Kanye West

He is not the greatest emcee, but he may be the greatest musical figure of this century

From indieshins 02/18/2022 04:15

I haven't loved his most recent work, but despite his often-abrasive and irritating behaviour and comments, Kanye's one of our greatest musical icons. His understanding of sound and the art of sampling, and his constant efforts to evolve and change his sound over the years have resulted in some of the greatest albums of the last twenty-odd years, in any genre. He's one of the few working today I would call a genius, and like many geniuses, his personality isn't always the greatest. But his music is honest and human and if you ignore his persona and focus on his art, there is much reward to be gained.

A genius for sure. His personality and public persona have tarnished his image, but Kanye West in an excellent artist and one of the best artists of the 21st Century. Kanye alongside Kendrick Lamar and Eminem helped get me into hip hop, and he's proven to be heavily influential on modern hip hop, particularly the current trap era. He's a pretty good rapper, but he's a truly fantastic songwriter and conceptualiser. And he's released some classic albums that will stand the test of time.

Even if you don't like hip hop, I'd recommend listening to his work. He's a very interesting artist. He samples from a wide variety of influences such as funk, soul, jazz, rock, metal, punk, indie, etc. Makes for a unique listening experience in terms of rap music.

one of the few hip hoppers I can tolerate.....

Love or hate him, he's a musical genius and Hip Hop would never have been the same without him.

I'm definitely being harsher than I should because his early production, especially on Common's record "Be" is actually very good. But Kanye is just so over-rated because of his pop-culture icon status that I just don't want to show him any kind of love, he gets enough of it from ignorant and closed-minded pop music lovers . I keep that for the underdogs and the old school who truly deserve more recognition.

From StefanR10 06/13/2020 18:00

Greatest Hip-Hop Star of the era 2010s

Absolutely one of the greatest musicians of the 21st Century, explored every range of emotions from religion to heartbreak to social injustice. His production is one of the best in the Hip Hop community and the fact that is paired with an exceptional rapper and charismatic personality makes for the BEST musician in his genre if not of modern times.

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From LoganGrube 11/08/2018 20:45

Underappreciated because of his often horrible personality. MBDTF is definitely my pick for the best album in the history of the genre, and the College Dropout might be my choice for second best. He is to hip hop what David Bowie was to rock, due to his experimentalism and innovation.