Like many of you I’m left a little baffled by Kanye West of late.
The Kanye we all knew and love - Backpack Ye - a blazing pioneer known for his sticky syrup samples from bands like Chaka Khan.
Religious Ye (or Maka American Ye Again Ye) is a version new unto all of his.
Your favorite rappers Little Brother, Kanye’s voice captured many of the Millennial generation.
A stark defender of the man and his right to be weird, his recent steps into the realm of religion has left me wondering.
Growing up a church kid meant long Sundays, summers, and weekend camping trips.
Additional time at a christian college have reminded me of all the reasons why Millennials are abandoning the church in waves:
Religion, sometimes, sucks.
New wave spirituality, eastern philosophy's, and both agnosticism and atheist identities are prevalent amongst Millennials in major metropolitan areas.
A stark contrast to the growing conservative movement in America - with evangelical Christianity and populism making new waves - helping a new generation of conservatives define populist policies over the next decade.
President Trumps impeachment, a relatively large blip in the Matrix of the database of conservative policies influencing Americas legal system over the next 100 or so years.
President Trumps America has seen a weird blend of conservative values, conspiracy theories, jailed lobbyists and more.
All played to righteous overtones.
The organ pipes of the Church of America blasting to the sound of Kanye’s “Jesus Walks.”
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Backpack ye ushered in Rapper Ye, who famously defeated 50 cent in front of millions of fans.
Then things began to change.
Ye’s Mom died.
A public falling out with Jay-Z.
High profile relationships wiht personalities like Amber West.
And then the famous George Bush MTV Video Music award moments.
Divise pinpoints in the history of music culture, but one we ultiamtely continued to discuss due to classics released such as <Enter Kanye Album #1> and <Enter Kanye Album #2).
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The genius of Kanye West lay in his ability to communicate through music.
I’d argue he’s not always the most articulate of celebrities - a fact made clear due to his own admitted battles with mental health issues.
In fact, I’d argue that one of Ye’s strengths lay in his ability to communicate complex concepts through music.
Whether a musig, a story or his vision of the future, listening to a Kanye Album oftentimes feels like your eardrums are receiving the delicate brustrokes of a fine artist.
Which is why Kanye has been for me, almost untouchable.
A staunch advocate of personal liberties, I also recognize the importance for free reign creativity for artists.
Art, in its purist form, is a means of communication not easy to describe.
Art, when it makes you feel, offers an opportunity to question even the most strongly held values of self.
Art has also been shown throughout history to influence economic stimulation.
In its purist form, captitalism is a way for indivdiauls to provide their ART - whetheri musician, lawyer, doctor or statistican - to the world.
The business of religion
If going to a house of worship provides you the options to live your life as a better person, by ll means.
Only when the conversation broaches the spectrum of violence is it that I have a problem.
Which is why I was originally so hesitant to offer an opinion on this whole, Ye catches religion thing.
The amount of pressure, perspective and price Kanye has had to pay meant that as a legend, he deserved to be heard out.
My choice of medium?
The music.
Always the music.
Forever, the music.
As I write this post, the synthesized sounds of Curtis Mayfields Move on Up - made relevant for modern audiences through Kanye’s sample for his famous “Kiss the Sky: record.
Hip-hop’s evil Kenivle is every hip-hop heads dream come true.
A blerd icon with a passion for fashion, but simply, just liked making beats.
Awkward with the ladies, a steady mob of big homies - but most important, a god level talent.
What makes Ye so special as an artist is his passion for his art.
A reality to share.
His reality lay in his music - first as a (INSERT BACKGROUND INFO), and then as a mild-mannered producer, to all of a sudden, a mega superstar.
But it didn’t last.
It never does, not truly.
A series of events have left many of us wondering, just what have you, or we, created?
A series of ourburts, an awkwardly hilarious exchange with the VMA’s and Taylor Swift, high profile relationships - Kanye was our favorite rapstar.
He was all the things he wasn’t supposed to be.
He took down 50.
He bagged Kim.
And he put his heart and soul into making classics like (INSERT EXAMPLE OF CLASSIC) and (INSERT EXAMPLE OF ANOTHER CLASSIC).
The Thing about genius is its unpredicatbility.
While flow states and creatie genius have been studied at length, a variety of factors go into whether or not creative genius, manifests into anything.
As an artist, your job is to live in this in between state of futurustic visionaey, reflection of the current moment, and as a beacon of past mistakes.
So when Kanye says something profound like, “we were born in a box, and continue operating in one until we die,” while the genius of the sentiment is there, the impact of the words is hard to measure.
Recently, I’ve begun studying spaces.
As a writer, I’ve noticed the impact my enviornment has on my art.
An annoying neighbor, talkative co-worker or a humming smart phone could be the downfall of any sort of creative genius.
Going further down Kanye’s parallel, a lot of the systems so important to humanity, namely - our educational systems, career tracks, and social structures - in a lot of ways are conforming and boxlife.
Which begs the quetion - is our desire to fit in, to NOT think outside of the box, stifling our creativity as a people?
Do microlevel activities like the way we study, who and why we marry, or the career tracks we enlist in - are they stifling the way we as people, solve complex problems.
Because if it is, could we imagine what we’d be capable of?
If (INSERT SUPPORTING ARTICLE HERE) is to believed, a revolution in the infrastrcure of humanity might allow for creative revolution.
Maybe switching things up could end cancer.
Or creatively solve the Covid problem.
Maybe a little freethinking postures a chance to alleviate our national debt.
Or solve for problems in our marriage system.
What we can say with confidence is when facing the same problem over again - hunger, health, and purpose, the same solutions eventually begin to wear out.
Darwin, and the constructs of social darwinism and classical economics are world is in a lot of ways based on, might need a bit of an update.
Which is the role of the artist, no?
To provide a new way of thinking about things?
Blackkklansman