Kanye Revisited
In what is starting to be an annual event, I feel the need to comment on Kanye West. My Main Man Adam Paul tends to bait me into these online conversations. He diggs Mr. West. That's fine. Subjective opinion. Mr. West and I have had a rocky relationship, however.
It all started with his last album. The hype was huge. Jesus Walks had been a fantastic hit. He was getting interviews with Barbara Walters. Everyone was propping him up as the next great revolutionary in Hip Hop. And he was buying into the propaganda machine. Shoot. He was part of the propaganda machine.
So I became a little bitter when I picked up the album. It was fine. It wasn't great. It wasn't lyrically challenging. It didn't engage the listener in ways to push them beyond conventional thought processes. For a guy who was made out to be a cross between Jay Z and Common, he fell terribly short on both accounts.
And everyone was still sweating the brotha.
What really disappoints is how Mr. West has performed socially. I understand where he was going with his George Bush blast on the Katrina telethon, but it was poorly planned and even more poorly executed. And it only went down from there. This weekend he threw a hissy-fit at the MTV Music Video Awards when he didn't win any hardware. The cherry on top was that he played the race card. C'mon, brah.
Then there was yesterday. West and 50 Cent made an appearance on BET's 108 and Park. They both had albums drop yesterday, and they have been having this competition to see who could sell more albums on 9/11. Whatever. So they both go on the show, it's billed as a heavyweight fight and they end up doing seperate performances. They don't even battle. And while I thought West outdid 50, you know what the most exciting part of the show was? When Jay Z showed up unannounced to join Kanye for 8 bars. Only 8 bars. And yet, it got the biggest roar from the crowd, and was the one part of the whole thing I found interesting.
There are some things about Mr. West that I dig. His beats are tight. He had the guts to open for U2. And let me tell you something. That's guts. When I went to the show in Omaha, I was very concerned for how it was going to turn out. He performs well and made me dance, but you have to be pretty confident in yourself to put on a rap performance in front of 20,000 white Nebraskans who have showed up for a rock concert. Reeaaallly confident. And he did a great job.
So it's come to this. I now have reasonable expectations for West. He's a great pop artist. I'm sure he'll sell a lot of albums and be popular for a long time. He just won't change the game.
Fair Dinkum
It all started with his last album. The hype was huge. Jesus Walks had been a fantastic hit. He was getting interviews with Barbara Walters. Everyone was propping him up as the next great revolutionary in Hip Hop. And he was buying into the propaganda machine. Shoot. He was part of the propaganda machine.
So I became a little bitter when I picked up the album. It was fine. It wasn't great. It wasn't lyrically challenging. It didn't engage the listener in ways to push them beyond conventional thought processes. For a guy who was made out to be a cross between Jay Z and Common, he fell terribly short on both accounts.
And everyone was still sweating the brotha.
What really disappoints is how Mr. West has performed socially. I understand where he was going with his George Bush blast on the Katrina telethon, but it was poorly planned and even more poorly executed. And it only went down from there. This weekend he threw a hissy-fit at the MTV Music Video Awards when he didn't win any hardware. The cherry on top was that he played the race card. C'mon, brah.
Then there was yesterday. West and 50 Cent made an appearance on BET's 108 and Park. They both had albums drop yesterday, and they have been having this competition to see who could sell more albums on 9/11. Whatever. So they both go on the show, it's billed as a heavyweight fight and they end up doing seperate performances. They don't even battle. And while I thought West outdid 50, you know what the most exciting part of the show was? When Jay Z showed up unannounced to join Kanye for 8 bars. Only 8 bars. And yet, it got the biggest roar from the crowd, and was the one part of the whole thing I found interesting.
There are some things about Mr. West that I dig. His beats are tight. He had the guts to open for U2. And let me tell you something. That's guts. When I went to the show in Omaha, I was very concerned for how it was going to turn out. He performs well and made me dance, but you have to be pretty confident in yourself to put on a rap performance in front of 20,000 white Nebraskans who have showed up for a rock concert. Reeaaallly confident. And he did a great job.
So it's come to this. I now have reasonable expectations for West. He's a great pop artist. I'm sure he'll sell a lot of albums and be popular for a long time. He just won't change the game.
Fair Dinkum