"The College Dropout keeping kids in the school"
The linguistic persuasion of the akam1k3.com-movement decided a while back that an attempt at joint force operation was due, so we started our usual creative process, which basically consists of shenanigans until the first and best subject hits us. I can’t even recall how we arrived at the current theme, but I instantly felt an urge to get at it, seeing that I have a somewhat different approach to the given individual than many others. This is a guy that has made himself incredibly easy to hate on several occasions, and it seems like people are either hardcore fans or equally passionate haters. I should declare already now that I’m a big fan of this man; I’ve enjoyed almost without exception everything he has done, being it his music, his movies, his work with aesthetics and even his often debated public behavior. Few men besides Kanye West fits this description, and he’s exactly the artist we decided to drape across these pages. I’m not going to bring up the Taylor Swift-incident or anything like that, as it’s meaningless to argue such a lateral dispute. I’ll only say that I don’t really feel sorry for the girl, as her sales skyrocketed insane amounts already the day after the incident. Anyhow, if anyone feels an insatiable desire to fight me for it, I’ll rather you hit me up in real life. Aren’t we all superheroes on the internet?
I think the first time I referred to myself as a fan of Mr. West was around the time I had “Late Registration” on heavy rotation, which would be back in the middle of ’05. To me his sound has always been a fine mix between groundbreaking and oddly familiar. It seems like he has a very architectural approach to music in general, always symphonizing tunes as if it were scenes in a movie, ever-harmonic in a lyrical and melodic sense, as atmospheric layers complementing each other. From reading countless interviews and watching videos and what not one has to at least admire the amount of work the man puts in, he just never settles for less. In a time where Hip Hop was belittled (Norway as a whole was like that once, if you remember?), he managed to make me understand what my parents had misunderstood, that making a good jam has more elements to it than slamming some keys on a computer and laying some random lines on top regarding the less physiological necessities in the hierarchy of needs.
His latest oeuvre d’art is probably his greatest in my book, “My Twisted Dark Fantasy” was such an amazing piece of work you couldn’t even hear the haters complain about it. Besides Lupe Fiasco’s upcoming “Lasers” (Dropping March 8th, make sure you cop that) and In Flames’ “A sense of purpose”, I can’t recall waiting for a piece of music this long. Since the first time I heard the “All of the lights” snippet back in August or September when it was still called “Ghetto University” and featured a Ye-style flow verse from Drake I became a manic follower of basically every move Mr. West made. Besides the fact that I listened to a 1:07 long snippet about 700-800 times (only taking the plays on my desktop into consideration) I revisited every work and even dug up pretty much every sample he ever used. This may come off as close to stalking-status, but when I find a concept, idea or individual interesting, I devote some time and effort into understanding it, I find it half assed to just listen to the newest stuff or just enjoy parts of the equation, while being oblivious to the rest.
I realize that I could’ve written a bachelor on Kanye West, but seeing as that probably will fall outside of the thematic in my current curriculum, I’ll have to settle with a couple of pages here. The man just grinds too hard to cover it all here, but I’d like to bring up his aesthetic sense in particularly film and fashion. Most of the people who pay even remote interest to the things going on in the fashion world know what a prototype this man is, even if you don’t like him. He doesn’t have to be the first to do it, but he’s usually one of the best to do it. Everything from dockside-shoes (conveniently correlating with his LV line), beige chinos and blue denim shirt (Keri Hilson’s “Knock You Down” video to mention a tangible example) and questionable eyewear (shutter shades, I was never a fan), this is a man that knows what he likes, and he usually manages to make the rest of us like it too. It was funny how effortlessly they sold out the Yeezy after he worked with Nike as the first non-athlete to ever get a signature shoe. Yet another example of his daring, but relevant taste, as both silhouette and color ways were bold at first, but sneakerheads soon grew fond of both. I was one of the individuals hoping to get a pair, but after a strike of bad luck regarding funding, I ended up with nothing whatsoever, even after spending hours in line in the middle of the night at one of the locations for no apparent reason. It ended up with me getting food for some of the people in line, before I just went home and cried myself to sleep (it wasn’t that bad, but they will forever be the ones that got away).
I’d also like to bring up the change that Mr. West has infused the Hip Hop game with the last six months, especially with the G.O.O.D. Fridays where he would release tracks that easily could’ve been album material for free, usually with incredibly lineups showcasing both classic excellence and new hunger. I can’t even count how many artists jumped on this bandwagon after, and it was truly refreshing to see a consistent feed between artist and consumer arise, instead of momentary relations pulsating in parallel to releases and little else. Besides this we got a short movie named “Runaway” which was a truly marvelous way to showcase bits of the album while letting his creative and innovative side roam free. I enjoyed it a whole lot, especially the “Power”-rendition with the following “All of the lights” tribute to the late legend Michael Jackson. I’ll leave my personal interpretations of the film out of this, but I’m surprised after talking to several people to see that so few saw a deeper meaning.
As a closure, I’d like to apologize if I came off as a complete Stan, but it’s hard to separate passion and objectivity, and I usually prefer writings where people actually say what they want to say instead of conveying what they think would be absolutely nobody’s opinion of the matter. Kanye West deserves way better if one were to ask me, and even though he often is misunderstood, and equally often engage in public incidents that leave him with more trouble than good, I feel that the two concepts are connected in a quite obvious way. This is a human being that has incredibly much to offer, and I can relate with him when I get so hyped that I can’t sleep at night, because I have to produce. I can’t count the number of restless nights where I grind, instead of counting sheep or other obscure variants of mind numbing dullness during your body’s favorite recreational activity of choice. The difference between me and Mr West (besides all the obvious things I’m not even going to point out) is that he seems either successful at almost everything he does, or he produces at an even more inhuman tempo than he already does, and is exceptionally good at choosing his playing cards.
I remember walking past him outside an Urban Outfitters-store a cold day in 2010 during his visit in Stockholm, where I was left speechless and frozen in my path. One part of it was by shock because it was rather unexpected, but something about him gives off a quite powerful aura, I just didn’t know what to do with myself. It’s obvious when you see Mr. West that he is something unique, and the intimidating feeling you get is because you should bow in the presence of greatness (Couldn’t resist the obvious “Stronger” reference). But on the real, I truly hope I get to meet this man further down the road under different circumstances, and actually share a conversation or observe him at work, cause I’m quite convinced it would have a great impact on my persona and integrity, as he is one of the people I look to the most when it comes to work ethics, aesthetic sense and relations between cultural impressions, that he so seamlessly intertwine.
Final words: You don’t have to like, but please respect greatness when it’s right in front of you. I’m not even going to belittle myself to write something about haters, but food for thought from the man himself:
If I was more complacent and I let things slide, my life would be easier, but you all wouldn't be as entertained. My misery is your pleasure. Kanye West
Sensei Rydis would be happy to receive anonymous donations in forms of signature footwear from Mr. West. Just saying…
#NeedNewShoes
