Jesus and Gandhi, or Yeezus and Yandhi?

Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog post piggybacking off of the post of my friend Alakh. Our posts both talked about how we strongly dislike the most recent wave of artists (nicknamed SoundCloud rappers) that have risen to prominence in the music industry. For this blog post, I decided that I wanted to talk about the opposite, an artist that I do enjoy listening to, and why.

There are many incredible artists that create/created awesome music such as Andre 3000, Gary Clark Jr, Hopsin, Nas, Lupe Fiasco, Pusha T, and many, many more. Too many to talk about it one blog post! Today, I am going to talk about one artist in particular who I absolutely love, and a few of his albums. He is an artist who continuously creates songs that are influential, game-changing, and unconventional and have a profound affect on all listeners. This artist is Kanye “Ye” West. In recent days, he has been known for being  a philanthropist  and massive supporter of his home city of Chicago, but he has also been heavily criticized for absurd comments  on subjects such as slavery, for his constant twitter rants, and for his beef with fellow popular artist Drake. Even though he has become rather notorious, after taking a look back at all of the albums that Ye has released, it is impossible to deny his musical genius.

Kanye winning Grammy awards for his album “The College Dropout”

Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West first became known as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the early 2000s, producing hit singles for popular artists such as Jay-Z, Ludacris and Alicia Keys. West went solo and released his debut album The College Dropout in 2004 at the age of 26. The album was a huge success, debuting at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 and it would become his best selling album. Two of the most popular songs on the album were “Through the Wire” and “Jesus Walks”, both perfect examples of Kanye’s musical genius. With “Through the Wire”, West wrote and recorded the song with his jaw wired shut after a car accident in October 2002, talking about his experiences after the accident.

As impressive producing and rapping a song with his jaw wired shut is, Kanye also continued to impress audiences with his song “Jesus Walks”. West used the song to express his critical views on how the media seems to shy away from songs that address faith and religion, while embracing songs discussing violence, sex, and drugs. He says,

So here go my single, dog, radio needs thisThey say you can rap about anything except for JesusThat means guns, sex, lies, video tapesBut if I talk about God my record won’t get played, huh?

This is directly taken from West’s experiences when he was struggling to get signed onto a record label, because many executives turned him down after he played a Jesus Walks demo for them. Many of his friends in the music industry also warned him that while the song was great, it would never make it to radio! On the contrary, the song when released peaked at number 11 on Billboards top 100. With the “Through the Wire” and “Jesus Walks” songs and the album College Dropout as a whole, Ye solidified himself as a bold, break out artist in the music industry who isn’t afraid to challenge what is considered acceptable in music.

Cover art for the album “The College Dropout”

Kanye Wests third studio album, titled Graduation, was released in 2007 and is considered by many to be one of his best albums. In it, Kanye shifted his songs from having R&B/ Soul vibes to optimistic and feel-good hip hop songs infused with synthetic elements. One of the most easily recognizable songs ever released, the song “Stronger” dabbled with futuristic and electronic beats and sounds produced by Daft Punk and is one of the pioneering songs that introduced and popularized auto tuning.

Cover art for the album “Graduation”

Kanye’s next and fourth released album named 808s and Heartbreak is arguably one of the most influential albums ever released by an artist. Created in the wake of the death of his beloved mother and the end of his relationship with then-fiance Alexis Phifer, 808s & Heartbreak explored themes of loss, loneliness, fame, and sorrow, all the while the album’s production abandons conventional hip-hop sounds.

In the night, I hear ’em talk
The coldest story ever told
Somewhere far along this road, he lost his soul to a woman so heartless
How could you be so heartless?
Oh, how could you be so heartless?

It marked a major musical departure from West’s previous rap records, as it featured an electronic sound and West singing through an auto-tune vocal processor for most of the album. Other famous artists such as Kid Cudi, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar have even spoken in interviews about how this album inspired and influenced their own music and the music industry as a whole with its experimental prevalent use of auto-tune and the use of the Roland TR-808, a drum machine that was not typically used by artists but was  revolutionized by Kanye and used heavily in this album.

