21st Century Schizoid Man Reaction (King Crimson Vs Kanye West) DeSampled Episode 1 

The original track is so much better than Kanye’s corny ass song sorry

After hearing this band in 1969 , Jimi Hendrix said: "this is the best band in the world".

If you want to explore King Crimson further, their album ‘Red’ is a leftfield progressive masterpiece

_In The Court Of The Crimson King_ is generally regarded as the greatest Prog album ever made (among the Top 2 or 3). Don't stop at the opener, go all in. Beauty awaits. The fast phrasing is inspired by the lightning improvisation of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. Rock + Jazz + Classical theory x Acid = Classic Prog

Yes, that free form jazz section is not for everyone - esp at first listen. That start and stop section just shows how incredibly tight the band was. King Crimson gave their final performance some time last year. What an amazing career they had!

The rest of the album is completely different. "I Talk to the Wind"--a kind of pastoral ballad with a beautiful flute solo, "Epitaph"-funereal and epic sung by Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, "Moonchild" ethereal and abstract improv "In the Court of the Crimson King"- is very melodic and majestic. At the time of it's release it was revolutionary and somewhat controversial.

About the guitar work here... Robert Fripp is one of the most innovative and accomplished guitarists of the last 50 years. Nothing he plays is by chance. This doesn't mean that anyone has to like it, but this guitar solo was rated number 82 in Guitar World's list of the Top 100 Greatest Guitar Solos in 2008, exactly because of it's ground breaking dissonance and atonal quality. It was not meant to be exactly pleasing on the ears -not in a traditional way. This song is considered proto-metal, prog rock, and a mixture of rock and free jazz.

It’s hard to ever compare Kanye’s Power to the masterpiece that is 21st Century Schizoid man. Love them both but Kanye can’t compare in this case

A story that I read once said that the members of Yes were at a London club listening to (that version of) King Crimson play a pre-recording version of this. They decided right then that they needed to step up their game. That is, this song was an inspiration for Yes to become Yes.

This had Greg Lake on Bass and vocals, it was from the mind of the incomparable Robert Fripp, I have seen them live a couple of times and they had 3 (yes you read correctly 3) drummers all placed at the front of the stage, it creates quite an atmosphere.

Yep, they formed in 1969, and still playing, and still playing great! One of my friend saw them live, and said they were amazing.

Coming from a person who has never listened to hip hop, this was very interesting. I like the idea of what you've done here. I'm down for more for sure. My absolute favorite song by King Crimson is "Epitaph." I think you would really enjoy it. IMO it is a lyrical masterpiece. Peace!

From the first prog rock album - astonishing concept and tone from - 1969 - the same year as Led Zeppelin's first album. Both revolutionary in their own ways.

Schizoid and Schizophrenia are separate disorders. Schizoid men tend to be extremely socially isolated and cold to the world. Emotionless Metaphor with militaries killing civilians coldly without feeling

The way this track ends is how I expect the universe will end.

That whole Court of the Crimson King album is brilliant and a landmark at the beginning of Prog. More from this album is a must, try Epitaph next, a haunting cut and utter Masterpiece. Amazing band with many eras and lineups, all worth exploring. Enjoy! 🎵🎸🎤🎹🎶

King Crimson was an astonishing band in all its iteration - one of the all-time best prog rock bands: a little more 'difficult' than Yes, but definitely worth a deep dive. This was their first big single. Live, they were an amazing beast keeping time on their complex rhythms seemingly through telepathy - songs like "Elephant Talk" in particular are remarkable to watch live. Can I suggest you try David Bowie's "Let's Dance", heavily sampled by Puff Daddy and The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Been Around the World".

Love the concept of these. As an annoying dad, I really enjoy hearing what my sons are listening to, recognising the sample, pulling out the original (normally on vinyl) and playing it, waiting for one of them to poke their head in the door and ask "what's this?" I suspect in this series you'll find yourself listening to Steely Dan sooner rather than later.

My father is a die hard king crimson fan I grew up listening crimson constantly and I grew to love them. Elephant talks is great one.

Epitaph - King Crimson ....forgotten gem from the Cuban missile crisis..... beautiful bass line but lyrics powerfully depicting both the worries and hopes of avoiding nuclear war....will sound like a tinge of chillout with some angst interspersed to the new listener

Couple of thoughts for you: 1) Another great concept for a video. I'm so glad you're doing things like this, rather that just the usual reaction videos; those are great, too, but these sorts of episodes really set your channel apart from similar channels. 2) Welcome to Prog Rock.

