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February 13, 2005

Somethin' For the Kids

In which I admit to a rooting interest in an entertainment
industry awards show; let's go Kanye West!

Kanye West's The College Dropout was the best album I
purchased last year. Beyond the numerous listens on my computer and
my MP3 player, almost 12 months after I acquired it, the album remains
one of the seven CDs I'm sure to grab if, say, I know I'll need music
for a car trip. At first I thought it was just my favorite recent
hip-hop album; then I realized that it was one of the best hip-hop
albums I owned; then I realized it was one of the best albums I owned
comma period. I liked the album so much that the news of Kanye West's
ten Grammy nominations actually led me to GET EXCITED ABOUT AN AWARDS
SHOW. While I usually reserve my snarkiest levels of snobby disdain
for entertainment-award television programs (Come see greedy
"entertainment" "executives" congratulate themselves on "making a lot
of money" this past year under the guise of "artistic"
"achievement"!), this year was different: I really wanted my guy to
win!

I read this morning that despite the basket of nominations, Kanye West
is not considered the front-runner for many awards. Apparently
they're going to give them a bunch to Ray Charles posthumously, and
then hand the rest to Usher. Oh well. Such is life, and there's an
off chance he'll win anyway. Luckily, since I can't remember the last
time any music I really enjoyed won a Grammy, I'm not too distraught.
Still, it's worth noting for a moment why Kanye West is so good --
good for listening, good for the young people, and good for the music
biz.

It really says something about the state of popular hip-hop that Kanye
West stands out mostly because he actually has something to say. In a
genre where the chart-toppers over the past few years have chosen to
talk about little more than (a) how much money they have, (b) the
brands of the products they enjoy purchasing with said money, and (c)
how committed they are to killing those individuals who fail to
adequately acknowledge the fortunes and successes they've acquired,
Kanye West talks about things like consumerism, insecurity, and God.
And he actually has complicated throughts on said topics! Certainly
Kanye West isn't alone in making hip-hop with a conscience; there are
plenty of "underground" hip-hop MCs who are making thoughtful records
built on complicated themes and interesting ideas. What makes Kanye
West special is that he's so gifted as a producer -- his songs
sound really good. It's as if Nelly had something to say!

Before he was an MC, he was making quite a tidy living producing
tracks for the Jay-Zs of the world: creative songs with insanely poppy
hooks. The kinds of songs that sell oodles of records. Yet, like
many producing prodigies (the Neptunes, we're looking in your
direction), he had ambitions beyond the mixing board -- he wanted to
be the star. What's so cool about Kanye West is that he's become that
star without succumbing to the standard hip-hop tropes. While The
College Dropout certainly contains some fluff (the first single
was a R&B tune with actor Jamie Foxx in a guest appearance), the best
songs on the record tell complicated and interesting stories. It's
obvious that Kanye West was thinking about this album for a long time
before he recorded it -- you essentially get a thorough accounting of
his life until that point, bitterness, anger, cynicism, and
insecurities included.

In a sense, the whole album is an act of defensive posturing: the
over-arching theme seems to be "Even though I didn't finish college,
I'm not an idiot." He complains about grade-school teachers sticking
him in the slow class and about parents and adults demanding that he
get a college degree if only for the sake of having said degree.
Kanye made some big decisions, took some risks, and he's proud of his
success: in one of my favorite lyrics on the record, he explains,"I
told 'em I finished school, and started my own business/ They said,
"Oh you graduated?"/ "Nah: I decided I was finished."

Kanye West also dares to take on consumerism. In a world where it's
tough to find a rapper with a single on the charts who doesn't have
his own clothing line, Kanye West admits that he catches himself
spending too much money on products purely as an exercise in
insecurity. That is, he bought the $400 watch even though he couldn't
pronounce the name of the brand -- and was pretty sure no one else had
heard of it either. Perhaps! Surely, Kanye is a devout capitalist
(that's why he dropped out of school, after all), but at least he's
thought through the forces that are motivating him to run up the
credit-card bill. As he says of one of the characters on the album:
she didn't have a car, "so she named her daughter Alexis."

Maybe the truest measure of Kanye's production and MC skills is how
he's actually made me like a Christian rock song. "Jesus
Walks" is the best track on the album, and one of the best hip-hop
songs in a couple years. Threading a nifty sample of a gospel record
(the source of which I caught in a documentary about this horrific
prison in Louisiana called The Farm after buying the album --
creepy) through a military beat in the vein of Eminem's standout track
"Square Dance," "Jesus Walks" is a song about Kanye's relationship
with God. Usually this sort of thing makes me squeamish; I'm not so
into other people (especially famous people) lecturing me in re:
Jesus. Luckily, you can usually trust hip-hop not to cross that line.
And Kanye knows this; as he says "They say I can rap about anything
except for Jesus....If I talk about God, my record won't get played."
What makes the song so remarkable (beyond the music, the span of the
lyrics, and the steadily building musical and thematic crescendos), is
just how self-aware it is. Okay music industry, you don't want a pop
hip-hop song about God? Well, I'll just save my fattest hook for
exactly that song, and dare you NOT to take it. I double-dog dare
you! And he completely nails it. The hook, the lyrics -- he's
actually made a explosively catchy club song about God. And despite
my best attempts at cynicism (I mean, ahem, I can't be sure Kanye
makes it to church every Sunday), I can't help but love this song.
Kanye pointed at the center-field fence and knocked it out of the
park.

In a lot of ways, The College Dropout is defined by what it's
not. That is, it's not mindless pop hip-hop. In the context of the
Chingys, the 50 Cents, and the Lil Jons of the world, you stand out if
you have something to say. And I get that for a geek like me,
sporting a resume with well-branded educational experiences, I have to
admit I'm impressed by this guy. Kanye and I didn't come from the
same place, but I do understand his insecurities, and can acknowledge
his fears in forsaking college-graduate anonymity for a shot at the
big time. It resonates, and it's impressive. Who knows if he'll have
anything left for his next record; given the sums he's likely
commanding for producing records for other artists, I can't imagine
he'll be so motivated for another 21 tracks of soul-searching. He'll
probably just talk about being famous and buying Bentleys and whatnot
like the rest of them. But that's cool -- he's earned the right to
take a record off. In the meantime, I'll at least have someone to
root for tonight at the Grammy's.

Posted by thatkid at February 13, 2005 11:04 PM under Stuff To Buy

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