SCROLL/UNPOPULAR OPINION/OT/TOO LONG ALERT:
(also, if someone could toss me just a couch cushion or something it might come in handy, defense-wise
)
I have been
(<---ETA: that's a "shutting up" emoticon; for some mysterious reason it shows as a hysterically-laughing one when I'm logged out!) for a while now, years, actually, whenever Kanye West comes up on this board, in part because it's OT, in part because I'm not a real Kanye fan, mostly because I'm far too ignorant about his work in particular and rap music in general to talk intelligently about it. But now Adam himself has brought it up, fairly enough, and I've lost my always-shaky grip on my abstemiousness
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Because, while I'm sure there are exceptions, my guess is most commenters on this board don't really know any more about Kanye than I do, but there sure is a lot of scorn for him here, and I don't get it. Whatever you might think of his personality (and I'd be more inclined to call it a persona), and however you might feel about rap music, it seems pretty clear that Kanye is fairly brilliant and innovative in his field, he's has massive critical acclaim, his album "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasay" scored a 94 on Metacritic, and he's a genuinely exciting musical artist. Q3 was just talking about the balance Adam must strike between taking risks and experimenting but also seeking popular mainstream success--Kayne is the #1 example of an artist who consistently does both. I remember a minor uproar on this board and on twitter when we were watching the stream from the latest Brit Awards and Kanye performed with this "angry mob" of people on stage with him. I didn't get the disdain for the performance. For me it was the performance of the night by far, and one of the best I've seen in a long while, and I didn't know the song before that. Given the political context (especially in the US), it struck me as a brave and boundry-pushing and frankly kind of deep performance, and visually and artistically enormously effective. Clearly Kanye's people agreed with me, because he made that live performance his official music video for the single, but to each his or her own, of course. Tastes vary. But Kanye regularly takes artistic risks like that, and he should be (and generally is) recognized for that, imo.
He's also clearly a very smart man, who has spoken and written articulately and sophisticatedly about his experience of race in America, and about all levels of the artistic process, and he's often surprisingly funny and self-aware, if you actually listen. If you google some of his speeches at awards ceremonies, for example, you might be surprised. He has been hugely influential as a producer of other people's work as well as an artist in his own right. He's earned the right to be cocky, plus I love a cocky peformer
. And as far as his brag about being the greatest living rock star, obviously that's typical Kanye bombast, but also, I can't think of a male act performing today who has greater claim to that distinction (using rock-star generically, of course), or another male performer who would create the same kind of buzz before an appearance.
Adam, naturally, has every right to express whatever opinion he holds about anything, he's generally smart and considered in his opinions (in this case I rather feel it was an excuse to get the "Oye Vey Kanye" line out there, which is pretty funny, and deserves to be a meme). If anyone's earned a right to critique a Queen cover, he has, though I personally think he's had more gracious moments in his life--given his own particular prowess on this front, it's maybe a little too comfortable a spot from which to criticize, imo. And musically, of course, Kanye's "cover" of BR was a mess. For all I know, so was the rest of his Glasto spot--I haven't watched it but I've read some mixed reviews.
But not all concert experiences are about musicality, and not all performances are about the singing. Kanye is a rapper, not a singer, and it's generally acknowledged that the only thing that allows him to experiment beyond rapping in his music is autotune, which he uses brilliantly and innovatively. Sometimes, a moment is more about the crowd (which was happily singing along to BR and cheering enthusiastically) than about the performer. And to me, watching the brief clip in that Kanye/Adam BR mashup posted above (which is all I've seen of Kanye's performance), there was something really new to me about Kanye's take, that revealed a song I've heard hundreds and hundreds of times in a new, and moving, and kind of heartbreaking light: to see an African American man singing those tragic opening lyrics, given current situation in America, and the poverty-race intersection, and the violence and the fear, and the awful gun situation in this country, and the poisonous political climate, and the giant immoral racist shit-storm (pardon me) that is our criminal justice system. I'm pretty sure those screen-caps posted yesterday of BBC close-captioners giving up and typing in scornful comments instead on Kanye's Glasto performance were photo-shopped--I hope they were (and thought they were funny)--because if they were real that would have been shockingly disrespectful, and those people should have been fired. I can't imagine they'd ever do it to a white artist. And I can't help feeling (though I know this will really bring on the stones! and I want to be clear I'm not talking about Adam here at all) that though he brings a lot on himself, a lot of the grief Kanye gets is inextricably wrapped up in systematic, and often subconscious, racial prejudice.
We want Adam treated with respect, we want him to feel free to take risks and be larger-than-life at times, we admire him for speaking freely and intelligently about the world, and I hope we can accord the same respect to other artists who have earned it, and who have faced similar kinds of prejudice.
OK, lol, sorry for the Kanye-rant.
. Dunno quite where it came from because like I said I don't really know all that much about him. I'm done now, promise!
. And as far as his brag about being the greatest living rock star, obviously that's typical Kanye bombast, but also, I can't think of a male act performing today who has greater claim to that distinction (using rock-star generically, of course), or another male performer who would create the same kind of buzz before an appearance.
