Luckily one night I was driving to a night class I was taking at the time, and a song called "All Falls Down" came on. It was different from anything else they were playing; I noticed that the lyrics had a lot more substance, and the beat was a lot more intricate than a few little clicks and whistles. I waited patiently for the artist to be announced, but the DJ never did. On my way back from class that night, I hoped to hear it again. Instead, "Through the Wire" came on, and I could immediately tell it was the same artist. This time his name was announced: Kanye West.
My birthday came up shortly, and my sister got me Kanye's debut album College Dropout. Almost immediately, I fell in love with hip hop. Most of the underground elites were featured on it: Common, Talib Kweli, Mos Def... names that I had unfortunately never heard before. Then the hunt was on. As I researched Kanye and these other artists, a door opened to a limitless supply of underground material, and I still hunger for more every single day. I guess you could say Kanye West brought me hip hop.
Unfortunately, over the years I've watched Kanye sky-rocket from a talented kid who got a lucky break to an egotistical, materialistic rap idol. He is a radio superstar. The evolution of Kanye West is almost a picture-perfect example of the differences between underground and mainstream, and how the radio has the ability to change artists. As disappointed as I am, I still owe Kanye West a lot for opening my eyes to hip hop culture, and I'm glad there are still a number of underground artists who stuck to their guns.
Kanye performs "Get 'Em High" with Common (2005)
Kanye performs a remix to "Lollipop" with Lil' Wayne (2008)
Funny how things change...
5 comments:
Wow.
Even though that was incredibly long...i really enjoyed reading it. I liked your comment after the pictures at the end...so true that it made me laugh.
Great, great posts/thoughts Paul. I hope you keep up the blog after your class is done. It would be worthwhile.
I had a similar "conversion" to hip hop as you. Never hated the stuff, but my tolerance had to slowly increase. I always loved similar music, like Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Crass, the Residents, and the Sex Pistols. The in your face, DIY aspects of that music appealed to me. Hip hop has that. I also appreciate what hip hop has taken from the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson: group role playing (Wu Tang, NWA) and collage recording techniques (Public Enemy), not to mention an ear for pristine sound (Dre). So those were kind of gateways.
For years I liked Kool Keith, Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Boss, Eric B. and Rakim. Kanye, too. Love his second album, but "All Falls Down" caught my attention when it came out, too. So that's a few things, but not much. After getting hooked on some Nas tracks, I suddenly found myself checking out a lot of stuff. I'm giving myself an education and having a blast, buying and searching out as much as I can. Like you say, you immerse yourself in the music and find yourself wanting even more every day, which is an amazing feeling.
Anyway, I could keep going on, but made my point. Great music. Keep up the good work.
I agree that your post was good. Will you be throwing up a post about where you fit in in the blogosphere?
i made it into your blog!
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