If this is the first of a bunch of videos like this one, count me in. Great job.

Now I hear what you meant by sampling! I can hear it with both these tracks. You're broadening my musical education. I never got too much into King Crimson because I was deep in studies at university. And my hip hop knowledge is pretty much confined to Beastie Boys, Eminem, Tupac and N.W.A. Of course I'm a huge Bob Marley fan (although not hip hop)l.. So I needed to branch out some.

I love the idea of you taking pieces of songs that new bands are using then playing the orginal song. I appreciate that you gave the album a listen.

This song (20th Century Schizoid Man) is so amazing. I’m really glad to see anyone reacting to it! King Crimson is my favourite!

Kanye's a king of great sample use. "Champion" takes a really tight sample from "Kid Charlemagne" and "Higher" samples Jon Anderson singing the hook on a Mike Oldfield tune. I'd love to have seen Kanye's process of digging through all that old vinyl to find that stuff. I'm mostly a prog fan, and I see some of that challenging, self-indulgent creativity in Kanye's best stuff.

There’s also that “neuro scream neuro scream neurosurgeon neuro scream.

This first line up of King Crimson features the young Greg Lake who left and joined forces with Keith Emerson to form the super group ELP. And also the "Prince of the Polyrhythms" Mr Bill Bruford who help complete the Prog-Rock group "YES". And went on to become one of the elite Drummers of all time. Next Crimson you need to check out would be "Catfood" featuring its either Keith Tippett or David Cross on piano. But then progress further through the Crimson Catalog with Starless, and Red, and indiscipline . They are like a great craft beer, an acquired taste But once you develop that taste nothing else will compare to them

What I love about the song is the mess of noise in some parts almost just makes sense. Like you understand what's going on and it's weird but great.

Check out Starless live from Tokyo, you get to see them all on stage, you really get to appreciate what's going on, I don't think I've ever seen a rock band before with three drum kits on stage

Great idea to do this. Like it! You gotta listen to Labbi Siffre I got the blues and then the sample for Eminem my name is. The siffre tune is amazing, gangster Funk in 1975. The half way change is brilliant when the dr dre/Eminem sample kicks in. Blew my mind when first heard it and love to trick all my mates with it.

You could do selected cuts off of their early albums like this one, and actually I think those are very first album. And they were around for a number of years and so there sounds kept advancing and changing. Truly a mind-blowing band. And I like both the early and the later lineups. But for example I love a couple of the songs off of the album Lark's tongues in aspic. Including that title part 2. There is a part one but then part 2 is preceded by this topless and electric viola piece that just gradually grows into this increasingly frenetic chaos and then it explodes with this insane howling and that immediately leads into larc's tongues in aspect part 2. Which has the most wonderful combination of nines and 11s and so forth but it feels so right and it's a masterpiece. Fast forward to their slightly later years and they released their Trilogy starting with the red album. As someone else said, one of the greatest prog rock albums of all time. Or maybe they were talking about this first album but a lot of people including me would say that the red album was just above and beyond. That would be a fun one to cover every song on, they are all just so incredible and yet accessible. There's a lot of humor there, and of course dazzling displays of musicianship.

I can't imagine what it must've been like to hear this track/album in 1969 - a year before Black Sabbath debuted and it makes them look like The Beatles.

Greg Lake’s bass line is absolutely brilliant!!!

i'm so glad this exists. i was listening to 21st century schizoid man and i heard power in there

Lead singer and guitarist Greg Lake of this King Crimson was a year later and throughout the 70s in Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. Unfortunately Lake passed away a few years ago 😪

Great vid and commentary!

I got the king crimson album for Xmas Along with my new stereo When my father heard the song He thought something was wrong with the new stereo he didn’t realize it was intentional fuzztone distortion on The Voice

This was the first album I owned - 1968 maybe, still sounds great.

Lead singer and bassist Greg Lake, went on to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.

The playing, the arrangement, the musicianship, the melodies, drums, etc etc King Crimson' song is a masterpiece. The Kanye one has good ideas, good hooks, very good production but it will always be just a well crafted hip-pop song.

Thoroughly enjoyed this although I wasn't familiar with either. I would love to know how Kanye came to know this track in the first place. Enjoyed both songs if I'm being honest. Hope you keep this type of video up, endlessly fascinating in a similar (but different) way to your recent NIN/Cash "Hurt" video.

