Kanye West: The Man, the Music, and the Message

By Jean A. Williams

Producer and rapper Kanye West is a standout in the hip-hop world — sometimes for his music, but often for his controversial actions. Then there is his atypical look, preferring preppy attire to typical hip-hop fashion, and his no-shame-in-my-game, middleclass upbringing with no pretense to gangsta ties. In fact, West is a proud mama’s boy. Having emerged onto the pop-culture radar just a few short years ago, West has cut large swaths through the fields of musical accomplishment and good deeds with occasional detours through minefields of controversy.

The world waited with bated breath for his third album — “Graduation” — to drop on Sept. 11, timing that spawned a feud with fellow rapper 50 Cent as to who could lay rightful claim to the date. If West were merely picking a fight to drum up publicity for his new album when he moved its release date to go head-to-head with 50’s, it wouldn’t have been the first time he seemed to be courting controversy. In Raising Kanye, a book by his mother, Donda West, that was released this summer, she paints him as an extremely self-confident, talented, righteous yet genuine figure. She knows full well, however, that in the pantheon of pop culture, he’s viewed through a far more complicated and often less forgiving prism.

The Man and His Music

Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta but raised in Chicago. His atypical names were taken from an African naming book, with Kanye being Ethiopian for “the only one.” Omari means “wise man.” West’s parents divorced when he was 3. He moved with his mother to Chicago, where she raised him while building a career as an educator, including a stint as chair of the department of English and speech at Chicago State University. West spent summers in Atlanta with his father, Ray, a photojournalist. “His Dad was a really great guy-really, really smart, very creative. He was a photojournalist when I met him,” Donda West said on Chicago’s B-96 radio station in August. “As a matter a fact, [he was] the first African- American photojournalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”

From an early age, West displayed artistic abilities, according to his mother. “He began to draw when he was 3, and I bought him a huge box of Crayolas,” Donda West writes. “Even then his talent stood out. He drew things that kids who were twice his age couldn’t draw. He drew peoplereal people, not stick figures.”

When he was 14, he bought his first keyboard. Later, he added turntables, mixers and drum machines, turning his teenage bedroom into a studio. “Kanye dreamed of doing music from the time he was very young,” Donda West writes. “I first noticed it when he was in the third grade. That and drawing were his passions. But somewhere along the way, music took over. Kanye spent hours and hours mixing, rapping and writing. It was nonstop.”

A Different School of Thought

West famously attended, but then dropped out of college in his third semester. He has used his academic experience as grist for his music. His latest album, “Graduation,” is the final part a trilogy, following his first two albums, “The College Dropout” and “Late Registration.”

“Kanye got to the point where he wanted to do nothing but music and art,” Donda West said on Chicago’s B- 96. “He said, ‘I like music, art, recess and lunch.’ That’s what he liked about high school. I always insisted that he be a good student. But it was really hard, those last three or four years, because he didn’t want to do anything but those few things, and that’s when we had a few difficulties. But he stuck in there. He hung in there. He really had no choice.”

West’s tenacity led to him popping up on the music industry’s radar screen when he was 19. Executives at Sony expressed interest in him, even flying him to New York for a meeting. That early interest stalled unceremoniously.

Before he would finally land a deal with Damon Dash and Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records, West would be turned down by Def Jam, Arista and Capitol. Even then, he was signed as a producer when he really wanted to be a rap artist.

Before his breakthrough with “The College Dropout,” West produced tracks for Jay Z, Nas, Mobb Deep and others.

Roc-A-Fella was reluctant to sign West as an artist, because he doesn’t fit the typical rapper profile. He dropped “The College Dropout” in February 2004 to acclaim, led by the hit single “Through The Wire,” a commentary on a 2002 car accident that left him with a metal plate in his chin.

He followed in 2005 with “Late Registration.” The two albums have won West five Grammy Awards. He won a sixth for producing Alicia Keys’ R&B hit “You Don’t Know My Name.”

The Controversy

West obviously has no problem speaking his mind. It’s as much a part of his hip-hop persona as are his preppy outfits. And he’s always good for an outrageous comment or a bit of braggadocio. But he is probably best known outside the hip-hop world for his unscripted tirade about President Bush and the federal government’s poor response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

“I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, ‘They’re looting.’ You see a white family, it says, ‘They’re looking for food.’ And, you know, it’s been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. … George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

“Like his Dad, Kanye has little patience for what he thinks is unjust,” Donda West writes in Raising Kanye. “If he sees a president leave human beings stranded on rooftops for days at a time, his passion and compassion will outweigh his patience.” West comes from a long line of people who flout the status quo. Both Donda and Ray West were involved in civil rights struggles. Their son obviously, took a page from their books.

