Kanye West: Being Detestable and Being a Genius are Not Mutually Exclusive

By Anonymous ‘21

Kanye West’s decade-long career has been undeniably tainted by controversy. Infamous for his incoherent twitter rants, self appointed “God” status and provocative public appearances, Kanye’s radical media presence has always been a disheartening sub-narrative in the greater context of his merit — until now. After a yearlong hiatus, Kanye returned to twitter with a proverbial thread of tweets in which he maintained the enslavement of his ancestors was a “choice” and openly endorsed alt-right President Trump. His most recent scandal heralds the death of the Old Kanye, a once inspirational catalyst of a hip-hop revolution whose brilliance has been fully eclipsed by his mania.

Throughout his career, Kanye espoused an offensive, Kardashian-affiliated persona that has come to dominate his legacy. To an audience unfamiliar with the rapper beyond his egregiousness and hits overplayed at frat parties, the notion that Kanye is a genius reflects a societal indulgence in his lunacy rather than a bona fide assessment of his talent. Even within the generation of fans and fellow rappers who witnessed him transcend the sonance of hip-hop, many have denounced Kanye's iconicity in response to his support for President Trump, the antithesis of the historically black culture the genre represents.

Kanye’s brazenness has ultimately overshadowed the significance of his legacy, but being detestable and being a genius are not mutually exclusive. Although it does not make his moral declination any less infuriating or heartbreaking, Kanye West is undoubtedly a genius. But more importantly, to equate Kanye’s genius with his most recent scandal transcends the debate of ‘separating the art from the artist.’ It is the nature of Kanye’s musical brilliance that makes him inherently problematic. To discount his genius would mask the broader implication of his contributions to hip-hop that are analogous with that of his endorsement of President Trump.

In his debut album, The College Dropout, Kanye abandoned the formulaic structure of hip-hop and instead curated an album that refined the concept of soul sampling. The record was a cornerstone of rap music, both sonically and lyrically. Rather than adhering to a traditional composition that layers rap verses over an instrumental beat, the record is composed of a series of vocal samples that are amalgamated to form a coherent track. Beyond sampling from soul and R&B tracks, Kanye also incorporated classic rock, gospel, pop, and a variety of other genre samples along with non-organic sound effects into a hip-hop record. He relies on a method of speed alteration, manipulating tempo, shortening and stretching isolated vocals and autotune to incorporate samples in every second of his tracks. In doing so, Kanye pioneered an entirely new use of the human voice  as the instrument comprising the baseline, percussion and melody of his songs. Beginning with his debut album, Kanye set a new standard for rap music that abandoned the use of the digital keyboard and beatboxing, formerly universal tenets of hip-hop. Kanye replaced hardcore rap with a pop-sounding record that changed the precedent for hip-hop in the generation to come.

Not long ago, Kanye was an emblem of the millennial experience. Beset by economic decline and the dwindling reality of the American Dream, both his music and brazen persona addressed the plight of the current generation. Kanye entered the industry during the era of Tupac, Biggie Smalls and 50 Cent as the son of a middle-class single mother from Chicago. The release of The College Dropout constituted a new facet of hip-hop: one that that diverged from gangster rap, instead offers a personal brand of storytelling.

Kanye’s lyrics discuss his experience dropping out of college, his near fatal car accident, his views on religion and his concerns about not being able to manage his newfound money and fame. Prior to Kanye’s debut, gangster rap lyrics glorified the luxury lifestyle that came with success and focused on materialism more than it did emotion. When artists like Tupac did incorporate a narrative in their tracks, the lyrics often reflected an inner-city realty. In contrast, The College Dropout discusses universal problems. Kanye knew what he was doing by shifting the focus of rap music. He hoped that the album would "bridge the gap.” Contrary to his current image, Kanye built his career on a ‘regular person’ persona in which he openly discussed his emotions and experiences in his tracks, empowering him to integrate hip-hop into white culture. Not only did Kanye redefine the way hip hop sounds, he also transformed what hip-hop means.  

It takes a genius to transform the sound of music, and Kanye’s unprecedented use of sampling warrants him the title. Kanye spawned a new era for hip-hop, replacing pop music as the mainstream genre. Kanye’s revolutionary sound is now a universal tenet of modern hip-hop; rappers such as Travis Scott, Chance the Rapper, Drake and Kendrick Lamar have all been influenced by Kanye’s use of autotune, vocal sampling and storytelling. Beyond dominating the Billboard’s top hits, hip-hop culture has been appropriated into the fashion, language and aesthetic of the aughts.

Within Kanye’s genius is the removal of his blackness from his music. “I’m not black, I’m Kanye” signals Kanye’s desire to be a genius rather than a black genius. His own disregard for his blackness transcends the content of his music, spreading hip-hop culture without its historical connotations, making his support for President Trump all the more problematic. Ta-Nehisi Coates said it best: “It would be nice if those who sought to use their talents as entrée into another realm would do so with the same care which they took in their craft. But the Gods are fickle and the history of this expectation is mixed”.

Kanye’s genius is undeniable, as is his egregiousness, but effectively discussing one of these facets requires an acknowledgement of the other.