Kanye West's latest single, "Heartless," currently occupies the number 4 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
Does that mean that everyone likes him?
Oh no, not by a longshot.
AP put out an article a few days ago in which Kanye claimed to be this generation's Michael Jordan.
The article cited a few more bombastic statements in the interview, but this shall be the main one I focus on.
Michael Jordan was the guy when my generation was growing up. Everyone knew him. Even me, a kid who didn't care about sports and sat on the bench during 3rd grade soccer (yes, I really was that bad) knew who Michael Jordan was and admired him. Don't even ask me how many times I've seen Space Jam. Jordan was an icon of a now-bygone age, when the NBA was awesome and the Bulls reigned over all sports. Jordan was a wholesome role-model that all the kids wanted to be. Jordan was, in short, someone that everyone liked.Not so with Kanye.
Sure, the first time I heard "Jesus Walks" I thought it was pretty catchy. And "Stronger" got me hooked on the original artist Daft Punk.
But once I started hearing about Kanye on the news, I realized what a pompous, over-confident, whiny brat he really is. In the AP article, he is quoted as saying, "I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice."
I must stop him and say:
Excuse me, Mr. West.
You are NOT the voice of my generation. You are NOT the voice of this decade. If anything, the musical geniuses of this century are U2 or Radiohead or Coldplay. Not some whiny music-stealing (refer back to Daft Punk) punk who has christened himself the "voice of this generation."
The flaw in comparing himself to Michael Jordan is that everyone liked him. You couldn't go up to someone, even if they were a diehard anti-Bulls fan (couldn't think of any other team that was good back then), they wouldn't hate Jordan.
Not so with Kanye. Some people don't like his music (including me). Some people don't like his attitude (including me).
You wouldn't see Jordan getting arrested at nightclubs in Europe for causing disturbances.
You wouldn't see Jordan having a fit because he didn't win an award.
You wouldn't see Jordan interrupting the opposing team's victory speech with a 3-year-old style tantrum, claiming that he should have won.
Kanye's done all of these.
In short, Kanye, you're not a role model. You're a horrible person. You're egotistical, you steal other people's work, you whine when you don't get what you want, and you're severely disturbed if you think that you're the "voice of this generation."
Excuse me, Mr. West. I'll let you know when I want a pompous airbag like you representing me. Until then, shut up and quit whining.
Discussion
All comments are moderated by Kansan.com staff. For our full user policy, click here.
I am not a fan of Kanye's attitude at all. I agree he can talk like an idiot. HOWEVER, how are you going to attack West for sampling? EVERYONE in music does it. I'm sure some of your favorite artists sir have done the same, heck they probably re-recorded a song and called it their own. Radiohead the voice of our generation? Yeah right...They aren't THAT POPULAR. Where on earth would you get that from? Coldplay, maybe. U2 was the generation before you, but you're one of those people who thinks their cool because they like older music which is stupid in intself. And you probably didn't know who Daft Punk was before Kanye's song.
I also don't like how you make things up. kanye didn't get arrested in a night club. He got arrested recently at his hotel after a pap harassed him. You're telling me you wouldn't freak out of a camera man continually invaded your space after you asked him to stop nicely. YOU WOULD.
And I am the biggest Jordan fan in the world. I lived in Chicago during the Bulls glory years. Jordan cussed at players, refs and all of that — but I still admire him. He's the greatest. And what are you talking about? There were plenty of players/people who didn't like Jordan. Talk to a Suns fan...they hate Jordan. Jazz fans? Just the same.
Ignorance is annoying. You wrote this because you hate rap music. Fine. But how about you criticize other genres of music for negative image? Whitney Houston was a coke head, you're not writing about that. Country singers have been arrested. Punk singers have been arrested, caught with drugs, etc. I'm starting to think you insult Kanye because of his skin color and I'd hate that to be the case.
Oh and here's a thought, why don't you insult P. Diddy if anyone for stealing music? every song he has is a sample. But you know what? Samples are better than what some of your favorite artists do - just redo a song and call it their own.
You're insulting this generation by calling Radiohead or U2 the voice of our generation. Face it, Hip-Hop is our voice. Some of the most well liked musicians by KU students are hip-hop artists, Jay-Z, Eminem, Kanye West. As far as voicing his opinion, he needs to learn how to shut up. However, he was right about the MTV awards two years ago - Kanye had THREE OF THE BIGGEST SONGS out at the time and Britney Spears who hadn't done crap at the time was given the first performance of the night. And she did terrible. Grammy? Kanye should have won best album for "Late Registration" just like Eminem should have won for "The Marshall Mathers LP." These were undeniable album but because they were rap, were not rewarded. Herby Handcock's album didn't deserve the win and I have that album. Ray Charles was the award because he recently passed away.
(Continued)...Excuse me Mr. Sommerville, I'd like you to not MAKE THINGS UP, make your opinion the voice of our generation when clearly you don't know much about our generation and whine because you don't like hip-hop music..
The Kansan probably won't post this because they don't like Kanye either. Ridiculous. He's a jerk I'll give you that, but if you deny him as one of the best artists of our generation you're not someone who truly appreciates music.
-A KU student
Wow, I don't even know where to begin.
Sampling was just one of the examples I thought of. I actually like hip-hop music, I read an article on West being arrested at a night club (while doing research for this blog post, I don't really keep up with celebrity news ever), those bands I listed are simply the most popular bands of the time that are the most musically talented, and accusing me of attacking West because he's black is BEYOND ridiculous. We are living in the 21st century. Where do you get off accusing me of such childish and 19th century behavior?
I don't like West because he self-appointed himself the voice of my generation, and is extremely vocal about how incredible he is. I don't like that. I don't like his tantrums either. THAT is why I wrote this blog post, not because I was trying to force everyone to like other bands. I live with a guy who hates Coldplay AND Kanye West. It's an opinion post, and I made my opinion clear.
You accuse me of making stuff up, sir, yet you have plenty of fiction in your lengthy post.
Better luck next time accusing me of all sorts of outrageous junk.
Also, http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/kanye-west-arrested-after-u-k-nightclub-1003891821.story
No comments:
Post a Comment