Kanye West: The Artistic Genius

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Kanye West the artistic genius
An artist is a person who is engaged in creating art, developing, demonstrating or practicing art. Some become so good at their craft and rise to stardom in their communities. To become a good artist one has to turn the energy possessed into something beautiful and use their creativity to resonate with and influence the target audience. Today anyone can become an artist. Few, however, can become great artists. They would have to hone their talent so well that their production and content would have an impact and trigger the feelings and emotions of many. In music, some become stars generally yet some grow and master the art incredibly. For instance, it would be unfair to talk about the evolution of Hip Hop without mentioning names like Tupac, Eminem, etc. However, when discussing the entire music industry, some controversial names like Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Cardi B will find their way into the conversation. This is because they are good at what they do and they have the uniqueness that gives them their artistic character which other people either do admire or hate making them popular. Kanye West has created a unique brand in rap music as he is not afraid to challenge conventions, and his influence goes beyond the arts scene to fashion, contemporary culture and politics.
In the 21st century, Kanye West is among the most acclaimed musician selling over 135 million records worldwide. He is among the most awarded musician of his generation, winning 21 Grammy Awards as well as many other global honors. Such success, however, does not come cheap. Kanye has something special in him, and he knows it. His journey to the top has not been easy because his genre of music demands that one portrays the gangster outlook, a quality he does not possess. Many recording labels turned him away as he lacked this image. "Gangster image" is portrayed in mainstream hip-hop. Mr. West’s breakthrough was, however, witnessed in October 2003 when he fell asleep while driving and caused a head-on collision with another car. The incident left Mr. West with a shattered jaw that required reconstructive surgery. While in the hospital with a wired jaw, West composed a song dubbed "Through the Wire" which was an expression of what he was feeling after the accident. According to Mr. West "Through the Wire" was meant to distract him from the pain as he expresses himself to the world. It was his medicine. He also observed to be working on an album where he was going to share his own opinion and make his own decision regardless of what society threw at him. The name of the album was “The College Dropout" which was Kanye's breakthrough.
Many have profiled Mr. West to be crazy, and reckless, especially after he publicly declared support and love to President Donald Trump. This move was a sensitive act, especially in a period when the hip hop industry was not supporting him. However, Kanye West is known to make controversy benefit him, and this has been so all through his career after the car accident. Because of his success and some of his lyrics some have crowned Mr. West as a genius. In the 90s several musical stars were tested using the advanced genius theory, for example, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Kiss, and others, but is Kanye a genius based on the advanced genius theory? Some of the contradictions surrounding Mr. West as a brilliant artist, an egotist, and as a genius always divides people especially when he releases new content (Houston 15). The advanced genius theory invites the audience to listen to music with an open mind and for Kanye West music one has to be open minded. In one of his latest songs "lift yourself" one of his verses goes like: "Poopy-di scoop, scoop-diddy-whoop whoop-di-scoop-di poop-di-scoopty scoopty-whoopity-scoop, whoop- poop poop-diddy, whoop-scoop poop, poop. " The lyrics may seem effortless and childish, but it is common knowledge that “whoop” is an expression of joy. Anyone would understand Kanye's expression of joy, but then he contradicts this joy with poop which expresses what was going on in his life during the release of this song. However, he remains happy, and the scoop is used to mean he is scooping the poop (negativity) out of his life.
Kanye is one of the artists who has had the international lens trained on him and the global media shining the spotlight on him throughout his career. However, it seems like he intentionally brings this attention to himself from the aspect of being an ass to people, for example when he grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift who had just received the best video of the year, Kanye took the mic and said, “Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time” and stormed off stage. He has also said some controversial statements about race, slavery and even declared himself bankrupt and has publically asked for money from Silicon Valley’s moguls like Mark Zuckerberg. These actions raise the question of whether Kanye is a genius or a menace to the society as many think. The advanced genius theory is based on five basic tenets: one must have done great work for more than 15 years, they shouldn’t be ironic, they ought to lose it spectacularly, they must be unpredictable, and they must have alienated their original fans at one point.
Kanye has released music for more than 15 years, and through some of his best work such as Life of Pablo and My beautiful Dark, twisted fantasy, Mr. West has alienated his original fans hence fulfilled two of the tenets. Kanye is so unpredictable, he does lose it, and not to mention he is not ironic, and some have perceived him as someone who has lost it. Thus, based on the above Mr. West has observed all the five tenets of advancement theory. That, however, does not make him an advanced artist, though he comes close.
Kanye has done so much in his career, so much that one would consider him as an advanced artist. For instance, albums like 808s and Heartbreak are excellent artistic works because he did not move far away from Hip-Hop that is usually associated with him and neither did he recreate what was typically expected of him (Boeck 209). He branched out and managed to premiere something fresh. Another mind-blowing act was creating a floating stage on his Saint Pablo tour, which was an act no other artist has come close to using. He also rapped his golden record "gold digger" on a commercial plane through the intercom, which is the very definition of thinking outside the box. However, a few things about him act as his stumbling block...