Wake Up, Mr. West

So has anyone noticed the undeniable transformation of Kanye West’s music? Of course you have, what am I saying. To be quite honest, I don’t really know many of Kanye’s new songs from his recent album or follow any of his musical partnerships at the moment. From the few songs that I have listened to, however, coupled with the insane media coverage and his elevated fame and fortune as his family becomes the First Family of Fashion, it is very apparent that he has evolved as an artist. Yet, if I may give my opinion, I would say that it isn’t in a good way.

It hit me like a ton of bricks as I was walking down the street with my music playlist on shuffle. On came the loud yell of a man saying “Wake up, Mr. West, Mr. West, Mr. West…” followed by Kanye’s crisp voice as he flows his way into the start of the song. I hadn’t listened to “Heard ‘Em Say” by Kanye West and Adam Levine in a long time, but the ease that the melody of the song brought to my long walk, the power in the words that made up the song, and the way that Adam Levine’s harmony flowed over the hard beat, made me ecstatic that it came across my ears again. Then, by some mighty force of nature, another Kanye song started as “Heard ‘Em Say” faded from my ears. This time it was “All Falls Down”.  A song that I adored when I first heard it back in 2004. Great melody, great rhymes, great music.

Given all of this greatness that entered my ears on that walk, I became aware of what everyone has been saying about Kanye West’s music. It’s nothing like it used to be. His rhythm, his words, his message, his relatability, in my opinion, has been lost in a mass of his media-influenced life. Now I’m not saying that it is impossible for people to change up what they are passionate about, how they do their craft, and how they project that to the people that appreciate it. However, I would like to say that there was something exceptionally enticing, artistic, poetic, real, and everlasting about Kanye’s music circa early 2000’s. Of course a lot has changed in his life and in the music-age among us, where certain sounds and styles are more popular than the sounds from back then. But isn’t there a way to mesh today with yesterday, Kanye?

The collaborative way in which he mixed old-school R&B artists and tracks with his poetry and rhymes that targeted repressed cultural issues was game-changing. If he were to do that again, it would still be game-changing, considering the lack thereof of rap artists that broach controversial topics in way that’s inviting and fun to the ear.

I think that it is sometimes hard to accept that music has changed from what we’ve remembered it to be when we were young and barely knew what the words meant, to now where we crave beats and words that connect with us. I do enjoy some of Kanye’s latest work like Blood on the Leaves and a few of his verses on other collaborations. I just wish that he was able to connect with whatever greatness that made his old music so unforgettable. Whatever it was, it helped him create true art.