repudiation, and bitter vindication. It's also wild fun to listen to." More»

He's back in studio, comparing himself to legends

(NEWSER) - Famously egotistical rapper Kanye West is back in the studio—and comparing himself to Kobe Bryant and Maya Angelou in a typical-for-him, all-caps blog post . Unlike many rappers, he promises he won’t get worse with age, because “true poets get better,” he writes. There’s just one problem: “First of all Kanye, you’re a rapper. You’re not a poet,” writes Joe Anello on College News . More»

(NEWSER) - Kanye West was one of the first rappers to say, “Yo, stop it” to homophobic hip-hop artists, and his stance on homosexuality “remains the highest-profile rebuke of gay-bashing that hip-hop has seen,” writes Jonah Weiner for Slate. So why did West use the anti-gay hip-hop phrase “no homo” on a recent Jay-Z single? Weiner argues that this can actually be seen as progress. More»

She unfollows him on Twitter after he tweets line about 'my old bitch'

(NEWSER) - It's splitsville again for the hard-boozing Rihanna and Chris Brown—at least on Twitter. The pair have been exchanging flirty tweets , fueling reports that they were quietly back together. But that's all over now—and it's all because of a remix. Brown tweeted a line from Kanye West's "Way too Cold" about "my old bitch," and how "everybody don had her/shook the tree like a pumpkin just to smash her." Rihanna apparently believed Brown was referring to her, and tweeted: "Aw, poor dat #neaux1currrrr," and promptly unfollowed her old beau. He did the same after tweeting: “Assumptions! I didn't say any names so if u took offense to it then it’s something you feel guilty about." More»

Kardashian, West rumors pretty clearly a grab for attention

(NEWSER) - Let's start with the obvious: Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are "dating," aka "engaging in a vast publicity stunt." Which is apparently working, based on the dozens of articles written about their "relationship." To get you up to speed:

• Kanye admitted his "love" in song: In his new single "Theraflu," he raps, "And I’ll admit, I had fell in love with Kim / Around the time she had fell in love with him / Well that’s cool, baby girl, do your thing / Lucky I ain’t had Jay drop him from the team." It would appear he's referring to Kardashian ("Kim"), Kris Humphries ("him"), and Jay-Z ("Jay," Kanye's friend and part-owner of Humphries' team, the New Jersey Nets), the New York Post speculates.
• They went on a very long, very public date: Kim and Kanye were spotted together on the same day "Theraflu" dropped—the coincidence!—seeing The Hunger Games together Wednesday night and then appearing "close and intimate" at a theater performance, a source tells Us . Yesterday morning, Kim was photographed leaving Kanye's place in her same clothes from the night before, then they were spotted having lunch together, TMZ reports, and going shopping at FAO Schwarz, E! adds.