On Kanye

First things first, I believe that Kanye West is one of the most gifted artists of our generation. I must confess that I own all of his albums, and his latest 808s & Heartbreak is one of the best albums I've ever heard. Oftentimes on the subway going home from work at night, I listen to the songs "Heartless" and "See You in My Nightmares" over and over again. If you don't have the album yet, minimize this window, go to iTunes and download the damn thing, you won't regret it. While you're doing that, get College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation while you're at it. Also, the death of his mother last year following cosmetic surgery was unbelievably sad, so it can be understood that Kanye West has had a lot of shit to deal with.
However, Kanye West as you all probably know, is a complete toolbag. The absolute egomania that infects this guy is agonizing to witness. Whenever the guy doesn't win an award, he makes a public scene at the ceremony. Pretty much the only outburst of his, that I enjoyed, and for that matter agreed with, was during a televised fundraiser for Katrina victims in which he stated next to a befuddled Mike Myers that, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." That was brilliant, he should have won something for that, I think that brought to bear the utter incompetence and indifference of Bush's response to the catastrophe for a lot of people that may never have bothered otherwise. That, however, is pretty much where my sympathy for Mr. West ends. When he said earlier this year that he envisions himself "the voice of this generation, of this decade" I promptly puked all over myself. Being dubbed the "voice of a generation" is a label that another party bestows upon you, like 30 years later. Rolling Stone can do that, or TIME, hell even the Enquirer, but not Kanye West.
You might be asking yourself, why the hell is he writing about this? Well the answer is here, dear friends. Stephen Colbert's Christmas album has surpassed Kanye West's on the iTunes best-seller's chart. Apparently, Colbert (whom I haven't watched in ages, shame shame) asked his viewers to mass purchase his album at 5pm EST on Wednesday, and the ploy worked. After hearing of this plan, Kanye West Twittered (or Tweeted, whatever the fuck you Twitter people call it) "who the fuck is Stephen Colbert?" Seriously, grow up Kanye! Here's hoping that "Operation Humble Kanye" did, in fact, humble Kanye West. I want this, if for no other purpose than to spend my money on artists that I actually like and respect as individuals.
In closing, it's important to remember that whether you like his music or not, Kanye West is a gifted musician and probably a decent guy in private. However, he needs to tamper down on the Dangerfield-Ali "I get no respect, yet I'm the greatest" combo. Also, you should probably purchase Stephen Colbert's Christmas album, I will do so this weekend!