Kanye West

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.

This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.

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.

This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.

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.

From SaulCortes1992 10/25/2018 23:19

GOD

This comment is beneath your viewing threshold.

From corenfro 08/23/2018 04:43

I love Kanye, he is one of my favorite artists of the last 20 years. I find his music incredibly profound and impactful. His work has fundamentally changed the way I experience, think about, and evaluate music as much as any other artist. I do not care if he is not technically proficient on any instrument; his sense of melody, rhythm, song structure, and texture are on a level that hasn't been actualized by very many artists.

There are a lot of weak spots and corny lyrics in his discography to poke fun at, and "he's not that great of a rapper" has been said more times than "Imma let you finish" has been quoted - but it doesn't matter. He's dropped classic after classic verse/song/album for multiple decades now. It wasn't a fluke or a flash in the pan, he legitimately has a hell of an ear for great sounding music and will use whatever resources / musicians / samples he needs to create the sounds he needs. There are certain songs he has that show next-level mastery of combining sounds. He can work minimalistically or have an uncountable number of variables in his mix and find success with either approach.

I'd even argue he's a pretty underrated songwriter. So many of his tracks have excellent manicured song structures with fills and vocal and instrumental elements coming in and out at the perfect time. Even his less raved about albums like 808's and Graduation have many moments of songwriting brilliance.

Finally, his influence on modern music has been far and wide in both pop music and alternative music outside of the mainstream, in hip hop and outside of hip hop.