Cover art for the album “808s and Heartbreak”

The next album released by Ye was My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. This album marked a decade of Kanye’s presence in the music industry, and the 6th year since his first released album, and he continued to deliver new sounds and techniques to his fans. On this album, his style transitioned back to more common hip hop sounds than the electronic ones found on 808s and heartbreak. During the creation process of the album, Kanye had taken an extended vacation to Hawaii after the he furiously stormed the stage of the 2009 music video awards when Taylor Swift won music video of the year and not Beyonce. In M.B.D.T.F. Kanye shows the world the more vulnerable and sincere side to him, seen vividly in the track “Runaway”. Kanye starts off his song by saying, 

And I always find, yeah I always find somethin’ wrong
You been puttin’ up wit’ my s***just way too long
I’m so gifted at findin’ what I don’t like the most
So I think it’s time for us to have a toast

Let’s have a toast for the d***** bags
Let’s have a toast for the ***holes
Let’s have a toast for the scumbags
Every one of them that I know
Let’s have a toast for the j***offs
That’ll never take work off
Baby, I got a plan
Run away fast as you can

Described as a deeply personal song in nature, Runaway expresses West’s thoughts on his failed relationships, his acceptance of the media’s perception of him, and as the lyrics above indicate, he openly admits and accepts that he is flawed. Lyrically the song explores criticism aimed at West in the past. With this album, West’s creative use of samples in this song and throughout the other songs on the album coupled with his moving and sincere lyrics provided listeners a satisfying glimpse into his delicate and creative mind. 

Cover art for the album “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”

The last album of Kanye’s that I am going to talk about (but not his latest album) is where I got the inspiration for the name of my blog post. Kanye released his album Yeezus in the summer of 2013, and In my opinion, it seems to be the most underrated and forgotten about by the public. Even though many popular artists such as Drake, Pusha T, ASAP Rocky, Eminem, J Cole, and Jay-Z also dropped albums the same year, Yeezus was the most critically acclaimed album of the year, appearing on 61 year-end top 10 song lists and being named first on 18 of them. An while Complex magazine named Yeezus the sixth best hip hop album of the last 5 years, it was Kanye’s lowest selling album (excluding Kanye’s latest album titled Ye which was released a few mere months ago).

Even though the album was underappreciated, Yeezus was possibly the artists most experimental work. The songs draw from trap, punk, electric, and hip-hop genres, while Kanye continued to use unconventional samples as seen on the song “Blood on the Leaves”, which sampled a 1965 song ‘Strange Fruit” by Nina Simone. Simone’s lyrics, auto-tune, and a trap inspired beat somehow all merge together and work beautifully on this song, creating a loud and motivating track.

Cover art for the album “Yeezus”

With all of the Kanye West albums I have mentioned in my blog post, Ye has managed to influence the music industry by producing songs about religion in his album The College Dropout, popularizing auto-tune with Graduation, revolutionizing beats with the 808 drum machine with 808s and Heartbreak, changing his style of music to show fans his vulnerable and personal thoughts with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, and combining his unconventional use of samples with many other techniques discussed with his album Yeezus. And these albums are just scratching the surface of Ye’s genius producing and writing skills. Other albums such as Late Registration, The Life of Pablo, Ye, and other albums co-produced by Ye such as Watch the Throne and Kids See Ghosts have all left their own respective mark on the music industry and hip-hop. His much anticipated album Yandhi is slated to release later this year, along with his project Good A** Job co-produced with fellow Chicago artist Chance the Rapper. And while all of his albums have been innovative and all have in someway affected the music industry, Ye also always delivers for the fans, with all of his projects acclaiming not only critical success, but commercial success as well.

A decade and a half after Kanye first emerged into the music scene, he still has an average of 30 million people who month to listen to his music on streaming app Spotify, and countless of his popular works have eclipsed hundreds of millions of streams, with his song  for his daughter named “FourFiveSeconds” featuring Rihanna and Paul McCartney having been listened to over half a billion times. His only album to not have gone platinum was his album “Ye” which was just released recently. 

My objective in creating this blog post was to supply readers with an artist that I loved, after bashing one that I absolutely  detest in my last blog post. I believe that I succeeded! There is nothing not to like about Kanye West’s music. His songs are always creative, as he implements elements to his songs such as unique beats, samples, auto-tune, instruments, and more. He has songs that appeal to all moods, whether you want to listen to loving and nostalgic songs like “FourFiveSeconds”, hype songs like “Black Skinhead”, sad songs like “Heartless”, or optimistic and inspiring songs like “Touch the Sky”. Even though his music career continues to thrive, his legacy and impact on music is already cemented and everlasting, and he will always be remembered by music listeners as one of the greatest producers and artists to ever live. He is the perfect artist to listen to, and an ideal replacement to uncultured degenerate mainstream artists such as 6ix9ine.