Eschewing the NBC script during a Katrina telethon (to the surprise of his cohort, comedian Mike Myers), West spewed comments that were poignant. Donda West describes the incident as, “the shot heard round the world.” Kanye West also stands up pretty tall for himself. When he was snubbed for a video award in November 2006, the outspoken rapper barged onstage to argue that his “Touch the Sky” video should have won. He later apologized for his actions. He was in a funk over the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Nominated for five awards, West walked away empty handed, but not before giving the media a taste of his style.

“That’s two years in a row, man,” West said to reporters backstage. Give a black man a chance. I’m trying hard, man. I have the … No. 1 record, man.” He then vowed to boycott MTV. He has since apologized.

Misunderstood or Misogynist?

Perhaps not as resounding, but a sticky issue nonetheless, has been West’s relationship with women. West, newly engaged to longtime girlfriend Alexis, is well-known for his obvious love and respect for his mother, who has served as his manager and now heads his philanthropic missions. “Respect has always been a big thing in our house — not just being respected but learning how to respect,” Donda West wrote in her book. “And because Kanye has a high regard for me, it makes him a better man.”

But for someone who is famously said to be a “mama’s boy,” Kanye West also has the dual and dubious distinction of being labeled a “misog- ynist” in some circles. The pejorative term is linked to some of his lyrical content, but also to an article published in the December 2006 issue of Essence magazine. West reportedly referred to the biracial women who are so ubiquitous in hip-hop videos as “mutts,” raising the ire of some, who also deemed it to be a racist remark.

“If I could count the words Kanye has spoken that some people have found inappropriate, controversial, in poor taste, or just downright crazy, I would still be counting,” Donda West writes. “But I’d bet you a year’s salary that most of those words would be right on the money.”

Ironically, West has risked “street cred” by standing up for gays after a consciousness-raising encounter in a clothing store in Greenwich Village. “I think that standing up for gays was even more courageous than badmouthing the president,” Kanye reportedly said.

Giving Back

He also supports kids staying in school, despite having famously — and boastfully — dropped out of college when he was 20.

“Not long after Kanye signed his record deal with Roc-A-Fella, and before the release of “College Dropout,” he asked me one of the most important questions he’s ever asked: ‘Mom, when am I going to start giving back?’ It blew me away.” So intent was he on giving back that he was ready to pick a random less-fortunate person to give 10 percent of his earnings. Donda West helped him evolve the idea, suggesting instead that he start a nonprofit organization. But it was West himself who zeroed in on the mission of helping kids stay in school with music as their inspiration. “Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of young people across this land, and contrary to popular belief, they also have goals and dreams,” West says on his Web site, www.kanyewestfoundation.org.

“Consequently, I have concluded that prospering in the world of music is only a piece of what I really want to accomplish. So I was encouraged — in fact, driven — to found and develop Loop Dreams, the first initiative of the Kanye West Foundation. This rap-writing and music-production program is designed to involve students in learning through a hands-on curriculum we believe will motivate and compel them to stay in school and graduate.”

So West drops out of college and makes it a running theme throughout his three albums, but then establishes a nonprofit to encourage youth to remain in school. He also takes on U.S. presidents, runs afoul of women, embraces gays and disses other artists.

What does all of this make him?

Conscientious? Foolhardy? A bleeding heart? Just a little cocky?

“Has Kanye ever behaved arrogantly? Absolutely! Not only at a few awards shows, but at home as a kid,” Donda West writes. “He went through a phase at 12 years old where he seemed to care about no one but himself… I will not deny that even today, Kanye acts arrogantly on occasion. But to me, this occasional behavior is not characteristic.”

Perhaps he’s just a man unafraid of the world, one who takes a full-clip shot at his dreams. Perhaps he stated it best during his 2006 Grammy acceptance: “When I had my accident, I found out at that moment, nothing in life is promised except death. If you have the opportunity to play this game called life, you have to appreciate every moment. A lot of people don’t appreciate their moment until it’s passed.”

That certainly will not be the case for Kanye Omari West.

Jean A. Williams is a Chicago-based free-lance writer and author.