“Mr. [Kayne] West has had the most sui generis hip-hop career of the last decade. No rapper has embodied hip-hop’s often contradictory impulses of narcissism and social good quite as he has, and no producer has celebrated the lush and the ornate quite as he has,” Jon Caramanica writes for The New York Times.
“He has spent most of his career in additive mode, figuring out how to make music that’s majestic and thought-provoking and grand-scaled,” Caramanica writes. “And he’s also widened the genre’s gates, whether for middle-class values or high-fashion and high-art dreams.”
Caramanica writes, “At the same time, he’s been a frequent lightning rod for controversy, a bombastic figure who can count rankling two presidents among his achievements, along with being a reliably dyspeptic presence at award shows (when he attends them).”
Caramanica interviewed West for several hours over three days. One snippet caught our eye:
An excerpt:
I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means. I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of Internet, downtown, fashion, culture. Period. By a long jump. I honestly feel that because Steve has passed, you know, it’s like when Biggie passed and Jay-Z was allowed to become Jay-Z.
I’ve been connected to the most culturally important albums of the past four years, the most influential artists of the past ten years. You have like, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Nicolas Ghesquière, Anna Wintour, David Stern.
I think that’s a responsibility that I have, to push possibilities, to show people: “This is the level that things could be at.” So when you get something that has the name Kanye West on it, it’s supposed to be pushing the furthest possibilities. I will be the leader of a company that ends up being worth billions of dollars, because I got the answers. I understand culture. I am the nucleus.
Full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: Plus, he’s going to be the first man on Mars. Right after they crown him King of England, of course.
I love how he speaks of himself in the first person. An ego the size of Texas. Talent the size of a marmots brain (sorry marmots). Wish his 15 minutes of fame would end.
Third person, you mean. Beware of anyone who refers to themselves in the third person.
Kanye? Buffoon IMHO.
Cocaine. You need more explanation?
“I think that’s a responsibility that I have, to push possibilities, to show people: “This is the level that things could be at.” So when you get something that has the name Kanye West on it, it’s supposed to be pushing the furthest possibilities.”
Yeah. With regard to music, he’s more like the Michael Dell than Steve Jobs. West wanted to be J Dilla, but eschewed the elegance, beauty, and subtlety that was Dilla at his best for ham-handed cut-and-paste of entire choruses (or more) for the sake of pop nostalgia. Great technical producer, but his artistic sense consists of being catchy and playing to lowest common denominator.
Steve Jobs = Genius, Kanye West = Dumb@$$. Comparing yourself to Steve Jobs?! Really? Your music is crap and after stating the comparison, you are pathetic Kanye!
Kanye West is only known because our culture prizes talentless thugs. That is what Kanye West. He has zero talent and his main feature is a mouth that is much larger than his brain.
If by “Steve Jobs” he meant “Steve Urkle”, then yes…
And that is our comedy story of the week.
If by “Steve Jobs” he means “Steve Urkle”, then yes…
Kanye West is living proof that a bullshit artist can make a mint even in these times.
Fifty year from now people will look at his “body of work” and say WTF were they thinking?
I started to read the 5 page web article on NYT. Okay, so I’m trying to search things that this KW said that verifies his peer status to that of Steve Jobs. Seriously…anyone got a link? 😉
Who gives a shit what any rapper has to say. Come on MDN. Lets stick to intelligent subjects.
Who is this person?
They’re so much like Steve Jobs that no one knows who they are or what tey e done.
What a tard.
A successful guy.
Who is Kanye West?