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Kanye West
The Man, the Music, and the Message
By Jean A. Williams
Producer and rapper Kanye West is a standout in the hip-hop world —
sometimes for his music, but often for his controversial actions.
Then there is his atypical look, preferring preppy attire to typical
hip-hop fashion, and his no-shame-in-my-game, middleclass upbringing
with no pretense to gangsta ties. In fact, West is a proud mama’s
boy. Having emerged onto the pop-culture radar just a few short
years ago, West has cut large swaths through the fields of musical
accomplishment and good deeds with occasional detours through
minefields of controversy.
The world waited with bated breath for his third album —
“Graduation” — to drop on Sept. 11, timing that spawned a feud with
fellow rapper 50 Cent as to who could lay rightful claim to the
date. If West were merely picking a fight to drum up publicity for
his new album when he moved its release date to go head-to-head with
50’s, it wouldn’t have been the first time he seemed to be courting
controversy. In Raising Kanye, a book by his mother, Donda West,
that was released this summer, she paints him as an extremely
self-confident, talented, righteous yet genuine figure. She knows
full well, however, that in the pantheon of pop culture, he’s viewed
through a far more complicated and often less forgiving prism.
The Man and His Music
Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta but raised in Chicago. His
atypical names were taken from an African naming book, with Kanye
being Ethiopian for “the only one.” Omari means “wise man.” West’s
parents divorced when he was 3. He moved with his mother to Chicago,
where she raised him while building a career as an educator,
including a stint as chair of the department of English and speech
at Chicago State University. West spent summers in Atlanta with his
father, Ray, a photojournalist. “His Dad was a really great
guy-really, really smart, very creative. He was a photojournalist
when I met him,” Donda West said on Chicago’s B-96 radio station in
August. “As a matter a fact, [he was] the first African- American
photojournalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”
From an early age, West displayed artistic abilities, according to
his mother. “He began to draw when he was 3, and I bought him a huge
box of Crayolas,” Donda West writes. “Even then his talent stood
out. He drew things that kids who were twice his age couldn’t draw.
He drew people, real people, not stick figures.”
When he was 14, he bought his first keyboard. Later, he added
turntables, mixers and drum machines, turning his teenage bedroom
into a studio. “Kanye dreamed of doing music from the time he was
very young,” Donda West writes. “I first noticed it when he was in
the third grade. That and drawing were his passions. But somewhere
along the way, music took over. Kanye spent hours and hours mixing,
rapping and writing. It was nonstop.”
A Different School of Thought
West famously attended, but then dropped out of college in his third
semester. He has used his academic experience as grist for his
music. His latest album, “Graduation,” is the final part a trilogy,
following his first two albums, “The College Dropout” and “Late
Registration.”
“Kanye got to the point where he wanted to do nothing but music and
art,” Donda West said on Chicago’s B- 96. “He said, ‘I like music,
art, recess and lunch.’ That’s what he liked about high school. I
always insisted that he be a good student. But it was really hard,
those last three or four years, because he didn’t want to do
anything but those few things, and that’s when we had a few
difficulties. But he stuck in there. He hung in there. He really had
no choice.”
West’s tenacity led to him popping up on the music industry’s radar
screen when he was 19. Executives at Sony expressed interest in him,
even flying him to New York for a meeting. That early interest
stalled unceremoniously.
Before he would finally land a deal with Damon Dash and Jay Z’s
Roc-A-Fella Records, West would be turned down by Def Jam, Arista
and Capitol. Even then, he was signed as a producer when he really
wanted to be a rap artist.
Before his breakthrough with “The College Dropout,” West produced
tracks for Jay Z, Nas, Mobb Deep and others.
Roc-A-Fella was reluctant to sign West as an artist, because he
doesn’t fit the typical rapper profile. He dropped “The College
Dropout” in February 2004 to acclaim, led by the hit single “Through
The Wire,” a commentary on a 2002 car accident that left him with a
metal plate in his chin.
He followed in 2005 with “Late Registration.” The two albums have
won West five Grammy Awards. He won a sixth for producing Alicia
Keys’ R&B hit “You Don’t Know My Name.”
The Controversy
West obviously has no problem speaking his mind. It’s as much a part
of his hip-hop persona as are his preppy outfits. And he’s always
good for an outrageous comment or a bit of braggadocio. But he is
probably best known outside the hip-hop world for his unscripted
tirade about President Bush and the federal government’s poor
response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
“I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black
family, it says, ‘They’re looting.’ You see a white family, it says,
‘They’re looking for food.’ And, you know, it’s been five days
[waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. …
George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
“Like his Dad, Kanye has little patience for what he thinks is
unjust,” Donda West writes in Raising Kanye. “If he sees a president
leave human beings stranded on rooftops for days at a time, his
passion and compassion will outweigh his patience.” West comes from
a long line of people who flout the status quo. Both Donda and Ray
West were involved in civil rights struggles. Their son obviously,
took a page from their books.
