UESP Forums

Kanye West

Yeezy Yeezy. Yeezus himself. Let's talk about the world's greatest rapper alive for a moment.

Now, I know what you must be thinking.

Ugh.

Kanye West?

Uuuuugggghhhhh.

That [&@%!] from the Grammys?
That [&@%!] who married Kim K?
That [&@%!] who can't stop talking about himself?

Yes. That Kanye West.

I need everyone to take a moment to appreciate this guy. Regardless if you like Kanye. Regardless if you like rap. Regardless if you even like music, you need to take a moment to appreciate this guy right now. The most influential name in rap, and one of the leading influences in all of music and even culture itself. Yes, that Kanye West. My goal isn't to get you start bumping Kanye West, but maybe to at least appreciate him.

This post is for you if you think any of the following:
I used to think the same thing as you. Now I don't.

• I don't like rap. It's just a bunch of guys pretending to act tough and promoting a bad image.
  Rapper are certainly well known for how much they like to toot their own horn. It would be criminal to admit anything else. Here's a line from Jay-Z:
  
  Jay-Z wrote:
  Lost thirty mil so I spent another thirty -- cuz unlike Hammer 30 million can't hurt me!
  
  Or maybe another rapper, Pusha T.
  
  Pusha T wrote:
  If God had an iPod I be on his playlist.
  
  Or maybe from Ye himself.
  
  Kanye West wrote:
  Does he write his own rhymes, well sort of, I think 'em
  That mean I forgot better [&@%!] than you ever thought of
  Damn, is he really that caught up?
  I ask if you talked about classics, do my name get brought up?
  
  You have a point, you're not wrong, but the spirit of rap isn't boasting. Not at all. It's putting your soul on a track. There are plenty of rappers who don't talk about themselves, look at the soulful MF Doom for example. Doom is a rapper raised in New York but born in England who started rapping after his brother done. Give Accordion a listen and tell me that rap can't be soulful. I would share a Kanye song here, but I go over some choice tracks in depth.
  
  But this is about Kanye West. He'd be a hack if only talked about himself. Here's him rapping about how much he loved his late mother, Donda West. Or him talking about one of him many inner conflicts.
  
  If you cant' appreciate rap because you think it's just boasting on a soap box, give it a listen. Acknowledge that, and let it go. You won't get passed your hung up if you don't give it a shot.
  
• Kanye Who? Talk to me again when's contributed half as much to music like The Beatles or Led Zeppelin.
  I know, I know, this is a strawman straight out of /r/lewronggeneration but I hear this a lot. Some people feel like rappers like Kanye West adds nothing to music as a whole. Music doesn't work like that though -- each artist has their own effect.
  
  Kanye West is influential for many reasons. I'll try to list some.
  
  • Kanye West was one of the first rappers who didn't market themselves off a criminal reputation. Most rappers when Kanye West broke into the scene had bad boy reputations -- they paraded themselves as gangsters or drug dealers. Notorious B.I.G.
    rapped about slinging crack. 2Pac was in a gang himself. Hell, Eminem, the first influential white rapper, was involved in crime. Kanye was different because he didn't market himself as a gangster. His first album was called The College Dropout, a far cry from BIG's Born 2 Die or A Gangster's Paradise. Kanye struggled to get features and even published because he refuse to brand himself as a [&@%!]. Kanye even talks about this in College Dropout. Because of Kanye, the perspective on rap changed. It wasn't a gangster's genre of music anymore like it was in the 90s. After Kanye, we got rappers like Chance the Rapper, Childish Gambino, or even the entirety of Odd Future. That's significant because without Kanye, the genre would have struggled to brush off a gangster persona. How do you think a rappers like Macklemore or Drake are even given the light of day today? 2Pac was killed over his rejection of gang culture, but today Kendrick Lamar is praised for it.
  • Musically he's talented and that goes a long way. Kanye's signature style is to take old soul music and use it in his music. A prime example of this Gold Digger where he samples Otis Redding. Another example is Bound 2 where he samples several soul artists. Or even Blood on the Leaves where he uses an old civil rights song written about lynchings in the American South. Kanye's style has been replicated and reused across music now -- it's suddenly cool to take older music, chop it up, and sample it. Kanye is the godfather of that style.
  • He's inspired and his work shows it. Each of Kanye's albums is a piece of work that he's put his soul in. The College Dropout is him breaking into rap and struggling with that persona. Graduation is him rocketing into fame and the real effects it had on his character. 808s and Heartbreak came at a time where he was almost suicidal -- his mother died and he went through a serious break up. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was written at his personal lowest -- after he was told by some of his closest friends to flee the US with no friends in sight. If you listen to Kanye with even some context, you might appreciate it more.

Now onto Kanye West. I want to show you some tracks throughout his career that might change your opinion of Kanye West.


Hey Mama.
The one thing that Kanye West loved the most in the world was his mother, Donda West. Kanye was inspired by his mother's unbreakable attitude and her devotion to her children. Kanye West takes a 5 minute track to appreciate his mother on his sky rocket to fame. This is actually pretty uncharacteristic of most rappers, who usually don't take a moment out of their time to talk about their mama.


Diamonds from Sierra Leone.
This track is about what it says on the tin -- blood diamonds from Sierra Leone. A blood diamond is a diamond mined in a war zone, usually Africa, and sold at the profit of slave holding war lords. Kanye West is a man who loves jewelry, so much so that he's gone to some ridiculous lengths selling his own. The conflict in Sierra Leone disturbed Kanye West deeply, because he had to come to terms that his tastes affects other people.


Runaway.
This is perhaps Kanye West's magnum opus. Runaway is a 9 minute track where Kanye comes to terms why his past relationships failed -- himself. He also comes to term with the media's perception of him -- a self aggrandizing [&@%!]. Keep in mind that it wasn't just the media saying that Kanye was as an ass at this point. Other rappers, musicians, and fans alike called him as much. Barack Obama, the famously taciturn and diplomatic former president, said so himself, on camera. I understand, Kanye West is kind of an ass. He's kind of self obsessed. It takes a certain kind of humility for someone to acknowledge that and come to terms with it -- he doesn't fight with anyone on that point. He knows what he's like and knows how it affects other people. This is why I like Runaway so much, because it truly shows Kanye West in reflection. If you have half an hour to spare, I recommend you take a moment to watch his 30 minute film based on Runaway.



I love Kanye West, and maybe one day I can awkwardly ask the man himself for an autograph or a shake his hand, but that's just me. I think most people would like Kanye if they gave him a chance, there's something in his discography for everyone really. When I drive friends, they laugh at me playing Kanye West on the stereo, but I always notice them enjoying the beat or talking about his lyrics. No joke -- you can probably find something you like yourself.