Kanye West fails to single-handedly save B&O's handset biz

Looks like Bang and Olufsen might have a harder time getting out of the cellphone game than it thought -- especially now that Kanye's throwing cash at it. Yep, Yeezy just picked up the year-old Serenata in Singapore, and he's thoughtfully posted up some unboxing pics for us. We thought the Samsung-built handset was a hot little number when we played with it back in January at CES, but we've moved on since then -- it's a triband dumbphone, after all. We've got some hotter gear to show you, 'Ye -- call anytime.

[Thanks, Philip]

[Aguiluz @ Oct 30th 2008 5:20PM]

The moment I read "B&O" on the title I immediately looked at his armpits for wetness.

[liv @ Oct 30th 2008 5:29PM]

this post just screams for someone to mention the "you know what" phone...

Also.. is it just me or is his T-Shirt more interesting than the B&O phone... :)

http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/client_images/kanyewest/3164_02bcaca02b9d699ea8bc71dcec7d11cf.jpg

[ByronGman @ Oct 30th 2008 6:07PM]

What is funny is how everyone on Kayne's website is oohing and aaahing over how cool that phone is...


That's star power for you I guess.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Oct 30th 2008 7:52PM]

I immediately thought Monopoly when I heard B&O [Railroad].

Kanye West is an insufferable tool [and I'm happy this mom died.]

Edited by Flashpoint

[LegendZ28 @ Oct 31st 2008 12:00AM]

@ILoveApple

What's funny is that I saw the black guy holding it up and thought wow, Engadget's got a black editor.... but nope, it's just Kanye. The last black guy I saw on a tech show was Will on Attack of the Show. What's the deal, am I the only black guy that digs technology?

[Rogue_Genius @ Oct 31st 2008 10:48AM]

@ Legend

Nope, you're the second. I was first. :D

[Techie @ Oct 30th 2008 5:21PM]

Kanye West is a stubborn jack ass. He always thinks he's the best rapper out there. Well screw him =D

[Zorque @ Oct 30th 2008 5:31PM]

A) All rappers think that.
B) Kanye is one of the best out there.

[liv @ Oct 30th 2008 5:32PM]

nobody asked you what you think about his music... the article is about a mobile phone being unboxed by a celebrity... and his albums are far better than some other shit out there... even the auto-tune crap... so next time you wanna bash Mr. West go back to youtube where you belong

[ILoveApple @ Oct 30th 2008 5:32PM]

Engadget does not care about black people.

[Reader @ Oct 30th 2008 5:48PM]

He does happen to be one of my least despised rappers. Pretty smooth voice, and for the most part doesn't talk about killing cops and beating hookers. Only rapper with a song still on my Zune.

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Oct 30th 2008 7:59PM]

I wish Kanye West was a hooker so some cops would beat him.

[Deeznuts420 @ Oct 31st 2008 8:16AM]

killing cops and beating hookers? what, are u stuck in the early 90's? tool.

[webon @ Oct 30th 2008 5:23PM]

*cough* asskisser *cough*

[ILoveApple @ Oct 30th 2008 5:24PM]

There's a grammatical error on the shirt that Kanye is wearing.

[JerJer @ Oct 30th 2008 5:37PM]

FAIL! unless....do you think....someone else.....OWNS THEIR BACKS?!?! R'UH R'OH!

[ILoveApple @ Oct 30th 2008 5:43PM]

What?

[Rogue_Genius @ Oct 30th 2008 6:14PM]

Hey Jer, didja stop and think that perhaps he meant the shirt leaves off an "s" to agree with the plural subject " MC's " ?

[ILoveApple @ Oct 30th 2008 6:20PM]

There shouldn't be an apostrophe there.

[tsamb @ Oct 30th 2008 6:37PM]

You're correct about the apostrophe, it's not supposed to be possessive. But when have rappers ever cared about grammar? They're all about semantics, yo!

[Ryback @ Oct 31st 2008 4:37AM]

MC is an acronym. Shouldn't there be an ' when you use possessive genitive with an acronym? In my mother tongue you do.

[iEye @ Oct 30th 2008 5:28PM]

in other news... iEye watched a leaked copy of Futurama "Bender's Game" today
said: "funny"

[liv @ Oct 30th 2008 5:34PM]

the funny thing is.. the fact that you said "funny" after watching a not so funny show is actually NOT FUNNY!

you funny fanboy, you...

[Zorque @ Oct 30th 2008 5:39PM]

Anyone who thinks Futurama isn't funny is dumb and should die. The movies weren't very good, but still.

[liv @ Oct 30th 2008 6:26PM]

can you hear that?... it the sound of my foot racing towards you sphincter for being so bloody rude... since when did my opinion that Futurama isn't that funny become an universal truth... what happens to be loved by some probably isn't by others...

I guess education is pretty hard get in the mountains, huh... sheep fucker...

[Zorque @ Oct 31st 2008 4:03AM]

Look at your grammar. In a post telling me I'm uneducated.

[Dana @ Oct 30th 2008 5:30PM]

I guess that settles it: B&O's handset hates black people.

[Critic @ Oct 30th 2008 5:30PM]

I wonder if he got it at Lucky Plaza...

