His stuff is well produced and his lyrics are a cut above the norm. But that's what the entire genre boils down to, isn't it? I respect the production values to an extent, even if the credits on his works are longer than an obese person's shopping list. But that's cool, I guess. I'll revisit lo-fi hip hop (and old school hip hop) any day of the week. This? It's more of a "listen because everyone who listens to music says it's amazing" kind of thing.

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.

GOD

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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.

One of the most creative mind in hip hop. Every album has a different sound and vibe. Top 3 best hip hop producers of all time. He is far from a great lyricist but the use of his writers may compensate on most of his albums.

Not the greatest rapper, but my pick for the best overall hip-hop artist.

Claiming Ye's music is "cliche and dated" is beyond idiotic. That's not even an opinion, that's just false. He's probably one of the least "cliche" artist in hip hop, in fact most people knowledgeable in hip-hop would call him a pioneer. Also how exactly does he sound dated? Maybe a few albums, but even then all music eventually gets "dated", especially in a genre that is evolving as quickly as hip-hop is. Yeezus has aged like fine wine and is certainly not dated, in fact is still sounds like something from the future.

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Great musical talent, horrible personality