Unless you live under a rock, there’s a huge chance you have heard a song by none other than Kanye West. Easily one of the greatest emcees of all time and yet the most controversial as well, a lot can be said about him. Best known for his outspoken and controversial public persona, West is also a groundbreaking hip-hop artist, label executive, and producer.
Over the course of his career, West has been responsible for cultural movements and progressions within mainstream hip hop and popular music at large.
Kanye Omari West (born June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago
In 2002 he was in a near-fatal car accident. After realizing that he needed to stop making instrumentals for other artists, and focus on uplifting his own status, he began his solo career.
His musical career has been marked by dramatic changes in styles, incorporating an eclectic range of influences including soul, baroque pop, electro, indie rock, synth-pop, industrial and gospel.
I think, by mainstream standards, Kanye is one of the most challenging and consistently excellent artists in recent memory. He’s probably not as good as he thinks he is (He purports to be a God and a creative peer to Da Vinci, Shakespeare and Beethoven) but, in my estimation, he is borderline great.
Popular music is usually formulaic, devoid of concept with negligible philosophical value. Usually it’s built on mimicking what is currently en vogue and, as a result, lacks revelatory moments of humanity or surprise.
Occasionally something enters the collective consciousness that is both commercial and artistically profound. In modern music, some examples are the Beatles, Prince, James Brown, Nirvana, Radiohead, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, etc. Kanye is one of these dudes.
Even these guys, who I mostly adore, aren’t really pioneers so much as gentrifiers of the Avante Garde.
They take pre-existing, revolutionary ideas from fringe artists and repurpose them within a pop context. They’re like Ray Kroc. He didn’t open McDonalds nor did he invent their burger. He saw the potential in it, branded it and now the sun never shines on the Mickey D’s empire.
Kanye had brought many new elements to what was becoming an incestuous, creatively impoverished era of commercial Rap. By doing this he breathed new life into a whole genre. Rap stayed interesting, in part due to his contributions and was able to move past the increasingly trite “gangster” posturing of the preceding generation.
for a medium to stay relevant, somebody has to emerge and broaden its expressive vocabulary.
Kanye samples stuff that is really, really out there and contextualizes it in very clever ways that goes beyond simply “stealing” someone else’s music. He writes brilliant, funny, often painfully vulnerable lyrics (unheard of in mainstream rap). He’s a remarkable producer who is gifted at choosing the best collaborators to help him realize his vision. He has tons of great songs. They sound good. Many people thoroughly enjoy listening to them. Like me, for instance.
You don’t like Kanye. You’re not missing anything. This stuff is subjective. What I don’t like is when somebody dismisses the value of something just because it doesn’t speak to them (I’m not saying you’re doing that).
Kanye is a difficult, controversial person and I think disdain for his music is colored by people’s feelings about him as a person. They are disgusted by his behavior or rhetoric, so they don’t objectively appraise his contributions.
I’ve listened to all of his albums multiple times over, listened to tens of hours of podcast/video essays breaking down his art,
Discography. <-use this word I can confidently say that Kanye West might be some form of Genius. He is misunderstood by an ever-shrinking minority of people who only read headlines and bandwagon against him, believing him to be a stupid rich asshole. Keep in mind this man is clinically bipolar. Kanye grew up dirt-poor raised by a single mother in Chicago. Voted most likely The man made a life for himself out of that upbringing. He doesn’t have to be humble. That’s not to say that he is not humble, but, if you were raised in poverty and then became a multi millionaire by yourself, would you not be proud? He was doubted his entire life(kanye west got voted most unlikely to succeed in high school), and now that he has proved the doubters wrong he’s being told that he is egotistical? That is outrageous. There are thousands of other rappers who get on the mic and only talk about chains and cars and money and whatever. And that’s fine, they’re allowed to do what they want. People enjoy it. But how could all of that exist, and people still choose to target Kanye West? Kanye West is a free thinker. He is a lover. He does not hold grudges and he does not discriminate. In 2007, his mom died out of the blue. In 2009, he interrupted Taylor Swift on stage at the VMA’s and said that Beyoncé should have won the award for best video. These three events shaped his future greatly. After the VMA’s Kanye went into seclusion, traveling across the world , eventually landing in Hawaii. At Hawaii, Kanye created his Magnum Opus, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. This album I believe to be the best album of all time. I could talk about it for hours, but I’ll spare you the time. Every single one of Kanye’s albums has reached number one on the Billboard top 200. (I know popularity/sales =/= success, but, it still says something about his musical talent.) Kanye has largely directed the path of mainstream music within the past decade. He doesn’t support Trump “because it’s cool” or whatever. As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t even say he supports Trump at all. If he can get so many people upset by just wearing a hat, or tweeting out Trump’s name, then that’s the peoples’ fault, not his. He wants to show people that everyone is equal. By only casting out hate towards those you disagree with, you will only strengthen the mutual transgression. In the words of Kanye West, “why can’t we just try love?” He doesn’t try to be trendy. He is trends. For example, about a year or so ago Kanye revealed the Yeezy 700’s, a bulky, “dad”-like shoe. Now, that style is popping up more and more among streetwear and sport brands. It’s not a coincidence. Ye knows what he is doing. Oh, also, with that ‘slavery is a choice’ thing that people love to bring up. His words were “400 years? That sounds like a choice.” Kanye said this during a 40+ minute long talk about free-thinking and self-empowerment. During this particular segment he was talking about how sometimes one can limit their own capabilities is a Stockholm Syndrome-like manner. He briefly used the slavery analogy to help convey his point. TL;DR - The man is a creative genius who is misunderstood by some. He is clinically bipolar. He makes phenomenal music. He has had a troubled past. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, and is done caring about what everybody thinks of him. People like you are exactly why his supporters like him so much. It helps us realize that we’re free. What are you talking about? He very much cares about what people think about him. He behaves the way he does for attention. Is he doing anything to treat his bipolar disorder? Does he even have it? You realize bipolar disorder is heavily misdiagnosed right? I’m not saying he doesn’t, I just don’t understand people using this as an excuse for his behavior. Bipolar disorder does not turn you into an egotistical asshole. And please, explain what he has done that qualifies him as a “genius”....he and his fans have made that word meaningless. Most of his music is pedestrian at best, horribly incoherent at worst. He samples waaay too liberally to be given “genius” status. And he is most definitely not as much of a “free thinker” as his fans would like to believe. Just because you have success doesn’t mean you must become an egotistical asshole. He forgot where he came from and has clearly turned his back on black people. George Bush doesn’t care about black people? Kanye West doesn’t care about black people. He doesn’t understand the 13th amendment. He’s just another rich out of touch asshole at this point. Don’t let your fandom cloud your judgment and be a Kanye apologist. He needs to take some acid if you find the time, you might want to watch this interview Kanye did in Chicago recently. It answers just about ever question you have, besides the genius one. (Mainly I’d like to point out that yes, he was diagnosed as clinically Bipolar a few years ago). Obviously I (or any of his fans) can’t just call the man a genius and have that be it. I personally think that if he’s not a genius, he is at the least one of the most influential artists of the past 100 years. There’s just about no denying the huge impact that his style has had on hip hop and pop, And obviously I know that there’s almost no chance that someone like you would do this, but if you actually give his full albums a good listen, I feel like you could begin to realize how talented he is. I think if you watch that interview , and go into it with an open mind, your opinion on Kanye could greatly change. He supports Donald Trump just because "it's cool" No, his support for Donald Trump was a way of creating a controversy so that people would pay attention to his upcoming albums.