I also wonder if he Visited the Orchard Tower aka "The Four Floors of Whores"

[AutumnBringer @ Oct 30th 2008 5:51PM]

Wonder if you're done dropping names of locations so that we all know you've been there.

[critic2029 @ Oct 30th 2008 5:54PM]

Oh you got me...

[Hellaphunt @ Oct 30th 2008 6:28PM]

Critic, can I have your autograph?

[Lowest Ranked @ Oct 30th 2008 5:41PM]

I believe he actually cursed the cellphone.

[Rob Conway @ Oct 30th 2008 8:32PM]

@sideshowRaheem
Thank goodness! someone else understands sampling! i don't use any samples in my music that aren't royalty-free, but i totally understand the process and i really wish people had a clue that it's not as easy as it seems to make a hip hop beat out of any old song.

[critic2029 @ Oct 30th 2008 5:52PM]

On the Subject of his music. On top of sampling Daft Punk; he's kind of stealing their shtick. The Whole "Glow in the Dark" tour is very similar in style to Daft Punk's Sci-Fi concert Style.

[Zorque @ Oct 30th 2008 5:56PM]

Maybe that's because they were performing alongside him on tour...?

[critic2029 @ Oct 30th 2008 6:02PM]

Though they have given him their blessing, they are not on tour with him... Though I believe they did consult on the design.

Fact Remains instead of creating his own style he's cribbing off of others.

[Zorque @ Oct 30th 2008 6:04PM]

He did at least one show with them, and besides, trying to keep a consistent style with somebody whose music you're sampling is far different than stealing somebody's style outright.

[KillaChaos @ Oct 30th 2008 6:13PM]

Kanye is a great rapper, but as a producer he is known for sampling other music. So if hes blindly "stealing" from everyone wouldn't someone have noticed. His "unique" style is "copying" others.

Besides if you hung out with someone who wore shades all the time, you might wear shades too.

[sideshowRaheem @ Oct 30th 2008 6:43PM]

Wow "stealing", I'm pretty sure Daft Punk got a pretty big paycheck for the use of the sample not to mention Kanye being a very main stream artist brought a lot of attention to a group that maybe some people were not aware of. If your definition of stealing is someone breaking into your house and leaving you a big screen TV and a new mac book pro I guess it's stealing.

[mahmud @ Oct 30th 2008 10:07PM]

You guys are ridiculous, if anyone "stole" a sample, it's daft punk, for harder better faster stronger they more or less just looped cola bottle baby by edwin birdsong: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sklZ-f6Wstw . at least in kanye's song all he did was take the vocals and actually built his own beat around it.

[ugg.tryptophan @ Oct 31st 2008 3:39AM]

its called a collaboration, artists do it all the time

[Thijs Haenen @ Oct 30th 2008 6:03PM]

So THAT's who Mr. Blurrycam is!

[Mobius_1 @ Oct 30th 2008 6:08PM]

Wow Engadget, I don't think Kanye would be too happy to read this post :P

[Rogue_Genius @ Oct 30th 2008 6:23PM]

Somehow I doubt he will read it. If he did read engadget, he would know that the Serenata is around a year old. Seeing as how he prides himself on that "this ain't out yet" style, I doubt he read the engadget article about it. If he had, he would not be giddy and writing "I got the 'new' B&O phone!"

Unless these photos are old.

[Hellaphunt @ Oct 30th 2008 6:25PM]

So... this is off topic, but...

That phone sucks bawrlz...

[offroadering @ Oct 30th 2008 6:25PM]

ehh, I could care less about that SMUG SNOB.

[BJ is Gooder @ Oct 30th 2008 6:41PM]

I definitely agree.

I do think it's funny to see this particular smug snob bragging about getting 'the new B&O phone' when it's about as fresh as his music.

[DarthSnuggles @ Oct 30th 2008 8:56PM]

Imagine for a moment that instead of a famous hip-hop artist, he's a civil engineer. No one would be impressed. We would all think he's a tool. He liked it because of it's exclusive style. But seriously, all the urban hip crowd has QWERTY these days. He ain't gonna be texting anyone on that thing.

[ramkanda @ Oct 30th 2008 9:19PM]

I think Kanye's pretty awesome. This was my first time on his blog and it's actually pretty decent. The phone's really hot for those who say they just want their phone to be a phone, but have a little extra money to spend. I prefer my iPhone, but to each their own.

People who are complaining about sampling in Rap just don't understand it and should probably just stick to what they like. Rappers use samples in the way that designers use fonts. Some designers make their own fonts, but for most, their art is in the composition. The rapper is given respect for how well he raps. The producer is given respect for how well he mixes what the rapper does and the music. If it helps, you can think if the producer as more of a DJ for the rapper, but one who changes the music, somewhat. Kanye West does both. The daft punk sample, for instance, has a heavier drumbeat in the Kanye version and I actually find it more interesting. The Daft Punk one can get a little repetitive for me. Photographers don't invent their subjects, but instead capture it in ways that many people find interesting. I'm running out of metaphors here, but hey... I'm no rapper.

[Cybergypsy @ Oct 30th 2008 9:26PM]

love my Serene :)