New Jersey White Boy's Rap of the Week: Kanye West, a Retrospective

I’ve been neglecting my duties of writing articles about rap that no one reads. While I do apologize for that, I feel the detail, length, and effort that went into this article more than makes up for whatever wrong I’ve done to you. To quote one of the greatest rappers of all time, “I guess, this is my dissertation”. It was also his birthday last Friday, so this article is well timed (for once).

This is only part 1, as I have stuff to do and stuff to put off. Next week, however, you’ll hopefully see part 2.

In true dissertation fashion, I’m going to lay out exactly what I’m doing here. This article will look at Kanye West’s rapping career, including the music he’s done since 2004, and the crazy, real life drama that has followed him, and how they have influenced each other. I’m not going to talk much about his production career, except as it relates to his albums. I’m also going to spend a little time talking about the industry-wide impact that he’s had, only because it’s impossible to talk about his music without talking about his impact. It’ll be broken up as I see fit, because this is my article dammit, and I’ll do whatever I want. Also, this thing is massive, so it only makes sense to break it down into sections.

INTRODUCTION

Kanye West is one of those people who needs no introduction. He’s been part of the public consciousness ever since his first album dropped back in 2004, and a huge part of the hip-hop scene long before then. He’s a leader in fashion, music, and luxury goods. He brings controversy wherever he goes. He’s been made fun of by everyone from small-town comedians to South Park. If there was a face of modern hip-hop, he would be it. As much as you may laugh at him for saying it, he truly is the “voice of this generation, of this decade”. In retrospect, that served as a pretty good introduction.

But I know what you’re thinking; “New Jersey White Boy, I know we already talked about this with G.O.O.D. labelmate Kid Cudi, but how are you going to say anything new about Kanye West? He’s been analyzed to death for the past decade, and you’re just some mediocre writer for the smallest blog I’ve ever read.” While I can’t argue against that logic, I’m going to do a detailed retrospective on the guy anyway. With someone so prolific and influential, it’s completely reasonable that at this point in their career that someone, even an idiot like myself, should look back and see their evolution and progress, and what kind of impact they had on the music industry.

BUY ME A SPACESHIP AND FLY PAST THE SKY

Like every story involving Kanye West, I’m going to talk about myself first. Kanye West is near and dear to my heart. Back when in the day, which I’ve described many times now, I enjoyed almost exclusively what some would consider to be “emo” music. Yes, I listened to The Beatles, The Allman Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash and (sometimes) Young, and many other bands and artists from the 50’s, 60’s, and a few from the 70’s. I had a similar thing as to what Elliott described; I was in a bubble, and everything other kind of music sucked. I had music that spoke to my soul in Fall Out Boy, and then my classy, musically talented artists that I just described. And let’s not even get started on rap (we’re starting anyway).

Growing up, rap was “black music”, in the least racially insensitive way possible. There were a few black kids who weren’t hood, but due to historic income disparities between races, along with the seemingly vast income range of my town, almost all of the “hood” kids were black (there were a few white kids in there, but not many), and the rest were “white” (including the few Asians and Hispanics that dotted my relatively small town). And from I had heard, from my superficial listens, was “hood” activities and inane lyrics over some basic looped samples. It was nothing that I, an Ivy League bound creative writing major, would associate myself with. But things changed, especially considering I’m not at UPenn or Princeton and I’m studying business and will eventually go on to law school.

While watching MTV Hits in 2004 (the all-music 4^th channel that one of fancier packages has), I heard a song. A smooth R&B voice came in over some scenes of urban blight, in all of its disgusting beauty. Then with a few scenes of death and destruction were flash cut into the video before I was inside of a church, while a choir offered a military-esque chant. Then a guy says something inspiring – “We at war with terrorism, racism. But most of all, we at war with ourselves.” Then the choir chimes in - “Je. Sus. Walks.” And I was hooked.

Nobody was doing what he did. When Kanye tried to get a label to release the song, he was turned down by executives who all said that he didn’t conform to the stereotypes present in the rap game. As he says, “I’d leave meetings crying all the time,” which is surprising, coming from the man who would eventually claim to be the voice of this generation. To give you an idea, executives were turning down the man that produced The Blueprint (the rap album of all time, ignoring Illmatic), and worked with Beyonce, Nas, Dead Prez, and TI prior to this single. These executives were saying no to one of the best producers at the time. And one would argue he’s one of the greatest producers of all time (that person would be me).

