Please Don't Hate On 11.04.09: Kanye West

Posted by Jay Carroll on 11.04.2009

Here's hoping Mr. West hasn't done something negative to get press before this gets released...

Attention old school/underground hip hop fans: the week of November 2nd through 6th, 411mania.com will be running exclusive interviews with Skratch Bastid, Apathy, Lyrics Born (of the Quannum MC crew), Masta Ace and Chuck D.We do things like this because we love you, so don't forget to bookmark the main site, or at least the 411mania.com music subsite. I'll even make it easy for you by letting you click here or here . Now that you've been informed, let's move on to the main course.

These last couple months have been very tumultuous for Kanye West, without a doubt. Unlike the car accident that nearly cost him his life in 2002, or the sudden death of his mother due to a surgical error, Kanye can attribute most of his own issues to one source, his big mouth. The Louis Vitton Don has been the center of dozens of rumors since jumping on stage at the VMA's last month, from going berserk over chicken to being declared dead on Twitter . Somehow, belittling a teen idol makes you more of a social pariah today than accusing the President of the United States of being racist. If Kanye decides to remake Dr. Dre's "F*** With Dre Day" and make "F*** With 'Ye Day", I'd be all for it at this point.


Radio Raheem, save me from rambling, please.



Even Radio Raheem looks a little peeved with Kanye. Go figure.

Complaint #4: Kanye's music has fallen off, badly.

Going back to 2003, when Kanye West first burst onto the mainstream scene, his brand of backpacker-meets-urban chic hip hop struck a nerve with a lot of people. The only thing that matched Kanye's fashion sense was his masterfully crafted beats and way of weaving in and out of his creations. He was considered a "B-list rapper, but a A-list producer" by a few hip hop scribes, and while he did bring the heat with his production, his raps were sometimes lacking the skills to properly accentuate them. Then, in 2005, he released his masterpiece of an album in Late Registration. Much like Nas' Illmatic album served as both a masterpiece and impossible to top, Kanye found himself in the inevitable position of trying to top him. Graduation may have had Kanye's best charting single and branched him out even further, but the chance he took on Late Registration by hiring Jon Brion to construct and compose scores for the album. Even with Graduation not being as good as his previous album, it still popped up on tons of Best Album lists and put Kanye over the top as not just a hip-hop star, but a verifiable pop star as well.

Then, he decided to go all AutoTune with it, and made 808's and Heartbreaks. While the album itself wasn't half bad, it easily stands out as the worst of Kanye's 4 albums so far. He may not have killed the Auto Tune, but he definitely contributed to the over-saturation of that market. Thanks Kanye, but no thanks. Hopefully, Kanye got all of his Auto Tune and singing urges out of him, because we need a return to Late Registration form, ASAP.


There was an joke about Kanye and Amber Rose breaking up here. Guess what? It happened 2 days before you'll get to read this.

Complaint #3: Kanye + Bonnaroo 2008 = No Buys.


Fan cam of Kanye's performance. The audience seems pleased, and it was about 4 in the morning.

For those not familiar with this particular incident, Kanye West was scheduled to perform at the 2008 Bonnaroo Festival to promote his Glow In The Dark Tour. According to Kanye, he had problems with festival organizers, who didn't give him the proper logistics of their staging areas, holding him back from giving a better performance. Bonnaroo countered by moving his performance to the main stage, but giving him an 8:45 pm time slot that hindered his light displays. The set was then rescheduled for 2:45 am, which then became 4:45 am after Kanye claimed he was prevented from taking the stage until Pearl Jam completed their set.

The incident looked bad from all angles, but especially for Kanye West. He was perceived as a male diva for his actions, and his choice of insults ("I have a fucking light show dumb ass. It's not called Glow in the Dark for no reason squid brains!") made Nick Cannon's Twitter responses to Eminem's diss seem mature and well-thought out in comparison. The blogosphere took exceptional pride in ripping Mr. West a new asshole, and an isolated incident at a music festival in the backwoods of Tennessee made national news.

