The Genius that is Kanye West

     What's goin on everyone? If you're tuned in with me right now, I thank you, and appreciate you taking the time out to read my thoughts and views. This past Thursday, my mother and I went out to the movies and saw, "Get On Up," the James Brown biopic. As far as movies like this are concerned, it's one of the best I've seen. Ray, the biopic about Ray Charles, is my favorite biopic about musicians, and I'd put Get On Up, right up there with it. I left the movie theater feeling good, and also feeling motivated to get back to writing and working on new music myself. James Brown's work ethic couldn't be matched at the time, and like it's mentioned throughout the movie, there's a bit of James Brown in everyone who followed him that did music. The man was a musical genius, but at the same time, James Brown was an asshole. And that part, the part about him being an asshole, is what got me thinking.
     Every musical genius that I can think of has something wrong with them. Ray Charles was an asshole and had a drug issue. Michael Jackson didn't get to enjoy being a child before he burst into superstardum, thus creating his issues with doing childlike activities, and playing with kids as an adult. James Brown, as great as he was, was also an asshole. He was the hardest working man in showbiz, even up until his death. But also, he didn't play any games, and it was his way or the highway. He didn't take crap from anyone, even if he was wrong in doing so. I don't know much about Johnny Cash, but I'm pretty sure that Mr. Cash was an asshole as well. You have to be a bit of an asshole to be successful I believe. You can't take any crap, and you have to be determined to get what you want. That bit of asshole-ness, as I'll call it, isn't a bad thing, at least not to me. I believe that it's a necessary thing to get to where you need to be. In fact, I wish I was more of an asshole in life than I am now, but that's besides the point. These individuals were all assholes, but you couldn't take away their musical talents. These guys were all musical geniuses, who made timeless music, and are legends in their fields. And this is what brings me to Kanye West.
     As far as assholes in music are concerned today, there's no one higher than Kanye. Outside of his music, most people think he's a jerk, and can't really stand him. He may have always been a jerk, but it hit it's peak when he interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Music Awards. While I agree that he shouldn't have interrupted her, I will be honest and say that he said exactly what I was thinking at the time. Beyonce had the better song and video that year, and should have won the award. I know plenty of others who were thinking the same, but since Kanye is the one who got up and said it publicly, he has to be the one to take the fall. Let me just say this as well. If it were, let's say, Rihanna, who was accepting the award instead of Taylor Swift, and Kanye interrupted her instead, it wouldn't have been a big deal at all. Nobody would have thought he was a jerk in anyway had it been Rihanna. Kanye actually helped give Taylor Swift some publicity, and sell some more records by making her look like a victim of the angry black man, but, that's a topic for another day.
      As much of an asshole that Kanye is, he's never actually done anything too bad outside of that. He's changed the way people approach rap and hip hop music. He's made it so that you don't have to be a thug with a criminal record to rhyme. In my opinion, he's popularized a different sub-genre of rap and hip, being the "emo rap," lane that so many emcees after him have benefited from. Drake, J. Cole, Childish Gambino, A$AP Rocky, hell, even me as an emcee have all taken a bit of Kanye since his debut in 2004. When the worst criminal activity you have as an emcee is assaulting the paparazzi for taking pictures of you when you tell them to stop, you really can't be that bad of a person. We respect the Nas', Jay-Z's, 2Pac's, and Biggies more than Kanye, because of they're lyrical ability, and yes, those guys are great, and should all be applauded for their efforts, but really, what have they done? Biggie is #1 or #2 on my all time favorite rapper list depending on the day, but when you really break it down, he was just a typical street rapper. He didn't do anything different than anybody else at that time, he just did it better than they did. Same could be said for Jay, Nas, and Pac. I'll give Eminem slightly more credit, because he did make it so that white rappers could be taken seriously after the whole Vanilla Ice fiasco, and since Eminem has come along, we've got the likes of Asher Roth, Rittz, Yelawolf, Paul Wall, and Bubba Sparxxx, all of which can actually be taken serious as emcees, and credit Eminem for helping to carve the lane out for them.
    But, back to Kanye. His first album is called, The College Dropout. What? What other rapper before him even spoke of going to college? Most rappers before Kanye dropped out of high school, and could care less about higher education. Now you have the likes of J. Cole graduating college and pursuing his musical dream. You don't think there's a little connection there? Kanye didn't influence these younger emcees any? Kanye has also expanded the way to express yourself through music. His albums are like scores to a motion picture. They're like epic events for rap. When a Kanye album drops, the media just eats it up. He's everywhere. The production work on his albums are like nothing you'll hear on anything else when it drops. Who didn't want a Kanye sound on their album over the last 10 years? The guy is 10 years into his career, and is a hip hop legend.
     I may have went off course a bit here, but I believe that the modern day descendant of musical genius is Kanye West. I believe that because I don't believe he's reached that level of being comfortable as some of those that are above him. He's constantly trying to get better musically, whereas I think a Jay-Z is just comfortable in his spot and isn't trying to push himself to improve now. The same could be said about Lil Wayne and others. Kanye is definitely an asshole to the media, but if that's his only flaw, then you can't really say too much bad about him. People hate him because of what he says in the media, his actions to the media. But nobody who hates him and thinks he's an asshole has actually hung out with him to know how he really is. So we shouldn't really judge him.
     Anyway, I know this was a bit long and a little unorganized, but I just wanted to share my thoughts on Kanye West. There's nobody like him in music today, and there's nobody else in all of music who I feel fits the same asshole qualifications of those I mentioned earlier. I know some are going to disagree and say that I'm a fool here, but that's why I make these posts. I make them for discussions and interactions with my peers. As always, thanks for reading, and if you enjoy my blogs, give me a like, and follow me on Google+. Thanks for reading and you all take care. Peace.