“Waves” from the album The Life of Pablo
[submitted by Wordjunkie]
Kanye West is a controversial figure. He’s famous for making popular music. He’s also famous for making an ass of himself in public. But, who is Kanye West really and why does it matter when we listen to his music?
Is Kanye West the sum of his actions?
He’s put out seven solo studio albums in the last 12 years. He’s collaborated with hundreds of other artists, including Paul McCartney. Sir Paul for God's sake. Over his whole career he’s rarely had a musical misstep. He has, however, made many public relations missteps. He's interrupted multiple award acceptance speeches (Justice, Taylor Swift), he bagged on George W. at a fundraiser (sometimes his outbursts are on point), he’s gone on countless self congratulatory tirades in the press and on social media, and he generally responds to criticism of this behavior with blame and more narcissistic braggadocio.
Is Kanye West how he feels on the inside?
His music has been self-referential and far more self-aware than his public persona since All Falls Down, the lead single on his first album, College Dropout. The only mea culpas he seems to be comfortable with are on his records. While his public persona has become more confrontational and bombastic, his music still contains a thread of the sentimental and spiritual Kanye that wrote everything from Family Business to Only One. His music has certainly become darker and the lyrical content more jaded over time, but if Kanye’s description of Kanye is to be believed, he’s a misunderstood genius trying to navigate fame and fortune with grace and sometimes he freaks out when people don’t appreciate that enough.
Anybody who has ever been truly misunderstood knows that it can be a painful experience. People aren't always great at accurately representing themselves, especially in the spotlight. On the other hand, the only way we can evaluate other people, is through their actions over time. If those actions are consistently unreasonable then excuses about being misunderstood eventually loose their strength.
The run up to his latest album, The Life of Pablo, contained some of the most absurd public outbursts of his career. See his Twitter fight with Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose’s Twitter commentary on that fight for some serious WTF. I’ve had more conversations about that Twitter fight than I have about the album itself. Those conversations distract from what is an excellent album. The Life of Pablo boasts some of the best beats of Kanye's career. It's packed with the emotional complexity that has become one of his hallmarks, with exhortations of faith, friendship, love, violence, raw sexuality, and of course self aggrandizement interwoven throughout. It has a standout performance from Chance the Rapper. It even has a song where Kanye raps about the old Kanye versus the new Kanye. How’s that for self-referential?!
Yet with all of that on the album, the chatter about Kanye West’s insane public persona have overshadowed discussions about the music. Whoever Kanye West really is, his celebrity has become so big and strange that it has unfortunately become the main attraction and the music has become the side show.