Yeah I bought this album and the people that were all about 7 to 10 years older than me loved it to death. And surprisingly I was just like you pretty much, I liked the more organized Parts about it but not the fusion Jazz stuff because I was just so used to organized stuff. The most hilarious thing is that the way I actually became a fan of King Crimson was years later on there red album which came out around 1980 or so. And even though it sounded much more modern than this, it still had stuff like those abstract guitar solos that are so angular, which in a way you can draw a direct line from that to Kurt Cobain and his guitar solos. They aren't what you're wanting from a rock song but they are often really abstract in angular and dissonant and Powerful and strident and just fit perfectly. And they were already showing this here back then, that guitar wasn't weak, it was intentionally a bit abstract because really it was that bass along with the drums that were carrying and driving this whole thing. That bass playing on this is insane. I mean totally insane. But it was around 1982 or so and I was riding around with my roommate and bandmate in his car and he put in a cassette and said you got to check this out it really rocks. And so I was expecting something that I knew we were both already really into, like AC/DC or Nazareth or Deep Purple or Ted Nugent or Iron Maiden or Pantera or whatever, stuff that you thought of as just really rocking hard. And when the King Crimson song came on, I was immediately captive by the amazing cool arrangement and execution and the drumming and just the strangeness of it but I remember clearly saying to him, I don't know man, that guitar just doesn't really rock, laugh. Again I was thinking of Angus Young and so forth. But then since he was my roommate I started to hear him play it a lot and in the end I fell head over heels and bought that CD and then I started working my way backwards towards this earlier stuff buying the vinyl. It just takes a while for your brain to accept something that's outside of the more normal stuff but this band was just so good that there is a lot of wonderful stuff waiting there for people to understand and discover. But I will say my favorite stuff is off the red album and then kind of their intermediate albums like Lark's tongues in aspic, and there's another one called starless in Bible black from that. That were great and even then I just typically will play certain selections from them. But I do like them better than this first album. I guess I was just younger than the older crowd that had their minds blown when Court Of The Crimson King came out and it was so different but for me that was 10 years before and here I am like 18 or 20 years old.

This is why I love listening to hip-hop even though all my friends hate it. I think it allows you to peer into the mind of the artist and learn a bit more about their musical taste, plus you get to listen to new bands and discover masterpieces like this!

Ay absolutely huge samurai champloo music in the back

I saw them live in Clearwater Florida and it was so good dude

If you hear the next song on the Kim crimson it mellows out what u just heard

I don't know whether or not you check these comments still, But King Crimson outright innovated an entirely new sound and genre; prog rock. In a time where the world was searching for peace and love, King Crimson was able to explain the world through the lens of greed, corruption, and imbalanced power, through a path which no one prior has taken. Without King Crimson, the list of classic prog rock bands would cease to be. There would be no Rush, no Tool, no Yes, no Pink Floyd, and the list goes on and on and on. King Crimson was even recognized by some of the greats; notably Jimi Hendrix has once claimed King Crimson to be his favorite band EVER. Even today, the ripple effects are still felt. Kanye is taking inspiration directly from them even today, and even modern psych/prog bands like "King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard", "The Murlocs", and "Frankie and The Witch Fingers" would cease to exist without the torch of progressive rock passed down by King Crimson. I huge respect for this band even 50+ years after their initial album "In The Court of The Crimson King", and it's amazing to see people today discovering their art and being floored by their musical motifs and outlandish takes on what music is.

It’s laughable you’re trying to call kanye brilliant and then mention King crimson after that sentence.

aint no way kianye just dropped it in like that, no fade in, no blending, just mashed in there lol

Great theme you've come up with here, like the analysis. Gets me to listen to the hip hop that does all this sampling I've heard about - and am totally new to. This was interesting in that Kanye didn't sample per se as much as just took a snippet of King Crimson as is. A hard stop with a trippy fill, great execution. So, I understand that Led Zeppelin has been sampled by a number of artists. Their song Kashmir for example. Next stop for you? 👍

This is a great idea. Prodigy and Fat Boy Slim brought plenty of old tunes back to peoples ears.

"In The Court Of The Crimson King" is the very first song I remember hearing as a toddler. I think it made a mark...

Recorded by Crimson in 1969. 1969!!! This was a groundbreaking album that birthed the entire progressive rock movement and still sounds amazing today.

The great Greg Lake, later from EL&P, on lead vocals and bass.

