Kanye West

[New Feeling]

Easily the best artist in pop music for the 00s.

i was talking about this part... what the fuck does it mean

ok it was a pretty hyperbolic statement, but it was meant to suggest that when the history of Popular music is assessed by breaking it down to decades, the decade beginning in 2000 and ending in 2009 will feature very few truly interesting artists that achieved legit mainstream success.  Kanye is certainly one of them, and due to his run of excellent albums combined with his prolific and influential production work, especially with Jay-Z (one of the other few contenders), along with his highly controversial persona, I would cast my vote in his favor.  Of course now that I think about it I might have cast my vote for Radiohead or the Flaming Lips or Animal Collective, but I can't really consider them "Pop" in the same way I consider Kanye. 

Of course you are free to disagree and I'd love to hear who you think was the great pop musician of recent times.   

[Stefen]

He just looks and acts the part. Excellent albums? Come on. His music is garbage.

[New Feeling]

that's just ridiculous

[Pubrick]

i dunno.

in terms of success he isnt the GOAT that he believes himself to be. what ppl will remember are the ppl who were huge in 2000-2010. kanye's one of them but so is Black Eyed Peas (garbage) and Justin Timberlake (kinda alrite) -- THAT's pop music, hell even BEYONCE is more easily classifiable as pop music than freaking Jay Z. an early contender for this title in the new decade is Gaga - EASY.

Kanye is probably best compared to Timbaland. his hip hop cred is nowhere near Jay Z and to be honest that's the only thing Jay Z brings to the table (god knows where he got it cos i think the dude is massively overrated).. in terms of amazing pop music you have to look at what Timbaland did as producer (pussycat dolls and those 2late 2pologize ppl notwithstanding) in the last decade. he's on hiatus now, whatever that means, but he left his mark and made a pretty penny which won't be forgotten anytime soon.

kanye SELLS himself as the greatest of all time. so when ppl try to think of who the best is, it's easy to remember that there was this one dude who all he ever said was "hey i'm the best pop artist of all time, remember that".. that's actually frighteningly close to a real quote of his.  he is not the best POP artist between 2000 and 2010 in terms of success, or even what he's done to the genre.

he's just a egomaniac producer slightly more camera-hungry than timbaland.

[72teeth]

kantye sux!

[New Feeling]

I just want to say it's nice of Neil to represent for Kanye but he should probably do it in this thread.  I'll back you up bro. 

[Jeremy Blackman]

We need a new term for what Kanye is doing now. Maybe toxic stupidity? Whatever it is, it's not cute or endearing, and it should be taken seriously as something that is actively infecting people's minds. Culture is demonstrably degraded for him being in the conversation.

[jenkins]

there's not a chance in hell that someone who might be negatively affected by Ye will watch that video and have their opinion altered. so it's shittalking to the choir, which is so odd to me. it's so odd to me. i don't see its benefit. to become more bothered by Ye? why?

saying he's "one of the dumbest guys in the country, it's not an exaggeration" is wrong. it's slanderous. that's the newscaster working himself up. that's the newscaster making himself excited. that's the newscaster speaking to his audience. that's more in line with what Ye does, but not doing it as well.

Ye isn't into politics, he's into pop culture. so this is having the wrong kind of conversation about him, and missing the point of what he's doing.

he's attracting attention, that's all he's doing. that's why he's doing it. and he's as dumb as Trump in that it's totally working and people can't figure out how, although they're the ones making it work.

don't pick the low hanging fruits jb. reach for more than the obvious

[Jeremy Blackman]

Ye isn't into politics, he's into pop culture. so this is having the wrong kind of conversation about him, and missing the point of what he's doing.

Hopefully I wasn't subconsciously baiting, but I was 100% certain that someone would respond saying this. I can't even express how much I disagree with that opinion.

I'm sorry if this is low-hanging fruit, but it's happening and I feel like it matters a bit.

Kanye has chosen to make himself political. It is a consistent interest of his now. He wears a freaking MAGA hat and made a song about said hat. Does it matter to me exactly how his motivations are divided — how much of this is mental illness, cynical attention-seeking, performance art, or sincerely-felt idiocy? No, I could not care less. What matters is what he's doing.

I think it's great (even necessary) for artists to enter the political conversation. But in a conversation, you respond and offer other opinions. The problem here is that when you engage with Kanye's opinion, especially this one, it dissolves into dust. There is nothing there. You might be able to discern what Kanye is getting at, but he seems unable to form a sentence that coherently expresses a basic point of view. Beyond the toxic and misguided platitudes, you're left to piece things together from context clues, and even then you can't be sure he even knows what he's saying. For example in his call to action on the 13th amendment, not only did he not understand the amendment itself, he seemed to not understand what an amendment is.

And yet, like an insane religious belief, there is just enough substance to infect people's minds. It's almost more persuasive when you make an argument like this, because there is almost nothing to grasp onto to argue with.

I don't think it's fun or cute to give him a pass. Toxic stupidity of this kind has real-world consequences. It's not unlike the actual struggle that's happening in public schools right now where students refuse to believe the earth is round because some of their favorite celebrities have doubts. Kanye is at the forefront of a similar kind of anti-intellectualism. If you think it's a one-off stunt, you're mistaken.

[jenkins]

it's like this: people usually enter society through politics, but he's entering politics through society.

responding to his opinion, he clearly thinks there's a limited social perception of black people, and he wants to broaden the social perception of black people--that is not toxic.

wtf about the 13th amendment, who gives a shit. are we talking facts or opinions here? did you even listen to him on SNL, hello, he said listen with your heart and not with your head.

he's learning politics in public and it won't be easy, of course not. people will legitimately casually call him toxically stupid.

[Drenk]

He's dumb. And he makes people who follow him say dumb political things. I know. I read KanyeToThe. He's also having a mental breakdown in a Kardashian world. I'm sad at different levels.

[jenkins]

this is how one who is sane proceeds: with a desire for self, and efforts expanding to meet that desire

in terms of seeking attention, y'all make it easy for him to get what he wants

[Jeremy Blackman]

wtf about the 13th amendment, who gives a shit. are we talking facts or opinions here? did you even listen to him on SNL, hello, he said listen with your heart and not with your head.

Kanye is at the forefront of a similar kind of anti-intellectualism.

[jenkins]

it's not hard to see: you need to attack the points and not the person.

the head and the heart jb, the head and the heart

[Jeremy Blackman]

it's not hard to see: you need to attack the points and not the person.

Yes, and that's what half of my post was about. His "points" crumble to dust under the mildest scrutiny.