Kanye West Is One Of The Greatest Contemporary Artists Of All Time
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All falls down?
Jesus walks?
Diamonds?
Gold digger?
Cant tell me nothing?
Even if you dont think his songs are good his production is amazing.
Im not saying he beethoven thats crazy but the dude is a genius at what he does. 808s made drake possible.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
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Officerrob
Banned
What this thread needs is an age check
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
I certainly don't think there's any argument that the dude has been quite significant to both the art and business of rap in the past 10 years, for good or ill, but I've never seen a very solid explanation of what makes him "great", other than his production - which is, as I said, good, though I don't think it counts for THAT much, as rap beats don't generally work as standalone music, and aren't designed to.
BrokenEchelon
Banned
He has a stupid amount of good songs.
More than 90% of all artists in modern music without a doubt.
More than 90% of all artists in modern music without a doubt.
To quote Just Blaze, "Kanye listens to music like we listen to samples."
- Hands down the most influential figure in hip-hop in the past 10 years (Flocka very distant second, maybe Drake considering his influence on the business end of hip-hop)
- Maintained a pretty significant consistency album-to-album that rivals legends, with comparatively pretty drastic changes in style album-to-album, which is what built his legacy
- Versatility in production and his work ethic on a whole other level, his collaborative approach is admired by the rest of the industry, one of the many ways he's broken down barriers in hip-hop from image to cross-genre collaboration
- Fragments of his styles from various eras of his career have birthed the careers of many contemporary rappers from image to content to production (i.e. Drake, CuDi, Big Sean, etc.) while on the flipside legends like Jay have been riding his coattails for the latter half of his career
Pretty much, the way he handled his own career is a perfect storm of things. When he broke out, he broke so many patterns in the genre the time, and kept it moving, making sure to do so again and again and never ruminate. He took a ton of risks throughout his career, and executed on all of them. The entire industry looks towards what Kanye will do next sonically, because history has shown it's hard to predict and usually comes with it's own wave of influence. When you combine this with how he carried his image and the strong influences and collaborations he has had outside of hip-hop, it's easy to understand why so many even dissimilar artists today will list Ye as one of their greatest influences and will drop whatever personal project they're working on right now if Kanye invites them to a session for one of his own projects.
His lyrical ability is also perpetually underrated because he's a producer-rapper and because of his chosen collaborative process, but it's no use arguing that anymore. He'd have Nas ghostwrite a verse and people would still say it sucks. WTT he ended up having more impressive verses than Jay throughout and that project didn't have additional writers either IIRC. Isolating technical lyrical ability as reasoning for the lack of his influence in hip-hop is not seeing the full picture and choosing to ignore everything else that makes a great artist and a great song. People like to use a similar argument against 2Pac, and he definitely had a much more well-rounded technical lyrical ability than Ye.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Samples ARE music.
What the hell is Just Blaze even trying to SAY there? Does he know?
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
I have no idea what this means.
The entire industry? Not sure that's true. This is exactly the kind of hyperbole that's bandied around in this thread so effortlessly, yet is entirely unsubstantiated.
It's cool that people like Kanye, nothing wrong with that, but why does everyone that enjoys his music feel the need to qualify it with tripe like "he's a musical genius" or "he's bigger than the entire industry"?
There are Kanye stans shitting up this thread, yes.
However, he will be remembered as one of the great artists of his time in 20 years.
We just have to wait until he dies. He certainly won't get that credit now, what with how pretentious he is. MJ certainly didn't receive much accolades during the last years of his life. People are caught up on his image.
However, he will be remembered as one of the great artists of his time in 20 years.
We just have to wait until he dies. He certainly won't get that credit now, what with how pretentious he is. MJ certainly didn't receive much accolades during the last years of his life. People are caught up on his image.
Kanye is a wack rapper, period. I will concede that at one point I considered him a God-Tier producer during the earlier part of his career. I prefer his more traditional hip-hop beats, BE was fucking sick production wise. Kanye has yet to have a solo album as good as BE b/c his lyrics suck.
The last things I have heard are MBDTF and WTT though I dunno who produced what tracks on those albums.. Skipped 808s, Yeezus and the Good music compilations, so I dunno about their production. Late 90s-07 at least, he has been one of my favorite producers.
The last things I have heard are MBDTF and WTT though I dunno who produced what tracks on those albums.. Skipped 808s, Yeezus and the Good music compilations, so I dunno about their production. Late 90s-07 at least, he has been one of my favorite producers.
His influence on the medium as a whole, his influence on fashion, and his rap style is a blueprint for post-modern rappers.
No, I said in that post that I don't even consider The Beatles to be geniuses.Wait so you think Kanye is a genius?
Also, the analogy is not apt because The Beatles have sold about fifty times as many records as Kanye West has and were an exponentially more significant cultural icon.
Kanye is post-modern now? Come on.
MuddyDonut
Member
about 12 times in an era where people actually bought music, but understood.
Vicetrailia
Banned
808's was ahead of it's time for me, I finally get it now.
Buckethead
Banned
I like Yeezus in a handful of ways but on the whole it's unlistenable for me. I can't fire it up and dig the songs like his other stuff. Black Skinhead gets boring halfway through. Maybe Blood On The Leaves.
808s is my favorite of his, by far. Most cohesive, least commercial, fewest name drops.
808s is my favorite of his, by far. Most cohesive, least commercial, fewest name drops.
Pretty much. I like some of his beats, but he can't rap for shit. Other artists treat his beats with way more respect then he does. Kanye just shits out terrible verse after verse.
The way Kanye's team breaks down music into it's elements to make new music, in reference to his collaborative production style. Get a bunch of people in the room, have them all tweak and work on the same track in different ways, take what isolated elements work the best in all the versions, and put the track together, re-critique and repeat. Mike Dean says a track is never finished until they're forced to hand it in, he constantly has other artists coming in and asks them how they would make the track better. They treat songs like they're samples, and continue to chop them up.
Yes, the entire industry looks towards Kanye. If you follow the hip-hop world, this is pretty clear. Post-release you have interviews with every rapper/hip-hop producer about how they feel about Ye's new album or the single and his new style/direction. It's not unsubstantiated, go to DJVlad and search Yeezus or Kanye and see what you get, or check every Breakfast Club interview in the last 4-5 months.
EDIT: I think you might've thought I meant the entire music industry, sorry that was unclear. Entire hip-hop industry.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
I did indeed, Steve Albini has never mentioned him XD
Man_Flannel
Member
LOL. The only Kanye West song I can name off the top of my head is Power because it became a joke on Giantbomb.
Some of his songs are good. That's just my opinion.
Though I think it's widely accepted that his ego is through the roof, and he needs to learn to practice a little humility. Just because you say things like "I'm a creative genius", and "I'm amazing", doesn't make you sound edgy and cool because you're doing the opposite of what most people do. It just makes you sound like a jackass. And acknowledging you sound like a jackass yet don't care, still does not make you any "cooler". One day, when he's old and grey I think he'll look back at his interview videos and say, "Wow, how embarrassing."
Though I think it's widely accepted that his ego is through the roof, and he needs to learn to practice a little humility. Just because you say things like "I'm a creative genius", and "I'm amazing", doesn't make you sound edgy and cool because you're doing the opposite of what most people do. It just makes you sound like a jackass. And acknowledging you sound like a jackass yet don't care, still does not make you any "cooler". One day, when he's old and grey I think he'll look back at his interview videos and say, "Wow, how embarrassing."
vincent vega
Member
He makes great music but he generally sucks at rapping, although he is good on a few songs (Homecoming, Hey Mama, and The Joy are the first ones that come to mind)
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