He rarely falls back on his old, end-rhyme flow and gets more intricate and smooth lines of rhyme off here. West’s lyrics and delivery, which have steadily improved over the years, have reached a new high. However, when he claims he’s “the best living or dead, hands down” on “Monster”, it’s overstatement, surely, but he’s closer than ever to earning it. Of course, Kanye’s typical bragging comes out in droves here, which muddies the waters on his indictments. “I guess every superhero needs his theme music.” See? No apologies here, but he also pinpoints our role in all of this, our collusion in crafting his persona, so when he claims “No one man should have all this power”, he may be patting himself on the back, but he’s also calling us out. “Haters start screaming, has a nice ring to it”, he sneers. After the lean beat and choir-sized hook on “Dark Fantasy”, and the Funkadelic guitar chug of “Gorgeous”, West hits us with “Power”. This is, after all, his twisted fantasy, and he’s going to remind us (once again) of his position at the top of the rap game. Kanye has no interest in putting on a humble face to allay our claims of egomania. Still, though he teams up with every rapper around, West is not about to get lost in the shuffle.
It bursts forth with a staggering confidence, and responds to our perception of ego-mad West with an album that is, in the end, a mass collaboration. In the wake of controversy, this album doesn’t lash out defensively, nor does it clamor to explain itself. And now, this West gives us My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 70 minutes of music every bit as self-indulgent and lofty as their title, every bit as brash and mercurial as their creator’s public persona. This is the guy who took the silly Auto-Tune trend and used it thematically, to convey isolation, on 808s & Heartbreaks - even if it was to mixed results. This guy has his own inconsistencies, but they’re far more engaging and fruitful to discuss. What’s more, all that nonsense obscures us from a much more interesting side to Kanye, and that’s West the Rabid Music Fan Turned Artist. Easier to ride the West-as-bad-guy train until we tire of it and the wheels fall off. This megalomaniac image of West, though, is one we feed to ourselves, since the motivation and remorse behind these actions are murkier waters to wade into. It probably has less to do with racial coding - which some might claim - and more to do with our fascination with this sort of eccentricity. 17, 2010).īullying the President? Really? We’re treating West like he’s the first self-important, ego-inflated celebrity, and our inability to accept his remorse, when he finds it, is perplexing.
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Hell, The New Republic‘s John McWorter recently claimed West was bullying the leader of the free world with his post-Katrina comments (reprinted at, Nov. Bush calling West’s claim the most disgusting moment in his presidency, but few talk about the wild absurdity and lack of self-awareness inherent in that claim, or about Bush’s own petulant tone when he said it. He made millions of Today Show viewers squirm with his awkward and, yes, petulant reaction to Matt Lauer’s baiting.īut is it possible we’re too hard on Kanye West? That this is just a story we’ve convinced ourselves of, that we’re unwilling to change? With the exception of the VMA fiasco - which there’s really no defending, and Kanye knows it - little is said about Lauer’s amateurish prodding, not to mention the clear image of West’s silent contrition that then turned snippy when Lauer pressed for a sound bite to go along with it. He’s the guy that said the President didn’t care about black people. We know the Kanye West story: He’s the bad guy, the loud-mouth on an ego trip.
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