The Heroic Mr. West (Why I Never Get Tired Of Being Right)

Sep 17, 2007

The Heroic Mr. West (Why I Never Get Tired Of Being Right) · by Thaddeus Clark

“...bringing you the story of dead Black Panthers, pop-locking dancers,
and these hood rappers, European romantics, understand the vantage?”

If you had any doubts about Kanye West being THE VOICE of the Middle Class, then “The Best Rap Blog In The History of The Internet“ is ground zero for my thesis.

Some of the commentary regarding Kanye’s path of upward mobility questions his:

Image,

Tastes in culture and music

Sexuality,

and overall Blackness.

Now if those aren’t issues that the Black Middle Class of America deals with, I don’t know what is?

And for my next trick, I’ll need a volunteer from our audience.

If you know an artist please raise your hand.

You Sir, would you come to the stage?

Artists no matter how talented, confident, or accomplished are continually seeking validation (including me).

The irony of some your comments regarding Kanye’s “diva complex” is that Mr. Wests’ public tantrums have all happened when the quality of his art has come into question.

We don’t read stories about Kanye blaming his label for lack of support

Or hear his rants questioning “fans” that are downloading instead of purchasing

Or even tales of interns being sent to Juniors for breast milk

Kanye is only guilty for wishing that you care as much as he does.

A man who’s sold millions of albums, owns a successful imprint, and challenges mainstream America’s concept of a Black Rap Artist still needs MTV Video Awards, Grammy’s, and for you to understand that this shit ain’t easy.

Being a Black Artist under the microscope never is.

Brandon, Rafi, Eauhellzgnaw, and Abe – I’ll be talking to the Commission.

When they open the books I’m proposing you each get a button.

And

Some excellent analysis of “Graduation” via the comments: “For some reason, DJ Toomp decided to try and rehash “What You Know About That” with his synth lines for “Can’t tell Me Nothing” and Kanye added a little vocal sample. But his phrasing, his pacing, and his breath control all leave much to be desired…Kanye raps very sloppily, sometimes making huge awkward pauses before continuing lines, and making strange segues from line to line, like he is trying
to emphasis the phrases as if they were profound and worthy of duplicate listens, but they are not. He doesn’t really try to attempt to have a staccato or rapid fire paced flow, which might be able to mask or hide the fact that his lyrics are wack with jarring rhythm or , instead he seems to try and slow everything down more so than is necessary as if anything he says is actually important.“

- My biggest issue with “Graduation” revolves around this same idea. I feel that Kanye overestimates or misjudges his range and voicing when it comes to the “breathing room” or spacing in his delivery, particularly on “I Wonder,” “Flashing Lights,” and “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” (I will not acknowledge that other song). While I think it’s brave of Kanye to try a different delivery method I don’t think he pulls it off flawlessly. If Kanye was to try this technique with more layers of over-dubs and faster BPMs, maybe? By-the-way, the two artists that have this technique down are Bun B and Young Jeezy.

Oh and one more thing – did someone really try to argue in the comments that A Tribe Called Quest/Q-tip aren’t industry-savvy?

Question: How many people could get J-Dilla to produce Janet Jackson’s lead single (when she was IT), appear in movies, eat
dinner with the head of Universal, and have their music in a current Budweiser commercial (without having a record out in 6 years)?

The Answer: Not many.

Until next time…

After inventing the “Thumbs Up” and “High Five,”
Thaddeus Clark began working on his most ambitious project ever.

Comments for "The Heroic Mr. West (Why I Never Get Tired Of Being Right)"

Yeah, the huge awkward pauses and the awful clunker punchlines are pretty much deal-breakers for me. Like ‘don’t fix your lips like collagen.’ Coming up with an asinine simile for everything isn’t lyricism, Kanye. It’s just stupid. On top of that, he’s gotten away from what he was best at musically (sampling soul records) and I don’t find anything he talks about interesting anymore. Cataloguing various articles of clothing he does and does not wear, the great Kanye vs. Kanye-haters “drama,” poor Kanye being hounded by Nazi-like paparazzi, Kanye’s embarrasingly bad pick-up lines, “Drunk and Hot Girls” (is the ‘and’ really necessary?)... someone tell me what they find entertaining about any of this content. And as for his cockiness, every rapper worth his salt has a huge ego but his egotism is a turn-off. Perhaps it’s that, a, it’s so obviously a counter for massive insecurities – I mean, the guy goes on Jimmy Kimmel and tells the two publications who gave him a bad review that they “suck” – and b, it’s so patently undeserved. At some point you just come off as delusional.

