The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/kanye-west/)
Courtesy of Hot New Hip Hop
The second coming of Jesus?
Kanye West is an American hip hop recording artist, dancer, urban planner, songwriter, record producer, poet, sculptor, singer, fashion designer, entrepreneur and deity. He is among the most acclaimed musicians of the 21st century, attracting both universal praise for his work and public persona.
How do I drag my body home from campus on a weekday afternoon? With the help of “Sunshine,” off of Work of Art by Asake. A gentle release from academic anxiety: “Sun’s gon’ shine on everything you do.”
While there’s nothing wrong with listening to familiar music to unwind, constantly challenging yourself with new artists and genres will ensure that you will never suffer musical paralysis.
Daniel Moran ’21 breaks down the reasons that collab albums have a tendency to disappoint, and shares his thoughts on some recently released and upcoming collabs.
Two weeks ago, during an appearance as musical guest on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, Kanye West delivered an unplanned pro-Trump speech to the audience as the credits rolled. Now you’re probably rolling your eyes and thinking I’m either going to defend or bash Kanye on his speech and his twitter rants about the 13th Amendment. Well, I’m not going to do either of those things. There’s something else entirely that concerns me. This past Saturday, SNL cast member Pete Davidson discussed the incident during “Weekend Update.” Davidson urged Kanye to take his meds and said that while Kanye is a musical genius like “Joey Chestnut is a hot dog-eating genius,” he doesn’t want to “hear Joey Chestnut’s opinions about things that aren’t hot dog-related.”
Incidentally, the day before Davidson’s SNL appearance, Lady Gaga went on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and gave a defense of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford with regards to memory mechanisms and trauma, and her speech soon went viral on Twitter.
Where should we, as listeners, mainstream media consumers and socially minded citizens, stand on Kanye West? It is a question that, in today’s world, flickers in our minds about as often as “what’s for dinner tonight?.”
With every concert hall rant, tweet and piece of Kardashian-related gossip, that spotlight has only grown brighter. Often, his career as an artist is only examined superficially, as if it is second to his worldwide image as an erratic pop star. This summer, following his support for Trump on twitter and preposterous statement that 400 years of slavery “sounds like a choice,” Kanye released his G.O.O.D. Music series consisting of five albums.
So where do these five albums fall on the stage of Kardashian gossip, tweets and rant? Is it fair to evaluate Kanye’s music without the context of his personality and erratic behavior?
I unfollowed Kanye West after the first MAGA tweet. Without hesitation, I jumped on the bandwagon calling for his “cancellation.” I spent most of Tuesday looking like the white guy blinking meme as I watched Mr. West word-vomit all over Twitter and call four hundred years of chattel slavery “a choice” on TMZ. This column was going to be a scathing condemnation. Instead, my curiosity led me to watch ’Ye’s extended conversation with Charlamagne, also released on Tuesday. Over the course of a virtually uninterrupted 105-minute stream-of-consciousness, I came to see things differently.
Last week, many of us felt the harrowing effects of what can only be described as a national tragedy: the downfall of Kanye West. As someone who has loved Kanye’s music since sixth grade, viciously supported him through the ups and downs of his beef with Taylor Swift, praised the diversity of his (albeit insanely overpriced) fashion line and even forgave him for his completely nonsensical rant on Ellen, I was, to say the least, disappointed when I saw his Twitter tirade of painfully unrelenting support for Trump. I will admit that when I first read the Tweet That Started It All, I wasn’t immediately horrified or shocked. In fact, I chuckled at the unironic use of the phrase “dragon energy,” and I couldn’t really argue with Kanye’s claim that he “loves everyone.” I told myself that this was just another inflammatory statement tweeted out for favorites, tabloid headlines and “Kanye West is so crazy” reactions. Simply put, I assumed he just said it for attention.
In a great year for rap, hip-hop and emo, The Daily Sun’s Arts & Entertainment writers came together to name the 10 best songs of the year.
10. “(Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t a Problem)” — Car Seat Headrest
Steve Jobs once said that hallucinogens reveal another side to reality, but in “Joe Gets Kicked Out Of School” — written about an acid trip taken by Car Seat Headrest frontman Will Toledo — the revelations aren’t so pleasant. On acid, Toledo sees himself and his friends as “filthy people,” hedonistic pleasure-seekers with no meaning or purpose. Good thing the song is so fun. The band’s album, Teens of Denial, builds huge, operatic epics from the building blocks of indie rock, and “Joe” is a perfect example, a seven-minute journey that begins with Toledo strumming an acoustic guitar and develops into a foot-stomping breakdown.
“The MacDonald’s Man” folds the highbrow seriousness of literature in on itself. People come out and denounce it not as a poem, but as “good poetry.” Well I do think it’s a good poem, but for different reasons.
8:12 p.m.: We arrive in Buffalo. Jack bought a pass online that lets us park in a clearing under a bridge. A sign bolted to a cement support lists the rates — $75 daily maximum. It’s dark and we’re in a half-awake state from driving on Western New York backroads into fading light. 8:19 p.m.: We walk to the First Niagara Center.