Next Monday, the Louis Vuitton Don, Kanye West releases his sixth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Over the next seven days, I will count down my personal top ten Kanye West musical contributions. Be they songs, productions or unreleased material, they will all be considered for the countdown. I am of the opinion that Mr. West is a once in a generation auteur. He blends the best of Phil Spector, Muhammad Ali, Stevie Wonder and Carl Sandburg into a uniquely American, uniquely egotistical, prodigious and creative experience that in many ways has defined 21st century popular music. He is a cultural dividing point. Loved, hated and respected, often all in the same breath. Please sit back, read and enjoy this retrospective.
Chicago – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Kanye West is probably best known for his work as a producer using sped up soul samples. His work on “Through the Wire,” “Overnight Celebrity” and “Slow Jams” shows and proves, and is likely some of his finest mainstream trending work as a producer. However, I love what Yeezy does when he dips himself into classic rock. The true measure of depth of a great sampling producer is to find the emotional core of a track, amplify that track’s core emotion and get the beat into the hands of a performer who needs that emotion to lift their career to a new level.
Beanie Sigel is a foul mouthed hood general. He’s an emcee who pretty much bodies a track with ferocious intensity, not as much concerned with wordplay but levying threats of his greatness. This concept doesn’t really transfer well to millionaire status as a rapper, which is likely why when he was signed to Roc-a-Fella, he was blessed with a clothing line, State Property that gave him a chance to earn some cash. He’s a widelyrespected underground heavyweight, and when he needed a hood entrenched crossover gem, Kanye West came to the rescue.
The Chicago native likely heard Graham Nash’s stellar recounting of the 1968 Chicago riots at the Democratic National Convention somewhere in a progressive thinking American History teacher’s classroom. The horns, Hammond organ, and thick percussive bassline give the track a haunting lurch that definitely bespeaks the horror of the events of August 1968. When blended with Beans going in about how ferocious of an emcee he is, the track makes sense with the vocals and you end up with an arresting four minutes that has you convinced of the rapper’s greatness likely more than anything else he’s ever rapped over.
As Stevie Wonder was a tremendous vocalist but even more so the greatest arranger and producer of all time, Kanye West is a great rapper but even more so a transcendent producer.
Enjoy!
elivindotorg 