In Kanye's defense, the show was called Glow in the Dark for a reason. Bonnaroo didn't seem like an ideal venue for Kanye West, given its previous history of headliners, and it reeked of both parties agreeing to the deal to promote diversification of Bonnaroo's lineups and Kanye's performance venues. All of that said, Kanye still could have used more tact when dealing with the situation. Festivals are notorious for not being the best playing arrangements for bands or musicians (temperamental rental equipment, lack of sound checks, rowdy crowds) and Kanye's experience was no different from anyone who performed at Woodstock '99, for instance.



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Complaint #2:Kanye is a closet racist/homo.



Ah, yes, Mike Myers reoccurring nightmare. As many people are outraged about the Taylor Swift incident, this in particular sparked a racial debate in America, and painted Kanye as a racist. To the behest of the Bush Administration, it did appear as though Kanye was correct with their treatment of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, but since Kanye was essentially calling out the President of the United States in a time of tragedy; his lack of tact was blown to massive proportions and used against him. Had Kanye used his words in a more diplomatic way, or at least been smarter in his message, people wouldn't have felt so bad about agreeing with the general sentiment.

As for Kanye's supposed closeted homosexual tendencies, those spring from the homophobic center of hip-hop and the black community. Homosexuality amongst men is looked upon as not only wrong, but an abomination by the majority of the hip-hop community, as is dressing or acting in any way that resembles a homosexual's perceived behavior. With comments about how his gay cousin should be accepted by everyone and how the hip-hop community claims to be open minded and expressive but shuns homosexuality, Kanye raised eyebrows. However, unless he has a Liberace-style announcement to make in the future, rest assured that Kanye West is in fact straight.

Or, mind your own skeletons in the closet. The choice is yours.


Oddly, no caption is needed.


Complaint #1: Kanye west is an overrated, over hyped, egotistical, male diva of a rapper who should have never graduated from producing for Jay-Z, let alone college.

Egotism is a claim that Kanye West could never live down. Hell, the man has a hit song out with Beyonce at this very moment where his first words are "I got a big ego/
I'm such a big ego ". Yeah, that wasn't just a penis reference. However, if you look closer, the source of Kanye's big ego becomes apparent. The Webster's Online Dictionary definition of ego is "the self especially as contrasted with another self or the world". To expand upon that, the ego isn't a representation of the person, as much as it is a representation of who the person would like to be. Kanye at his innermost, most honest center isn't overconfident. He's not brash, and he doesn't have the capability to say the things he thinks. Similar to the protagonist in the book/movie Fight Club, Kanye West has created an alter ego who is free to do the things he wishes he could, and as a result finds himself in conflict a lot of times. Had that incident at the VMAs not been prompted by someone else, chances are Kanye would have hesitated, and may have backed out. Since his ego was challenged, he unleashed it, and the incident occurred. A more honest representation of Kanye actually having a temper tantrum came in 2004 during the American Music Awards.

Thanks to Kanye's ego having such an elevated sense of self worth, Kanye has to prove himself at all times, which gives us better music. While I personally think his second album was his most cohesive one, he hasn't fallen off of the table, and any claims of him being over hyped and overrated are unwarranted. Even though his albums are mostly written from the point of view of his ego, we have had honest reflections of Kanye, especially on 808s and Heartbreaks .

At the end of the day, Kanye West is a controversial figure, from his fashion choice down to the words that come from his mouth. His music should be allowed to speak for itself, but his ego won't allow it to. And President Obama was correct for calling him a jackass for his (incorrect) comments at the VMA's. None of this should prevent you from liking Mr. West.


Cheap, Shameless Plugs:

Daniel Wilcox reviews the latest album from the F*ck Buttons . I may not be allowed to say their full name without censors, but I will still proclaim their greatness.

All You Cannot Live Without . Like Ben needs the hits. Ha!

Rihanna and Coco skank it up for Holloween The obligatory AJ Grey post you're gonna click on this week. And i managed not to make any Ice T/Chris Brown pimpslapping jokes.

Lucas fends off A-Ha fans. The musical tastes and people that get defended on the internetz never ceases to amaze me. Also, Kanye explains the meaning behind his new short film "Fairytale" within the confines of that article.


Free Nirvana swag can be yours just for being a social networking whore.

Last but not least, I have to plug
That's all for this week, folks.