In 2003/2004, when Kanye was shopping his demo around, the rap landscape was pretty grim looking. 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Trying was one of the biggest releases at the time, Nelly’s “Country Grammar” was still coming on the radio 4 years after its release, and “Get Low” was blowing up in the club. Common was a rapper you would name drop with other hip-hop heads to make it seem like you were smart and knew what “good” hip-hop was, but you didn’t actually listen to him. Tupac and Biggie had been dead long enough for everyone to forget the type of music that rap should have been; personal, honest, real, challenging the intellect and social establishment. The D.M.C. part of Run D.M.C. had even stopped listening to rap because “hip-hop has mostly been about parties and guns and women”, as I had also believed. And, just like Darryl McDaniels, I started to get into modern hip-hop. Mark would probably make a joke that me and Darryl McDaniels are the same person, but I like to be funny.

With one song that nobody, even West’s friends, thought would ever get played, he changed the face of hip-hop. He opened up the genre to everyone, from hardcore rap fans to people who liked bands fronted by guys who pushed their bangs out of their eyes every few seconds. And it blew everyone’s minds.

But Kanye hadn’t pulled a Black Eyed Peas; making an inspirational and meaningful song, then following it up with stupid club songs that take absolutely no talent to do. His album, The College Dropout, was filled with personal statements about his life and his loves. On the surface, the name stems from the fact that he left both Chicago’s American Academy of Art (he was a painting major) and Chicago State University, where he majored in English (his mother also taught there) in order to pursue his music career. However, the title was also a personal statement; whether or not you have a college degree, and what kind of degree, defines you in modern society. By labeling himself as a dropout, it makes him sound like a failure, like he could have been somebody if he had graduated, but couldn’t do it. The album sold 4 million copies.

The main thing about his early stuff is that he wasn’t that good of a rapper. Everyone, especially record executives, didn’t think he was going to make it. But Kanye knew this too. His skill would get better, but he just needed someone to believe in him. So, rather than trying to rely on skill, he decided to take a page from slam poetry. He was inspired by how powerful the words were by these spoken word poets, and how they could get pull out specific emotions and feelings without any kind of instrumentation. So, he decided he would pack each line with as much power as he possibly could. Which, to me, is how hip-hop should be, mostly because it’s what drew me into the medium; the power of what Kanye was saying.

Once I picked up the album, I quickly grew to love almost every track. The beats were fantastic; sped up soul samples, simple but pop-y pianos, choirs, and just an overall unique sound hit me. There was nothing too complex about the instrumentation, but that worked in Kanye’s favor; with powerful lyrics coming from a guy who was thought to only be a producer, the listener needed to focus on what Mr. West was spitting. Tracks like “Family Business”, “Through the Wire”, and “Jesus Walks” became my favorite for the deeply personal and affecting lyrics on top of innovative music. “Slow Jamz” was the first rap song I heard that not only respected and embraced soul legends like Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross, but also about taking care of her needs.

“Through the Wire” is about as personal as it gets. Recorded only 2 weeks after West fell asleep behind the wheel of his car and crashed, it was an inspired track. His jaw was literally wired shut when he recorded the song, as he explains in between verses. He used a sped version Chaka Khan’s “Through the Fire” for the beat, adding to the surrealness of listening to a man rap about Emmett Till, the film Vanilla Sky, Michael Jackson’s hair catching on fire, and his family being worried about him. It’s a powerful song with a lot of dark jokes about the accident, and how much damage it did to him. However, this song was his first hit, giving him some ground to stand on for his rapping career. Not only that, but the accident was both the best and worst thing to happen to him; he was a rising star at the time in the producing game, and he took this accident as a sign that it all could be taken away from in an instant. Not only that, but the pain he went through between the actual accident, the surgeries, and the recovery period helped fuel him to try to work as hard as possible to make sure that he didn’t end up losing the wealth and fame he had just gotten.

But “Family Business” is my favorite track off the album. It instantly evokes visions of a family reunion or summer barbecue with it’s simple piano chords and Kanye speaking with a nephew of his, or possibly taking on the role of his father or older relative speaking with him. But what hooks me is the lyrics. It’s all about very personal stuff about his family, going into how his aunt and uncle act, his cousin being in jail, and an aunt who probably suffers from Alzheimer’s or dementia. Stuff that would constitute “family business” is laid out in the open for all to see, making the song’s title a complete paradox. On top of that, the title is a reversal on a family business, which, given where most rap was focused on at that time, would have been drug dealing.

With all of the mainstream success of an album that should have floundered before it was even released, Kanye finally had begun to change the face of music. But he wasn’t done here; he had more music to make, especially since he was outdone by all of his features on The College Dropout, in terms of rap proficiency.

Like this? Want to see how his journey continues? Then you should totally read part 2!