Kanye West is an enigma, he brought forth the preppy gangster style with his polo rocking, man purse wearing ways, added an experimental value to Roca Fella records, and mentioned Jesus in his raps. Through, car crashes, public debacles, and outright cockiness, Mr. Kanye Omari West has solidified himself in popular culture as both an incredible artist and a symbol of extravagance. From his outburst at the Hurricane Katrina relief telethon on NBC where he stated, “George Bush doesn't care about black people” to posing as Jesus for Rolling stone, to his ruination of Taylor Swift’s spotlight at 2009’s VMA’s it is hard for me to like himas a person. He is just that guy everyone loves to hate. Statements declaring that the government has purposely spread AIDS into Africa and introduced Crack into the Black community have become all but expected from Chicago’s most outspoken and consequently ignorant man in music. Oh, and P.S. The Leader of the Free World, President Barack Obama has stated off the record that Kanye West is in fact, a “Jack Ass”…Google it.
Yet despite all of his downfalls, Kanye continues to make top level music. The man is like a bug zapper, the audience knows that impending doom lurks, yet we are continually drawn and cannot bear to look away. It would be easy for me to expand upon how much I despise Mr. West’s antics on the red carpet and how displays of such idiocy should be ignored, yet the man makes music that I cannot deny. Resurrecting the “Chi-Town” Kanye West began his early career behind the glass of Jay-Z’s Blue Print album (that means he was a producer for all you whities). In 2004 West’s all encompassing music taste was launched upon the world in the form of College Dropout, an album including a number of hits: We Don’t Care, Jesus Walks, Get Em High, New Work Out Plan, Slow Jamz and most notably, Through The Wire. As you may know, Through The Wire was written and recorded just after Kanye West’s horrendous car accident where he was hospitalized and underwent reconstructive surgery necessitating the wiring of his jaw. The song recounts his experience and further consequences of the crash. Graduation, Late Registration and 808’s and Heartbreak were all subsequently released becoming number one hit albums across the globe, outselling the likes of 50-Cent and other competing hip-hop artists. Particularly, 808’s and Heartbreaks showed a new facet of Kanye’s talent in the melodic realm rather than his classical “rap” stylings. Love Lock Down was performed at the 2008 VMA’s where Kanye West supposedly had not even finished the arrangement of the song a day before the performance.
Whatever you may think of the man, it is undeniable that people listen when he makes music. The antics of popular artists have just become a given, a constant, whether its Lady Gaga sacrificing a cat in the middle of times square, or Justin Bieber coming out of the closet, no one is really shocked any more The slogan of old, “Just Shut Up and Sing” is dead. The new generation of music listener adheres to to the new “Just Keep Singing and We’ll Tolerate Your Behavior.”
Finally, this entire rant was written to bring to your attention that Kanye West will be releasing new tracks every Friday until November 22nd when he will co-release his album Dark Twisted Fantasy alongside legend Jay-Z’s: The Hits Collecion Vol. 1. You can find the tracks here, all you have to do is sign up with an email address.
I have listened through all 7 of the released tracks and most of them are strong. Kanye isn’t running on empty yet. The most confusing track to be released yet is this Runaway Love Remix featuring Raekwon and Justin Bieber. I am attracted to my “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing to Fuck With”-beat, yet Justin Bieber annoyingly serenades over this track. I can’t decide whether I want to be happy that Wu-Tang is heavily represented on all the new tracks or just be angry that such a talentless-lesbian looking fool can be so popular while I’m just sitting here blogging away at something that no one reads.
...anyway, enjoy...I think.
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