Kanye West Is A Joke...
May 11 '05
The Bottom Line Kanye West shows that you do not need a college degree to make bad music.
At the end of 2004, Kanye West’s debut solo album The College Dropout was near the top of many critics’ top ten lists. After his album came out, Kanye was praised all over for being one of the few mainstream rappers who actually has something to say. How Kanye earned this label is beyond me, as he is no different than any of the other mainstream artists who are polluting the genre of rap.
Before Kanye was a rapper, he was still relatively known for his excellent production skills. I’ll be the first to admit that his beats are actually good, but they are also extremely one dimensional. All he really does is take a catchy piano loop and a sped up soul sample and add some drums. This does result in a good beat, but they all sound the same, and the worst part is that fans are under the impression that Kanye invented this production style, something that RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan did long ago. I have no problem with Kanye’s production, but his arrogance and inability to rap well is giving hip-hop an even worse image than it already has.
Like many of the most popular rappers out right now, Kanye has achieved most of his fame and success off of a gimmick. He has taken an unfortunate experience from his life and exaggerated it to the fullest extent through constant repetition to give him an identity and separate himself from other artists. While most resort to the cliché “rags to riches” story, it can be seen that the most popular rappers out today have a less common gimmick. For example, Eminem has made a living off of his whole “my mom is crazy” theme which he has mentions in basically every song he records and 50 Cent has built his career around his “I got shot nine times” story. Kanye West on the other hand, uses a car accident, which he describes in his first hit single “Through the Wire”. He mentions this accident on literally every single song on The College Dropout, and is still referring to it in interviews and acceptance speeches for songs he didn’t even write.
The truth is that Kanye West rhymes about the exact same things every other rapper on MTV rhymes about. He has countless corny punch lines about cars, jewelry, women, and money. However, the reason that this is never pointed out is because of his most successful song (which somehow earned him 10 Grammy nominations), “Jesus Walks”. Everybody has heard Jesus Walks, the religious themed song which critics labeled the best hip-hop song in years when they first heard it. The song is all about how hip-hop is suffering from commercialism, immorality, and lack of originality, and that rappers need to “find Jesus” to redeem themselves. While I admit this is an interesting concept for a song, it does not sound very convincing when it is coming from the man who epitomizes those very descriptions of rap. What many people do not know about the song ‘Jesus Walks’ is that Kanye West did not even write it. He bought the song and the beat from a Chicago underground rapper named Rhymefest who had been performing ‘Jesus Walks’ for years throughout Chicago. He is even credited in the fine print as the song’s “co-writer.” While the majority of the song is the work of Rhymefest,, Kanye did tweak the song and add his own input (see the line “Like Kathy Lee need Regis, that’s the way I need Jesus!”). It is lines like this which reinforce the fact that Kanye dropped out of college.
The thing I do not understand Kanye West is his massive ego and blatant arrogance. Even before he won a Grammy for a song he did not write, his over-confidence was an insult to rap. The following quote gives a small idea of this arrogance. “What I’m doing is bigger then rap, it’s bigger then music itself.”
In July 2004, Kanye West said what I believe is one of the most absurd claims in the history of hip-hop. When asked if his album was perfect, he responded by saying that the only other album on the same level as his was The Blueprint by Jay-Z, who coincidently happens to be the one who signed Kanye to a record deal. “Peoples say there's better rappers than me, but what does that show? I mean, Ras Kass is a good rapper. But all his albums suck. Has Nas done an album that was as good as mine?” To answer his question, Nas has done about five albums better than his, including Illmatic, the best rap album of all time. And Ras Kass made Soul on Ice which is widely regarded as one of the best lyrical albums ever created. I’m not surprised though by Kanye’s ignorance to classic rap albums, as he’s been quoted as listing MC Hammer as one of his main influences.
Kanye West is known for many things besides his infamous car accident. He earned the ‘clean rapper’ image by wearing Polo shirts with popped collars and wearing a backpack. He even brags about this, for reasons unknown, all throughout The College Dropout. His follow up album, Late Registration, is set to come out in stores at some point this June. I would like to warn the Epinions community not to waste any money on it, or even time downloading it. I have heard a bootleg version of it, and it is even worse than Kanye’s debut.
Kanye West is a joke. He exaggerates a car accident to the fullest extent, he did not write the song he’s known for, and his debut album is just an hour of him bragging about how he dropped out of college. Kanye West is no different than Lil Jon, 50 Cent, Eminem, Chingy, or any one else who continually makes mainstream rap the embarrassing genre it has become. Every single stereotype of mainstream rap can be found in a Kanye song. That exaggerated ‘R’ sound which Chingy introduced with “Right Thur”, and even the annoying Snoop Dogg ‘izzle’ sounds can all be found on any given song made by Kanye West. Kanye claims to be the best rapper in the game, but all he has really done is shown that you do not need a college degree to make bad music.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
wakeuptimebomb
|
|
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 10 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.