On Kanye West: The Album
December 1st, 2010 § 1 Comment
Never before has anything been made of things I love as well as things that bother me like one million pet peeves all competing for my attention.
Piano? Check. Slightly offensive refrains (think “no more drugs for me/pussy and religion is all I need”)? Check. Elton John? Check. A 5-minute-long, expletive-ridden monologue by Chris Rock? Check.
It makes sense that Kanye West would create something leaving me feeling so torn. (I love it but I know I shouldn’t.) After all, if West isn’t a figure that leaves the public feeling torn and confused, I don’t know who is. Sure, grabbing the mic from Taylor Swift was in poor taste but everyone knew he was right (Beyonce DID have the greatest video of all time – well…at least until Runaway… but that’s another blog post). He’s a jerk – but a self-proclaimed one, which somehow makes his antics more palatable. He’s a decent rapper but a magnificent producer. He raps about getting “pussy” and getting drunk, but he tweets like a twelve year old. His declarations of self-importance make the masses physically ill. Even Obama called him a jackass. But when you sit down and listen to a record like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, you can’t help but wonder: is West’s inflated ego actually…justified?
After listening the album a fourth time – and a fifth, and a sixth, and a seventh time – I realized that maybe there’s a lot more behind West’s egoistic ramblings. Perhaps underneath his incessant self-inflation there’s something lurking. Something darker, deeper, sadder, smarter. Something complex in West that allows him to recognize his own foibles without too much guilt. He presents himself as flawed and flawless all at once.
On the album, his rhymes are brazen and ballsy, (and sometimes ridiculous: “Cause the same people that tried to black ball me/forgot about two things: my black balls”). But they’re also sincere and vaguely poetic… at least by pop music’s standards. And, to be frank, sometimes I wish I had the balls that West has.
Maybe if I give the album a hundredth listen…
he can be an asshole but that’s besides the point when you speak about his music. no one has ever been so consistently great with their music. album after album he’s never failed. even 808′s, a lot of people hated on it, but it’s truly underrated. give it another listen and you’ll see the beauty of it. i actually judged Ye way before i sat down and listened to his music a few years ago. so i listened, and then i shut myself up because regardless of his personality he’s a musical genius. the fantasy album is by far not only one of the best albums in hip hop but in general. so don’t feel torn. his personality and music are two different things, they stand on their own.