At this point, the rest of 2012 could be Kanye West’s breaking period. Two years have passed since he released his landmark album “My Dark Twisted Fantasy” which gave him credence to have such a big ego: it was one of the best, most creative hip-hop albums of the last decade. A sprawling epic on par with Guns ‘N Roses “Use Your Illusion” or the hip-hop equivalent of The Beatles ‘white’ album. Yes, it really was that good. At the very least, it shut his critics up for a while.

Yet the last two years for Kanye have seen him essentially running victory laps without putting out much in the way of new music. His G.O.O.D. Music label is set to put out a sampler soon; he’s dating famous porn-star-turned-reality-star Kim Kardashian; and he put out some expensive sneakers. Other than that, he’s put out the catchy “Mercy” and these two songs.

“I Wish You Could” and “Cold” both carry some sort of urgency, yet it’s difficult to understand exactly what Kanye and Rick Ross are so anxious to tell me about. This is a far cry from any of the song equivalents on “My Dark Twisted Fantasy” – those songs were there to prove the world wrong. “I Wish You Could” sounds like it’s been put there not to prove the world wrong but simply to remind Kanye that he can still record with urgency; having said that, the bark is still there, but where’s the bite? “Cold” is focused around a hook that goes “$6000 pair of shoes / I’ve made it to the Paris news” which sounds as forced as it ever will – Kanye benefited the most from being an outsider. Now that he’s gotten where he wanted, I’m unsure he knows what to do with it.

Oh. And DJ Khaled shows up and does his “yelling his name” thing, which was nice I guess.