My Favorite Rap Artists, Vol. 11 | Kanye West


He's this generations Michael Jackson.

Regardless of how you feel about him, that's just the simple truth. There literally hasn't been another musical act that has influenced music the way he has since he stepped into the game. And when I say influenced I don’t just mean the music that he has put out, I mean from his production to the way he arranges people’s albums, his live shows and so forth and so forth. If you go and look at his body of work from his production credits and interviews where artists tell tales of him giving advice on how to put together superb tracks, you’d be surprised at all he has done behind the scenes. He’s really a mad musical genius that has a talent for putting out great music with whomever he has his eye on. There’s not too many artist in the history of music with the ability to say that, and that’s pretty big.

When I first heard Kanye my homie Matt had actually handed me a burned CD of The College Dropout and told me to keep it. When I got home and popped it in I couldn’t stop playing it. I made it my mission to go out and find a CD player so I could listen to that CD any chance I got. Little did I know I was listening to one of the greatest rap albums of the last decade. He ushered in a new sound with every single album that he dropped, and that’s only something a legend can pull off. To this day I will defend 808’s as a great album and that people have to understand the context behind the album. People couldn’t understand the pain that went into making the album therefore they dismissed it. But trust me when I say this: the day he passes away that CD will be elevated and everyone will end up loving it.

To me he hasn’t come out with a bad album, yet.

But this isn’t to say that everything changes over time. Slowly but surely I’m hearing all of the crazy and ugly stories about how he’s treated some people, and a lot of it has been recent. While I’m not one to in rumors or stories about people unless there’s undeniable evidence or the person comes out and admits their wrongdoings but some of the stuff seems pretty legit. While I was never a fan of him getting with Kim and I absolutely attribute a lot of his over the top antics as a direct result of his mother passing away in the manner that she did, I still have to remember at the end of the day that this is Kanye we’re talking about. Kanye is going to be who he is and no one is going to stop that; either you’re going to love his music or you won’t. Me personally it’s getting a little harder to support his music because of his theatrics with the media and the comments that he’s made recently, but that’s life for a Legend. The more you’re under the spotlight, the more you’re scrutinized.

Sooner or later something is going to happen and I hope it’s the positive kind. But musical genius has its cap because usually their convictions or their demons get a hold of them and never let go. Hopefully that won’t be the case with Kanye and I hope that he gets above the level that he’s at in his person life to get back that focus he needs. Clearly he lost his mind when he started selling that white tee for $100 lol. Musically wise I had no problem with Kanye until Yeezus and I had to sit down and give that a proper listen to; once I did I loved the album right away. I’ve heard snippets of SWISH and it sounds great so far; I really hope he drops a full length version of Wolves because on SNL it sounded dope.

Like I said, I have zero problems with Kanye the artist, but as far as Kanye the person, well he’s been letting me down as of late. I mean you’re not going to agree with 100% of the things a person does or says, and you’re not supposed to, but sometimes I just wished he’d do better. But at the end of the day he’s the artist I can mostly relate to in terms of perseverance and hard work and dedication to his craft. When no one believed in me I just put on Can’t Tell Me Nothing and just went to work. He’s definitely an inspiration to those with a vision and the will to make it happen; his life story is a testament to that feet.

Kanye is this generations Michael Jackson, and if you don’t believe that then you’re simply lying to yourself about it.

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