He later gained nationwide popularity through his work in New York, where he began producing tracks for artists such as Jay-Z, Twista, Mase, Talib Kweli and Alicia Keys. West began making beats and rapping in the early 90s in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, when he formed the rap group Go Getters with Chicago natives GLC and Really Doe. For all the time he spends acting like a spoilt child in real life, he remains, on record, one of the most compelling artists of our time.Ye (born Kanye Omari West on Jin Atlanta, Georgia), professionally known as Kanye West, is a Grammy award-winning American rapper, producer, singer, author, director, performance artist and fashion designer. Kanye West remains a gifted producer, evident in his subtle production touches, but he also understands that truly brilliant pop music must make the personal universal. When the track segues into Gil Scott-Heron talking of a "rapist known as freedom" in final song, Who Will Survive in America, it sounds completely natural, despite the contrast in West's depiction of psychological isolation and the fate of the American continent.Īnd that is one of his greatest attributes as an artist.
Absent is the talk of unnamed haters that has proved the staple of hip-hop for far too long instead, Bon Iver (the album's unlikely wingman) provides isolated vocals – "I'm lost in the world, I'm down on my life" – that warp into cacophonous, tribal drumming, while reworked refrains from the album's previous tracks ebb and flow. When he does tackle that most loathsome of topics – fame – in Lost in the World, West does so in his own individual style. Sharing vocals with John Legend on the exceptional Blame Game, West bitches about an unhealthy relationship, at turns histrionic and cavalier, and equally convincing in both guises. More than once, West returns to the role of beleaguered lover the one floored by the coldness of an ex-girlfriend in Heartless, the one who leant a sympathetic ear to the self-conscious beauty in All Falls Down. But the album shines brightest when The Ego is left to one side and Kanye allows himself to be fraught and, at times, a bit pathetic. Friday giveaways or on the lavish 30-minute Runaway film. Of course, we'd heard many of the album's finest songs already – the explosive Monster, the mournful Runaway, the sinister So Appalled – as part of West's G.O.O.D. It's the latter who introduces the album, her cod-English accent telling the children – in one of the album's many weird moments – to "zip it, listen!"
Sampling the likes of Aphex Twin, King Crimson and Mike Oldfield, West also gathers rap veterans and newcomers – notably Rick Ross, Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is both impressively grand and intensely personal, thriving on the rapper's restless creative mania. Instead, West made one of the best albums of 2010. The natural inclination would be to assume the rapper has spread himself too thin the career evolution of most celebrities who spend this much time filling column inches tends to involve a sex tape, misuse of collagen or leaked photos involving a bong. Even when West wasn't the one doing the talking, presidents old and new were offering their opinions on him. " went viral, the rapper has been ubiquitous in many ludicrous ways: talking up collaborations with Justin Bieber, claiming to have overcome suicidal thoughts because he's a " soldier of culture", offering a a Coventry man Twitter fame. Ever since the phrase "I'mma let you finish. K anye West has been called many things, but you could never accuse him of being a man of mystery.