Kan-Yay

Annie Lorenzoni

Ye all the way.

Why? (is that even a question?)

All SIX of his solo albums: Since the drop of his debut album, The College Dropout in 2004, West has been cranking out the albums. Six in eleven years. Each one completely different from the last, and each one bringing a whole new unique sound to the genre of rap and hip-hop. His mixture of sounds always seem to blend perfectly with his lyrics, sending powerful messages as a result. All six of his critically acclaimed albums have gone platinum, selling over 66 million digital downloads combined, making him one of the best-selling digital artists of all-time. His 21 Grammys also make him one of the most awarded artists of all-time.

“Izzo (H.O.V.A)”, “Heart of the City”, “Run This Town”, “Young Forever”. What do all of these song have in common besides being some of Jay-Z’s top hits? They were produced by the one and only Kanye West. Before West stepped into the spotlight, he was a producer. His big break was in 2000 when he produced a handful of songs off of Jay-Z’s album, The Blueprint, and was recognized and credited for revitalizing Jay-Z’s career with his contributions towards his most highly regarded album. For fifteen years, West has gone on to produce on albums and songs for Beyonce, Common, Rihanna, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Alicia Keys, Lupe Fiasco, 2 Chainz, Drake, and so many more highly acclaimed artists. In addition, G.O.O.D Music, West’s record label, has only produced good music and accomplished great things since West founded it in 2004. It has helped shed light on artists such as John Legend and Kid Cudi, releasing their debut albums which both won three Grammys.

He’s always known what he wanted in life: West’s passion for rapping sparked in third grade, and has only grown stronger since then. He received a scholarship to the Chicago’s Academy of Arts so he could get a good education, but as his passion for music continued to grow, he realized all of college’s demands were detrimental to his musical work, so he dropped out when he was 20. This decision helped him focus on getting better at what he really wanted to do in life: create amazing music.

He’s not afraid to stand up for what he believes in. West has gotten a lot of backlash from the nation and the media, especially for his bold public actions, like when he stopped Taylor Swift during the MTV Video Music Awards. He is just an outspoken person and strongly believed Beyonce deserved the award instead of Swift. West believes that, “if I don’t scream, if I don’t say something, then no one’s going to say anything”. His outbursts have always been followed by a public apology.

He’s got style, and that’s a fact. West’s Air Yeezy’s that released in 2009 as a result of collaborating with Nike sold out within seconds. 9,000 pairs of his Adidas Yeezy Boosts sold out in less than ten minutes. His collaboration with Adidas has grown over the past two years into a full fashion line that made its debut during Fashion Month this past February. His shows were an immediate hit in New York, Paris, Milan, and London as models of all different body types presented his pieces influenced by the London Riots and intended for anyone and everyone to wear. His impressive collection went above and beyond viewer’s standards and racked up the most amount of views, storming past Chanel’s, who has been at the top for the past five years, by a million. In response to criticism from New York’s Fashion Week creator, West proclaimed that, “All we have are our dreams, and you can step on our dreams and ideas all you want, but we won’t stop fighting”.

He recorded his debut single, “Through the Wire”, when his jaw was wired shut…‘nuff said. He went straight to the studio when he got out of the hospital to record his first song off his first solo album. Talk about persevering through the extreme pain to create a song like no other. If that isn’t skill, then I don’t know what is.

If there’s just one thing you should take away from this article, then remember, it ain’t easy being Yeezy.

Kan-Nay

Shannon Durazo

There is no artist in rap music that I loathe quite as much as Kanye West. He is really, truly, awful. And whenever I think he is finally starting to act like a respectable human being, he always ends up proving me wrong. Just to be clear, I have absolutely no problem with people speaking their minds. Free speech is one of the most integral parts of murica’. I’m not saying Kanye West should stop speaking, I’m just requesting he think a little beforehand. That being said, I am going to present some examples of Kanye West acting horrendously, and give some suggestions on what he should have done, in order to not seem like such a horrible person.

Example numero uno: Kanye West’s various award show  tantrums .This includes his outburst after losing “Best Song” at the 2005 Grammy Awards to Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”, and the infamous VMA 2009 incident, where Yeezy decided to snatch the microphone from Taylor Swift in order to tell the audience that Beyoncé  “Had one of the best videos of all time.” Similarly, 6 years later at the 2015 Grammy Awards Kanye West did nearly the exact same thing, but with Beck. Kanye West clearly has a problem, but the solution is simple. Suck. It. Up. Everyone is entitled to their opinion regarding award shows, but that doesn’t mean you have to express it in a way that publicly humiliates the recipient of that award. Not cool bro. Also, did he even listen to Beck’s album? It was fab.

Besides his award show antics, another reason I despise Kanye West is because of his ego the size of Alaska. In a recent radio interview Kanye West loudly proclaimed “I am the best artist of this generation.” Uh, no you’re not. Not even close. Like not even a little bit close. Kanye has talent, no doubt. “The College Dropout” is a hip-hop classic, and “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” is pretty good as well. But, those albums do not hold a candle to the music of the greats. Sure Kanye may have power in his voice, but not even close to the power of Notorious B.I.G & Tupac. Yeezy’s rhymes are fine, but his rhymes don’t shine like the rhymes Rakim or MF Doom. West has interesting beats, but his beats don’t pack as much heat as the production genius of “The Neptunes” and Timbaland. Kanye is creative, but his creativity looks elementary compared to the sonic sounds of Andre 3000. Yeezus has flow, but Nas though. Lastly, Kanye West can not sing. Kanye West is a terrible singer, but of course he tries to auto tune his way through all of his music, hoping nobody will notice. Well, I notice. The culmination of all of Kanye’s musical flaws is the album “Yeezus”. This album’s title is not the only thing that is cringe- worthy. It’s content the musical equivalent of nails on a chalkboard. To this day I still weep at the fact that I wasted 40 whole minutes of my life listening to that train wreck. Even the best tracks on the album, “Hold my Liquor” and “New Slaves” are still pretty horrible. And the music video for “Bound 2”, where Yeezy sits in a compromising position with Kim Kardashian on a motorcycle is just downright uncomfortable. Yet, Kanye still refers to himself as the “King of Rap” I mean, he even has a song entitled “I am a God.” It’s virtually impossible to get more egotistical than that.

Lastly, Kanye West is mean. Just plain and simply mean. Yeezy has a long history of being ridiculously confrontational towards anyone who slightly annoys him. Some of these people include photojournalists, regular journalists, assistants, secretaries, consultants, tech-producers, music producers, and even his ex-fiance Amber Rose. makes my blood boil the most was when West cursed out  way Calloway, a radio show host and one of the most respected members of the hip hop community. I could go on with why I strongly dislike Kanye, But I feel I should stop for my own health. Just thinking about Kanye West makes my blood boil. And I’m sure I’m not alone here. Kanye is not a good person, and not even close to being “the best.” He is just a rude, angry, egotistical pest.