Kanye West just chafes my nipples

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 5:31pm

I can't stand the guy. First he's a mushmouth and you can't understand anything he's saying. I thought Gold Digger was about the bond villian Gold Finger.

Plus, he takes rapstar myopia to a new level. Every damn song is about how fly he is, how strong he is, how the world is jealous of him, how he's gonna show them. Kanye, get to a therapist, man. I mean, Fiddy is a raving idiot and he's making you look bad.

That new song is the worst. What's he saying over and over again about getting killed and being stronger? Or is it getting filled and lasting longer? Or taking pills and playing Kong-er?

I just don't get him.

[chris d]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 5:54pm

"Stronger" is a dope track yo.

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 5:58pm

I actually think Kanye West is talented. 50 Cent's the one I want to punch in the crotch. Ugh.

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 6:15pm

Kanye West is a great artist, and still has my respect from Katrina.

[Liverpool]

Posted: 10/21/07 at 6:18pm

hes also still a whiny bitch that needs to be kicked in the **** (rhymes with front).
Updated On: 10/21/07 at 06:18 PM

[TonyaFanatic]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:28am

ugh....what a dumb thread u don't even know him.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 3:25am

And you do?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 11:15am

Tonya I WISH I didn't know him. I knew about him before you did I am sure, having been thoroughly involved in the Chicago music scene as he worked his way up to the national spotlight.

And I find him to be painfully heavy handed, writing dumb lyrics to classic beats and them performing them as if he had a mouth full of Novocaine. I find many of his songs to be misogynistic and just flat out dumb.

His Katrina comment was amusing but like a lot of Rock stars he seized the moment with a great sound bite and then didn't deliver anything else.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 12:21pm

Funny you should mention therapy, Joe, because the gifted producer Jon Brion (a guy who drips with indie/hipster cred) has worked with Kanye on his last two albums.

He doesn't understand why people have such antipathy to Kanye on this issue. He points out that Kanye has a sense of self-actualization that a lot of people spend years and small fortunes on therapy to achieve.

It's interesting that that calls up such resentment in people.

"but like a lot of Rock stars he seized the moment with a great sound bite and then didn't deliver anything else."

Really? Really? He's a fairly conscientious man.

Updated On: 10/22/07 at 12:21 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 1:25pm

Namo I'd like to think I am glad to admit if I've made a mistake- As I see it, he delivered that biting criticism of Bush (Which certainly needed to be said ) but then what-- I can't find anything that he did about it after that.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 1:31pm

Here's one of his lyrics I despise.

18 years, 18 years
She got one of yo' kids, got you for 18 years
I know somebody payin' child support for one of his kids
His baby momma's car crib is bigger than his
You will see him on TV, any given Sunday
Win the Superbowl and drive off in a Hyundai
She was supposed to buy ya shorty Tyco with ya money
She went to the doctor got lipo with ya money
She walkin' around lookin' like Michael with ya money
Shoulda' got that insured, GEICO for ya moneeey(your money)
If you ain't no punk holla' we want pre-nup
WE WANT PRE-NUP!, yeah
It's something that you need to have
'Cause when she leave yo' ass she gon' leave with half
18 years, 18 years
And on her 18th birthday, he found out it wasn't his?


Kanya has his finger on a real problem in our society here: Women holding men hostage with illegitimate children. I don't know how she "got" one of his kids or why he never had a paternity test, but I'd suggest to K West that he can always spend 18 years raising his own spawn. Then he don't have to give her any money.

[wickedfiyeroofoz]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 1:35pm

Has anyone seen the video of Kanye's breakdown at the VMA's?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 1:35pm

It's a story. In one song.

[erikaamato]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 1:47pm

It's misogynistic. I'm just sayin'.

[Liverpool]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:02pm

yes wickedfiyero I have seen it. It was PATHETIC, a petulant child that boy is.

[Liverpool]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:02pm

yes wickedfiyero I have seen it. It was PATHETIC, a petulant child that boy is.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:21pm

I agree, erika, but it does seem as if culturally we hold hip hop artists to accountability for the content of their lyrics the way we don't hold, say, a playwright like the highly-regarded (except by me) Neil LaBute.

I think I should have just read Joe's line in the first post "I just don't get him" and taken his word for it and not posted.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:35pm

Aww Namo, i like your posts and go out of my way to read 'em.

[erikaamato]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:44pm

Namo: Well, I, for one, hate LaBute, too, so there! :-P

But I totally get your point.

That being said, does the mere existence of a double-standard mean we should let everything slide? Just a thought for the day.

EDITED TO ADD: And perhaps that double-standard exists because the messages in hip-hop are heard and absorbed by an overwhelming percentage more people than have ever even heard of Neil LaBute and his ilk. (Another thought.)
Updated On: 10/22/07 at 02:44 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 2:49pm

Aren't most musicians held accountable for their lyrics, though? Is Kanye portarying a character, the way Emimemn allegedly was when he was faggin and lezzing?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 3:24pm

Well, I hope for growth over time and am sometimes surprised to find myself rewarded for that hope.

The Beastie Boys were once horribly misogynist and homophobic and AIDS phobic. And now they're all Buddhist and sh*t.

I actually don't think most musicians are held accountable for their lyrics. Nobody blinked an eye when Johnny Cash shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.

I hope for continued growth and evolution on Kanye's part, he's done a lot that's a-ok in my book so far.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 3:56pm

Yeah, after I posted that I realized that that the answer was probably no. And it's funny you mention Johnny Cash because I was thinking that, of all genres, it seems that country musicians really do sing more "character" songs while with rock and pop musicians you generally assume the "I" is understood to mean to singer.

[folkyboy]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 3:58pm

i love how Madonna can run around half naked in a church and stick pasties on her nipples for a little kid to dance around with her yet Kanye can't make a humorous comment about plastic surgery being done with his child support money.

get over it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 4:05pm

Well, I don't know if Madonna would be the go-to example I'd use, since there was a time when Madonna couldn't fart without someone denouncing her.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/22/07 at 4:13pm

Yeah I'd use Madonna as an example of an artist who was forced to account for her every lyric- she had to go on Nightline to discuss "Justify My Love" line for line.

And I guess it's hard to see Kanye as a character when he namechecks Busta and Usher as the other men she's knocking boots with. Those are pretty specific examples.

And I think you underestimate Johnny Cash- when he was young and shoot-y he indeed was vilified for his violent druggy lyrics. It was only after June saved him and brought him to Jesus (and he recorded all them nice hymns) that he got mainstream cred in Nashville.