Am I the only person alive who doesn’t think Kanye West is an asshole?
I beg the question because I rarely run into anyone — and that includes members of the media and music fans — with anything good to say about the Chicago-bred rapper/producer/record label head.
You’ve undoubtedly heard — maybe even said — the insults that get hurled his way: He’s arrogant, he’s a brat, he’s not as talented as he thinks, etc.
Most of these negative adjectives have been attached to West due to the numerous idiotic statements he’s blurted out in public … especially at award shows. After losing the Best Video category at the 2006 MTV Europe awards, for example, West crashed the stage, grabbed the mic and shouted: “Best Video should have been mine. I should have won. It cost a million dollars. Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons! If I don’t win, the awards show loses credibility.”
As a result, these days he’s known more for behaving badly than he is for making hit records.
But me? I think he’s a talented rapper and producer, and probably one of hip-hop’s most important figures. And, honestly, I reckon he’s probably cooler than most folks would imagine. That said, here are three reasons why I like the guy — and I think you should, too:
He’s one of the industry’s best producers
West is the Muhammad Ali of beat-making: He talks a lot of shit, but he can back up every word. Yeah, he claims to be one of the industry’s best producers — and when you look at some the classics he’s created, it’s hard to deny his claim: “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and “Encore” by Jay Z, “Selfish” by Slum Village, “Wouldn’t Get Far” by The Game (that West Coast rapper’s only good song), “You Don’t Know My Name” by Alicia Keys, “Overnight Celebrity” by Twista — and his own hits like “All Falls Down,” “Stronger,” among many others.
His unique production style — which samples bits from tons of obscure artists and records — helped to give many underground artists their first tastes of mainstream success. Let’s not forget that it was Kanye’s musical soundscapes that helped Common, a talented rapper who once struggled to sell records, score his first No. 1 album on the Billboard pop charts. Moreover, anybody who can turn a religious song into a club anthem, as was the case with West’s solo hit “Jesus Walks,” deserves some kind of accolades.
He’s a great lyricist
No, he’s no Rakim, but West spits clever lines that make you take notice, laugh and think. Check, for instance, these rhymes from his song “Crack Music”: “How we stop the black panthers?/Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer/You hear that?/What Gil Scott was hearin’/When our heroes and heroines got hooked on heroin/Crack raised the murder rate in DC and Maryland/We invested in that it’s like we got Merril-Lynched/And we been hangin’ from the same tree ever since.” Or how about these choice lines from “Champion”: “When it feel like living’s harder than dyin’/For me givin’ up’s way harder than tryin’/Lauryn Hill say her heart was in Zion/I wish her heart still was in rhymin’.”
And while many of today’s MCs are content to craft one-dimensional tunes about money, cars and women, West is churning out multi-layered cuts like “Diamonds of Sierra Leone,” which juxtaposes his own materialism (“See, a part of me sayin’ keep shinin'”) with Africa’s conflict diamond problem (“How? When I know of the blood diamonds”) and simultaneously celebrates the staying power of Roc-A-Fella Records (“How could somethin’ so wrong make me feel so right, right?/’fore I beat myself up like Ike/You could still throw ya Rocafella diamond tonight.”)
He’s not that arrogant
Kanye’s arrogant? Well, he is a rapper. Go back and listen to the earliest rap tunes and you’ll see that most of hip-hop’s foundation is built on bragging and boasting. I mean, have you ever heard a rapper say, “I’m a decent MC”? No you haven’t. Hip-hop is all about telling the world you’re the best.
On top of that, I’m not totally convinced Kanye is always serious when he’s ranting and raving about how great he is. I’ve read interviews where he stated his words are sometimes taken out of context and that some statements that were meant as jokes were later transcribed by journalists to sound serious. Months later, I saw him in a television interview, and he made an arrogant statement about him being such a great rapper. Then he — and his entire entourage flanked around him — just burst out laughing. I honestly believe many of Kanye’s more outrageous statements are somehow lost in translation.
Is Kanye a misunderstood saint? Nope. But, as far as I’m concerned, he’s not a tyrant either. I say we give the guy a break and enjoy the music.
The Glow in the Dark Tour, featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, N.E.R.D. and Rhianna, plays Time Warner Cable Arena on Thursday, May 8. Tickets are $50, $60 and $70.
This article appears in May 7-13, 2008.
