He gives us what we need; it may not be what we want
Mr. Kanye West. Let’s take in that name for a minute. What does it mean to you? What do you see in your head when you think of this name? Some people see the genius behind The College Dropout and Late Registration who lost his way. Some see an arrogant prick. Some are wondering why we should even care about him and his antics. I see one of the most daring and misunderstood minds of our culture.
To say Kanye is a controversial figure is a massive understatement. The guy can’t seem to open his mouth without polarizing audiences. After the recent PR debacles at Sway’s Universe and The Breakfast Club, a lot of people had their preconceived notions about Kanye being a total douchebag confirmed. Some of these confirmations manifested themselves in the world outside of social networks, with the turnout at his recent Kansas City date being embarrassingly small. But as I perused Youtube comments and tweets, another thing become increasingly clear: a great number of people became convinced that Kanye is actually a genius; something he has been proclaiming from the start of his career. This, along with the fact that Yeezus has surprisingly landed on a lot of people’s “Best of 2013” lists (after being called Ye’s worst album when it came out), tells me that the world is finally realizing Kanye’s incredibly bold thought process.
I promised myself before writing this post that I wouldn’t get up on my soapbox and preach to the world about Ye’s genius. And I won’t have to. A few days ago, I found a surprisingly intimate Kanye interview on Vimeo. I’m not talking about a Zane Lowe level of intimacy either. The interview, conducted by Tomas Koolhaas, allows us to sit back and let Kanye speak his mind about design, inspiration, innovation, failure, being pigeonholed, and the creative process. I used to think Kanye was the most unfortunately inarticulate artist in interviews but he has proven me wrong once again. I’m very interested in what people will have to say about this so please leave a comment below.
