I’m starting to think the CUS should just create a tab called [KANYE]. Music critics always joke about how everything you need to learn about Rock n’ Roll music can be learnt by studying the Beatles–there is even a (reputable!) music school in the UK that offers an entire degree based around the fab 5. But I think I’ve seen enough to adequately suggest that another cultural monolith of equal if not double the weight, is on the rise; I think it’s fair to forecast that Kanye West very well may be for hip hop what The Beatles were for Rock n’ Roll.
Beyond the obvious musical and cultural differences between Rock and hip hop, the most intriguing contrast between these two celebrity phenomena (there are actually many, many, similarities), lies in the underlying philosophy that accompanies their execution: whereas the world blew up The Beatles, Kanye is blowing up the world.
He’s entirely unstoppable, yes, but thanks to his own mental determination for global domination, not anyone else’s. This time, post-Runaway, he’s chillin’ back (though his right leg stays bouncy) on some mod-renaissance couches answering #askkanye questions with Sway. He’s forthcoming and intrepid as usual, comparing himself to Tarantino at one point and elaborating on his artistic potential that is, in part, realized by his inability to fear.
If you haven’t seen it already, don’t sleep: check out his short film Runaway now.
On the significance of the phoenix in “Runaway.”
How Ye’s thoughts on slave mentalities, thought cultivation, and mental jails are visualized in the film.
On the first spoken dialogue in the film (“Baby, the first thing you need to know in this world, don’t believe anything you hear in the news”) and who Kanye compares himself to in the film world.
Kanye West ain’t afraid of nothing. The Icarus myth IS a myth, right?