“The Bible had 20, 30, 40, 50 characters in it…you don’t think that I
would be one of the characters of today’s modern Bible?”
The world watched in horror as Kanye West rushed the stage
at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, grabbing the microphone from award winner
Taylor Swift to voice his objections.
Kanye looked out at the audience and shouted, “Yo Taylor, I’m really
happy for you…I’ll let you finish. But Beyonce had
one of the best videos of
all time! One of the best videos of all time!”
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| Kanye West and Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards |
He handed the microphone back to Swift and walked off stage,
and that was that. An uncomfortable silence
suddenly took the stage and all the audience could think about was what just
took place. America’s sweetheart had
been interrupted and disrespected by an arrogant rapper who had too much to
drink before the show. In that moment,
Kanye West became one of America’s most disliked men. Disliked so much, in fact, that he felt it
necessary to move overseas and re-evaluate his career and personal life. To this day, many people still refuse to
support Kanye, claiming that his antics have made him nothing more than an
egotistical bully in the industry.
Despite his outbursts and somewhat ridiculous off-stage
behavior, Kanye West has been one of the most influential individuals in modern
culture. He has made major contributions
to the world of fashion, music, and design.
From his 21 Grammy Awards to his million dollar shoe contract with Nike
to his charity work dedicated to keeping kids in school, Kanye West has
seemingly conquered every aspect of modern culture.
A recent article published by Complex gave a great insight on the dedication that Kanye devotes to each of his
projects.
His most recent tour, the Yeezus Tour, is comprised of
massive stage props and complicated lighting setups; while most artists would
allow an outside source to handle all of these specifications, Kanye has been
hands-on in the entire process. He
helped design the aesthetics of the precise arenas and even made sure to have
video and audio pieces specifically tailored for certain venues. This means he not only created an expression
for one consistent show type, but for several shows that vary depending on the
city.
Even the merchandise pieces that fans can purchase at the concerts
were designed by Kanye. For co-creation,
he reached out to Sam Lang, an American artist who is known for his
controversial artwork. Together the two
created a total of six separate shirt designs, as well as seven others done solely
by Kanye. Shortly after images of the
shirts surfaced on the internet, an unsurprising amount of controversy
followed.
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| Yeezus Tour Merchandise |
The shirts depict images of the confederate flag - an image
widely viewed as having racist roots - and draped them over skeletons and skulls. In a later interview, Kanye stated that this
was his way of repurposing the flag’s connotations, and that he wanted to make
the flag “his.” Although this is an
extreme example of his contributions to the world of fashion, it is significant
nonetheless. Several fashion icons are
saying that the edgy shirts are exactly what the industry needed, and are
calling members of the community out for being too tentative.
Maison Martin Margiela, a high-end fashion line created by
Belgian designer Martin Margiela, was responsible for the wardrobe that Kanye
will wear during the tour. Margiela said
in a recent interview that, “We tried to fit Kanye's vision as closely as
possible so we spent a lot of time discussing alterations, fabrics, new colors,
textures. Creativity was maximized as we realized Haute Couture pieces in our
Parisian Atelier; we had no creation limits.”
This indicates that Kanye was highly involved in the process
and had ultimate control over what his fans would see and experience at the
show. It is incredibly rare for an
artist to show such great passion for the art and visual aspect of a live show,
and it has gained Kanye respect within the business as a true “artist.”
As I mentioned before, Kanye West has had a great impact in
numerous charitable organizations. Unfortunately,
most tabloids don’t report about his contributions to charities because it doesn’t
make for an exciting story (at least not as exciting as Kanye West Attacks Paparazzi).
What many people don’t know is that he actually created his own
charity called the Dr. Donda West Foundation, with the goal of reducing the dropout
rate in the school system. One
initiative that the foundation pushed for was called Loop Dreams; it focused on
directing children toward music writing and production as a way to keep them in
classes and help them off the streets.
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| Kanye West and his late mother Donda West |
In addition to his own foundation, he also was widely known
as a contributor to broad ethical issues.
He donated frequently to organizations such as Doctors Without Borders,
Human Rights Watch and Oxfam America. He
also recorded a compilation CD that took profits and donated them to aid the victims
of Hurricane Katrina. One of the rarely
seen deeds by Kanye was footage from his work with young Iraq War veterans,
helping them battle debt and PTSD after returning home from war. In total, it has been documented that Kanye
donates to 18 different charities, all with 18 different causes.
Not only has Kanye influenced the areas of fashion and
charity, but he has been able to do so all while being consistently rated as
one of the greatest rappers and overall musicians of all time. Here are a few basic statistics on Kanye West’s music career that may help explain why he’s such an inspiration
to aspiring music stars everywhere:
1) He has released five solo studio albums, all of
which have gone platinum. With the
release of Yeezus, he has released five consecutive albums that entered the
charts at #1.
2)
He has had 6 separate songs sell three million
or more digital copies, and has a total digital copies track record of 30
million+ (making him one of the best-selling digital artists of all time).
3)
He has won an astounding 21 Grammy Awards, which
makes him one of the highest awarded artists of all time. To put this into perspective, the only two
commercial artists who have won more times are U2 and Stevie Wonder, each with
22 awards. By the next Grammy Awards,
Kanye could move up yet another position in the list.
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| Kanye West and 3 of his 21 Grammy Awards at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards (where he received ten nominations) |
Whether or not people agree with his sometimes absurd
antics, he is undeniably one of the greatest musicians of all time. Rolling Stone has credited him with changing
the structure of the hip-hop industry through his consistent release of great,
yet distinct, records. They believe Kanye to be “a rapper who mastered, upped and moved beyond the hip-hop game, a
producer who created a signature sound and then abandoned it to his imitators,
a flashy, free-spending sybarite with insightful things to say about college,
culture and economics, an egomaniac with more than enough artistic firepower to
back it up.”
As far as pop stars go, Kanye West has proven to be one of
the most outspoken and honest men in an industry that has become fake and
generic. He stands up for his beliefs
and whether he’s right or wrong, he doesn’t back down from his feelings. While this has sometimes landed him in hot
water, I believe it makes him one of the most admirable characters in
Hollywood. When the world is constantly
changing, the one thing we can rely on is that Kanye West will always be Kanye
West.
And one last note, if you still think Kanye is simply an
arrogant ass, just watch this video of him performing at the 2008 Grammy Awards. This was his first live performance of “Hey
Mama” (a song written for his late mother, Donda West) since her passing. Tell me that this man isn’t one of the
greatest musicians of all-time. And good
luck not crying, enjoy:
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