MUSICAL HEROES WITH KAL – Kanye West
January 17th, 2010 | By Kal
The first time I heard of Kanye West was in 2004, during a Skype call to a friend who lived in America. When It All Falls Down from West’s debut album as ‘the star’, was playing in the background. “Who is this, I inquired?”, to be told it was West and did I want to hear the rest of the album because he would be big my side of the pond soon enough. College Dropout debuted in the UK a few months later and the rest as they say is history – but that would ignore what had led up to that point.
As a confessed fan of Hip Hop, I’d heard Kanye West’s work long before I knew his name or had heard his voice. He was Jay Z’s ‘go to guy’ for the best beats from 2001 onwards and his album The Blueprint, that West dominated, sampling the Jackson 5′s I Want You Back on Izzo (H.O.V.A), as well as contributing another four tracks, is generally regarded as one of Jay’s best records.
It wasn’t until 2004 that we heard his first Single from College Dropout, Through The Wire, but up to that point alone, West had worked with some of the best in the business at the time. He had always expressed a desire to rap, only to be knocked back because executives felt his middle class background was unmarketable. Ironically, the main reason I am writing about Kanye West is because of his crossover appeal. Most of my friends would tell you they don’t like Hip Hop, and all that is associated with it, but they “don’t mind a bit of Kanye West”, which is about as close to a compliment as Kanye’s going to get from people who went to school in Hertfordshire!
He has brought Hip Hop, and what is essentially repackaged Mo Town to people who wouldn’t hear of it if you even insinuated that they enjoyed either genre. Not a bad achievement for someone who spent years ‘quietly’ producing for what are now his contemporaries.
People will tell you that Kanye West is arrogant, and that his headline grabbing outburst on stage last year during Taylor Swift’s MTV award acceptance speech was prime example. And maybe he is, I don’t know him personally so I won’t be able to argue with you. To me however, everything he does seems calculated. I for one didn’t know who Taylor Swift was prior to this incident, and I’m sure Kanye West, having not dropped a Hip Hop album since 2007 may have been disappearing from the radar of those more familiar with Taylor.
Say what you will, this may be the unacceptable side of his genius, but Kanye West pays serious attention to every aspect of his art. I’ve been to see him live twice, the second time I was treated to what Kanye wanted to be the best live show ever – rather than what critics were already dubbing the best live tour in Hip Hop history.
Hip Hop, despite being the largest selling genre in the US, may not be seen as the mainstream, but Kanye West’s achievements in his field are unrivaled – there is no other person on this planet who Raps and Produces, with both speaking for themselves. For those of you unaware of the merit of this, it would be like being the best singer and dancer out there, and who’s done that?
Besides a certain Michael Jackson, I mean!