This is a very interesting series. It makes me more interested in looking into Kanye.

I'm afraid this is going to get blocked (King Crimson is notorious for that) but while it's up - great concept for a reaction! I'd love to see more of these.

The singular nature of this song is still amazing to me.

The entire album is good. A classic, one of the best rock albums ever made.

Hi. Note the line “Innocents raped by napalm fire”. There is a famous picture from the Vietnam War, perhaps you’ve seen it, of children running from a village that was hit by napalm. One child has had her clothes burned off and is badly burned. I believe this is what the writer of the song was referring to. If you’ve never seen the picture just google something like Vietnam napalm burned girl and it will come up along with the full story behind the picture.

I love the commentor's story about the schzoid co-worker, and addressed the person as "they". Btw, you'd better hope Robert Fripp, doesn't come across this video, because he was pretty pissed off at Kanye. Kanye, with Mos Def, also sampled the german band Can's "Sing Swan Song" for the track "Drunk & Hot Girls"

In the Court of the Crimson King is another beautiful song from them

Try "In the Court of the Crimson King" A masterpiece imo :)

This is a great idea!

I can see by your facial expressions that you're not used to tempo changes and instrumental breaks. Which isn't that surprising, because modern day pop music and Hip Hop do away with all of that since, a rapper must have a steady beat to flow on. A good example is Chris Cab's cover version of "Englishman in New York" where he does away with the second and third verses and the tempo change and the instrumental break of Sting's original song. It makes it easier for everybody to sing along to and dance away. But it also takes out what the original song was talking about and what made it musically interesting.

i always forget how great King Crimson are so its nice of you remind me

Love that nujabes in the background

Longterm KC fan here, and also a hip hop fan. The original track is great, but Kanye did what hip-hop is supposed to do: take an existing thing and remake it into his own thing. I like them both.

It's quite funny when reactors say that the song they are reacting to reminds them of another artist from much later in time, when it's really the other way around. This was very early prog rock and for that time it was super hard. Does Kanye get extra points for choosing this sample? Maybe if it's homage to King Crimson.

From 1970 man. Three other songs from this album you should give an ear to. I Talk To The Wind, Epitaph and of course In The Court Of The Crimson King.

You should listen to "The Court of the Crimson King" from the same album

Get your head around " Larks tongue in aspick".

You should check out Flashlight by Parliment. It's basically every Dr. Dre song from the early 90s.

I think Robert Fripp will be pleased to know Kanye sampled KC without his consent. Fripp is a little picky when it comes to intellectual property... We can expect some court fun... Oh, BTW, the drums are not "delayed", this is fully played. No way dudes on acid can play anything like this. BTW: Greg Lake (bass+vocals) : Emerson Lake & Palmer Ian McDonald ( saxophone, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, Mellotron, harpsichord, piano, organ, vibraphone, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "I Talk to the Wind", production) : founding member of the band Foreigner. Band leader and guitarist Robert Fripp is well known for his collaborations with David Bowie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, David Sylvian (Japan), Blondie, Andy Summers (The Police), Van der Graaf Generator, Talking Heads, Daryl Hall, Cheikha Rimitti (the grandmother of Raï)... Actually, his career encompasses over 1100 official and unofficial releases

Not doing this anymore? Would like to see your reaction to Future - Mask Off/Tommy Butler - Prison Song

Welcome to the crazy world of King Crimson

Great kind of reaction ! Your idea is brilliant. Musical advice (sorry) : I think you can have a lot of views with a reaction to "I got the" (Labi Siffre, 1975. A pure jewel), used by Eminem in "My name is". Great job ! Hi from France.

What kind of headphones is he using ?

Noticed that last line in the lyrics about having more than they need or the king heaven more than he needs it seems true here in the United States sometimes at least for the rich for the rest of us not so good talking about the middle class and for the poor wow it’s bad anyway it was like a prophecy It was just like a prophecy and I just ordinary guys I also wanted to mention it’s Robert Fripp that does that guitar solo he’s a genius Robert Fripp also work with Brian Eno Brian Eno really kind of started the “ambient music” movement By that I mean unintentionally he didn’t call it that everybody else called it that and everybody else jumped on the bandwagon at that time and in approximately 1974

If anyone wants more prog listen to Yes, or Emerson Lake and Palmer (the vocalist, Greg Lake, is the same for 21 century schizoid man)

I will never endorse sampling, it's a cheat sheet for the untalented. Either do a sophisticated cover or get the freakin hell outta here!!!..