Eschewing the NBC script during a Katrina telethon (to the surprise
of his cohort, comedian Mike Myers), West spewed comments that were
poignant. Donda West describes the incident as, “the shot heard
round the world.” Kanye West also stands up pretty tall for himself.
When he was snubbed for a video award in November 2006, the
outspoken rapper barged onstage to argue that his “Touch the Sky”
video should have won. He later apologized for his actions. He was
in a funk over the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Nominated for five
awards, West walked away empty handed, but not before giving the
media a taste of his style.
“That’s two years in a row, man,” West said to reporters backstage.
Give a black man a chance. I’m trying hard, man. I have the … No. 1
record, man.” He then vowed to boycott MTV. He has since apologized.
Misunderstood or Misogynist?
Perhaps not as resounding, but a sticky issue nonetheless, has been
West’s relationship with women. West, newly engaged to longtime
girlfriend Alexis, is well-known for his obvious love and respect
for his mother, who has served as his manager and now heads his
philanthropic missions. “Respect has always been a big thing in our
house — not just being respected but learning how to respect,” Donda
West wrote in her book. “And because Kanye has a high regard for me,
it makes him a better man.”
But for someone who is famously said to be a “mama’s boy,” Kanye
West also has the dual and dubious distinction of being labeled a
“misog- ynist” in some circles. The pejorative term is linked to
some of his lyrical content, but also to an article published in the
December 2006 issue of Essence magazine. West reportedly referred to
the biracial women who are so ubiquitous in hip-hop videos as
“mutts,” raising the ire of some, who also deemed it to be a racist
remark.
“If I could count the words Kanye has spoken that some people have
found inappropriate, controversial, in poor taste, or just downright
crazy, I would still be counting,” Donda West writes. “But I’d bet
you a year’s salary that most of those words would be right on the
money.”
Ironically, West has risked “street cred” by standing up for gays
after a consciousness-raising encounter in a clothing store in
Greenwich Village. “I think that standing up for gays was even more
courageous than badmouthing the president,” Kanye reportedly said.
Giving Back
He also supports kids staying in school, despite having famously —
and boastfully — dropped out of college when he was 20.
“Not long after Kanye signed his record deal with Roc-A-Fella, and
before the release of “College Dropout,” he asked me one of the most
important questions he’s ever asked: ‘Mom, when am I going to start
giving back?’ It blew me away.” So intent was he on giving back that
he was ready to pick a random less-fortunate person to give 10
percent of his earnings. Donda West helped him evolve the idea,
suggesting instead that he start a nonprofit organization. But it
was West himself who zeroed in on the mission of helping kids stay
in school with music as their inspiration. “Over the past few years,
I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of young people across
this land, and contrary to popular belief, they also have goals and
dreams,” West says on his Web site, www.kanyewestfoundation.org.
“Consequently, I have concluded that prospering in the world of
music is only a piece of what I really want to accomplish. So I was
encouraged — in fact, driven — to found and develop Loop Dreams, the
first initiative of the Kanye West Foundation. This rap-writing and
music-production program is designed to involve students in learning
through a hands-on curriculum we believe will motivate and compel
them to stay in school and graduate.”
So West drops out of college and makes it a running theme throughout
his three albums, but then establishes a nonprofit to encourage
youth to remain in school. He also takes on U.S. presidents, runs
afoul of women, embraces gays and disses other artists.
What does all of this make him?
Conscientious? Foolhardy? A bleeding heart? Just a little cocky?
“Has Kanye ever behaved arrogantly? Absolutely! Not only at a few
awards shows, but at home as a kid,” Donda West writes. “He went
through a phase at 12 years old where he seemed to care about no one
but himself… I will not deny that even today, Kanye acts arrogantly
on occasion. But to me, this occasional behavior is not
characteristic.”
Perhaps he’s just a man unafraid of the world, one who takes a
full-clip shot at his dreams. Perhaps he stated it best during his
2006 Grammy acceptance: “When I had my accident, I found out at that
moment, nothing in life is promised except death. If you have the
opportunity to play this game called life, you have to appreciate
every moment. A lot of people don’t appreciate their moment until
it’s passed.”
That certainly will not be the case for Kanye Omari West.
Jean A. Williams is a Chicago-based free-lance writer and author.
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