— Tray Sep 17, 02:38 PM
Good post.

The industry savvy comment, which was mine. Was not at all directed at Q-Tip’s ability to schmooze and polly and accomplish the small things (get a production credit here, end up on a Jay-Z dvd, do a track with Wu, eat lunch with a CEO, etc) and everything to do with his inability to turn his success with Tribe into any kind of an interesting solo career. He had a couple hits on “Amplified,” yes. But Kamaal the Abstract got shelved, and I’d bet dollars to donuts that “The Standard” will never see the light of day, and neither will the Tribe reunion album. So maybe it’s not savvy, it’s just laziness and a lack of direction. I have no doubt that he can still pay the bills though.

Kanye, who I was comparing him to, has done three solos, numerous mixtapes, put out his own artists, executive produced other artists, gotten production credits all over the map, has proven he can change his sound repeatedly, and shows no sign of slowing down. But he’s still young has plenty of time to burn out I guess. So I was really just insinuating that Kanye has A LOT more savvy than Q-Tip does, not that Q-Tip is completley devoid of savvy.

As far as the Awards he needs to validate him? Come on man. Rappers have never been appreciated properly by major award shows. Think of how badly the Grammies snubbed the careers of Nas and Jay-Z for example (not to mention plenty of other GOAT contenders). And even if rap was treated fairly on that level, Kanye still isn’t anymore deserving than TI or Ludacris or any host of rappers who can actually rap well and make good videos and songs as well (not that Kanye doesn’t, I’m just saying it’s not like he’s head and shoulders above the competition by any means). If he was cryin’ because they didn’t let any rappers hit the main stage or give any awards to hip hop artists, it would be somewhat justified. But to act like he’s entitled/deserving of something he’s lucky he even got nominated for, or to complain about where he’s performing when artists like 50 Cent, Foo Fighters, Soldja Boy, etc were relegated to the same venue he was, is just lame. Especially when those performances were taped the DAY BEFORE and he didn’t say shit about it until after the awards show? It’s like he’s just faking a hissy fit for added TMZ attention (which I think is exactly what it is). Another example of his savvy, but it just doesn’t sit well with me, at all.

— B. Ware tha Siniq Sep 17, 03:04 PM
speaks to the value of ‘catchy’ vs. ‘thought-provoking’ in our modern culture. Graduation almost doesn’t need lyrics, it just does so well in every other aspect, but the personality West brings to it is what sold the albums. it’s weird, because I wasn’t really into the previous albums, but by this point, I’ve bought into the hype. can’t even help myself, it’s kind of a disease.

— julien Sep 17, 03:08 PM
Tray – These or This might help you understand this post better.

Siniq – I’m not sure I can help get all those voices inside your head on the same page but you must be very happy it’s September…

— Thadd Clark Sep 17, 05:47 PM
Tray represents the type of rap fan T.R.E.Y. will never agree with.

really though, what exactly is wrong with him branching out beyond the soul sample ish? i get that synths are verboten in tru-skool hip hop, but i’m just curious, cuz to me this is sonically leaps and bounds ahead of something like Dropout.

— T.R.E.Y. Sep 17, 07:55 PM
I just sort of ignored your post and went on my own rant because I don’t care about the Black Middle Class. Being a member of the White Upper Class, the Black Lower Class is the only Black Class that interests me, and that just for its entertainment value, not because of any genuine sympathies or political interests. That’s just being honest. It may be the case that my appreciation of Kanye is limited by my disinterest in the Black Middle Class and the questions about being “too white” such folk face, which are all symbolized in Kanye’s work, I imagine, by his obsessive mentions of “Louis V”... but even if that were the case, I think Kanye could do a much better job of talking about that kind of “stuff” than just blurting out names of white fashion designers every 2 bars.

— Tray Sep 17, 09:23 PM
I almost began regretting that I was over-extending myself on this topic.

Then Tray spoke again.

Thank you for validating this post and showing me that this is indeed worthy, relevant, and important.

— Thadd Clark Sep 17, 09:34 PM
that second photo’s got enough digital touch ups to put robots in therapy with chester flashbacks

— sankofa Sep 17, 09:37 PM