Sad news Ian McDonald Died on February 9 2022 in New York. Sure Robert received the news.

intersting concept, i learned a lot thinking on my own while you reflected. the thing i heard before that was "bo diddley" by bo diddley, which is insanely great. i do not care about hiphop usually, don't like the voices, the roles of the rapping subject, the poetry. but the kanye west-phrasing was ok for me, and i understood hiphop to be a urban version of bo diddley-music. (the message II is great, for example.) here it ismixed with avantgarde progrock, which I usually don't like either. king crimson is more radical though, and i understood what you said about black sabbath (a band i respect). finally, you called this "metal", and "metal" is also a genre i don't get, with the exception of drone metal maybe. it is either cartoonesk rock without the roll in it or it is progrock in disguise. (yes, i'm old, but there are aesthetical reasons gong with it.) so all in all i learned a lot, and from a music analysis point of view, yours is the best reaction channel out there. great dylan reaction, the gold standard for reaction channels. (although I often disagree with your faves: late pink floyd is hollow prog for me, and led zeppelin is an impressive, but very unpleasant combination of masculist posing plus fitting musical showing off-attitude. jimmy page raped underage groupies, I can hear that.)

This was in 1969. Listen to the entire album. I like Epitaph, sounds like it was written for today Syed. You like Pink Floyd and Yes, I'd imagine you'll dig this. I like many of the cuts more than the title track. Enjoy and keep this old guy learning things he never knew when these titles were 50 & 60 years younger! I'm on a Natural High now and enjoyed running into your circle! You are on the Button with the Stone's and Keith Richard by the way. If you like Counrty music listen to some Hank Williams. Keith did and recorded a few. I hope he sticks to Sticky Fingers. Other writers like Kris kristofferson & Bob Dylan studied Hank's work.. He tells stories and knew how to put his heart and a tear into a song and the lyrics. He died at 29 in 1953. He was in three hall of Fames, Country, Writers and Rock 'N' Roll. That's Hank on my avatar, he's a keeper imo. You are too and have a sharp mind! The Amelas One

Sampling is the laziest form of artistic expression. It’s like taking the Mona Lisa and painting antlers on her, and taking credit for it.

Yeah….King Crimson has never been accessible to me. I know many put them together with Yes, ELP, Genesis, Rush, Gentle Giant as a major player in the Prog rock genre. But even though Prog has never been my favorite genre, I can respect and even love songs from the other bands. King Crimson, although I can spot the talent here, leaves me cold. The description of jazz on acid is apt…….but is that a good thing? As you said..it’s bonkers. It’s noise. The ,lyrics are powerful, the primary riff is powerful, but that middle off-the-chain part………what was the point? What did it add? Is it a song you’d want to hear more than once? Would you buy an album of this style? I guess I have to admit I just do t get the appeal.

This version sounds strange is it a remix

This song is timeless, though it reflects directly the sociopolitical vibe of 1968-69, it speaks for all world-time. That said, even today, when I hear this song and Greg Lake sings rock and roll's first ever distorted-on-purpose vocals, it sounds like the unrest of 1968-69 are throwing up all the social toxicity. Just picture Nixon's face, because that's the 21st Century Schizoid Man if there ever was one.

You NEED to listen to the Whole album

if Kanye is a genius then what the f**k does that make Robert Fripp? :)

This song is not about a schizophrenic man. it is a socal commentary on the politics in 1969.

Kanye?..no you bleeding can't

Beebop meets James Bond meets Uncle Sam meets Bruce Lee in a road accident causing a psychological break and so.... yeah we roll with it into the 21st century and call it normal life.

king crimson is sick!

This song is actually about the horrors that occurred during Vietnam, its more a protest song than anything, raped with napalm fire is a literal lyric not metaphoric by any means

It's interesting how some people see this song about the mind of a schizophrenic man whereas I believe it to be representing the world that would drive someone to insanity, since all lyrics are talking about the world, using the term "21st Century Schizoid Man" in a slowly more and more tragic, mourning way

I am happy young people were introduced to a great song and amazing band. ‘Sampling’ I guess can be more than theft by the talentless.

Only music comparable at time was Frank Zappa

Have a look at Toyah Wilcox and Robert Fripps channel and you will see 1 of the originators of King Crimson Mr. Fripp

The rest of the album is really pretty mellow. Go figure