I've never been a Kanye fan.  I've never had a problem with him either.  My buddy was into him in '05, so I got a taste.  I liked it, but could take it or leave it.  I don't have a problem with him.  I'm glad he has a career.  Good for him.

He's always been an amusing source of controversy, most memorably with his "George Bush doesn't care about black people" comment at the Grammys or the Oscars or whatever it was.  He said something edgy at an awards show with Taylor Swift recently.  I saw a clip, but don't follow those kinds of things and couldn't quote him, or even paraphrase what he said.  Amusing though.

The latest controversy is his recent conversion to Christianity, and whether or not it's valid.  It seems to be, but who really knows his heart?  If it's true, will he persist, or will the riches and cares of this world choke it out?  Time will tell.  I hope it is true.

The real controversy about Kanye West, in my opinion, is that he's a genius.  Like all things, the word is overused, applied liberally to anyone who can invoke an emotion with a clever rhyme.  Genius is not a virtue, so it's a good thing that it doesn't take a genius to become a Christian or a writer of rhyming couplets.  If there's anything the arts have been drained of, it's the need for more rhyming couplets.

Kanye West is not a genius.  Miles Davis was a genius.  Miles Davis experimented with form throughout his life, transforming his sound in a way that was unique to him, regardless of the lineup of his band.  Whether he was breaking out of formal song-structure in Birth of the Cool, transforming the landscape of sound with In a Silent Way, Sketches of Spain, Bitches Brew, On The Corner, etc, or experimenting with early hip-hop in tracks such as "The Doo-Bop Song," Miles Davis always sounded like Miles Davis.  He was never dated, even though his discography stretches across decades and experiments with many stylistic changes.  As his process toward his work matures, the less dated it sounds.  He came into his own, more and more as time went by; trends evolved around him, not the other way around.  He absorbed the time in which he lived, but never took dictation from it.

Kanye West, on the other hand, is a product of his time.  I don't mind saying it again:  I don't have a problem with him.  I'm glad he's there.  Good for him.  But listen to this clip, and tell me that the extreme over-use of the autotune feature (among the biggest artistic cop-outs of our time) isn't Kanye West conforming to a trend.  Tell me that he's transcending the form by experimenting with it.  I mean, without lying.  Tell me in truth that this guy is NOT taking a tried-and-true formula, a mainstream gospel sound, and fitting it in to a "modern production style" that has nothing to do with any kind of individual vision.  

I don't think it can honestly be done.

I don't even dislike the song.  The song itself seems decent enough, maybe even good.  But it doesn't sound like Kanye West.  What does?  Does Kanye himself sound like himself, or is he just a fortunate by-product of time and place, following the current where it takes him?  Does he have his own sound?  Is there a Kanye imprint on everything he does, like there was with Miles Davis, or does it seem like a slapdash attempt to throw paint at the wall to see what sticks?  Jackson Pollock threw paint at the floor to see what sticks, and it took him a long time to get to that point.  It was a personal artistic breakthrough that was the product of years of trial, error, success, and study.  He didn't just do it because "it's what we do now."  He came to that place on his own.

Does Kanye come to anything on his own?  Excepting his hopefully-genuine conversion to Christianity, which can only ever come to a person alone, I'm not sure anything ever has.  His digression into the world of fashion and style was not an intentional outpouring of brilliance, incapable of being contained.  It was something he did because it amused him at the time.  Does anybody think he's a brilliant clothing designer?  

From a New York Times article in 2018:

"Not so much because of the clothes, which look like pretty standard athleisure gear (crop tops and sweats and bike shorts and bomber jackets), but because it has the one element that has always been lacking in Mr. West’s myriad attempts to transform himself into a credible style guru: humor.

Ever since he introduced his first eponymous line in Paris in October 2011 (remember that?), his shows have been marked, largely, by bombast, pretentiousness and overwhelming self-seriousness."

Or from another NYT article in 2011:

“I gave you everything that I had,” he said, one of his few printable remarks.

If that is true, Mr. West faces bigger obstacles in life than credit-card debt. His show was described by those who attended as, at best, a disappointment, and yet the rapper could be found almost everywhere during Paris Fashion Week defending himself.

I don't put a lot of stock in mainstream media, but these articles don't read like something written by people who don't like his work because of who he is (which is a problem in the MSM)(you know you're in trouble when the New York Times is maligning your sense of humor).  They read like something written by people who simply don't like his work.  Taste is subjective, but his clothing really doesn't come off as genius.

Does it?

Contrast this with Miles Davis' sketches, which seem to me like a pleasant hobby engaged in for personal amusement's sake by a master of another form.  I can't find it, but there's an interview where he's sketching something while talking about music, and it's not an amazing drawing.  This clip isn't dissimilar:

He's sitting comfortably with his sketch pad and pens, but is talking about music.  He probably has an artist's understanding of the process of drawing, but it's clear to me that it's only a hobby for him.  He might take it seriously, to a degree, but he's not presuming to be Van Gogh, even though he's a genius.  Probably because he's a genius.

At the 3:05 mark he even says, "If I can't add anything to it, I won't play it."

'Nuff said.

*     *     *

I don't have a deep knowledge of hip-hop, but "Niggas Bleed" by Biggie Smalls is a masterful example of both writing and storytelling.  His rhythm (flow), internal rhyme, natural & unaffected use of slang, altering the pronunciation of words when it suits him (since words are his tools and toys), and humor (that ending!) are all brilliant.  Effortless.  Natural.  

In a word, genius.

While Biggie Smalls and Miles Davis may have been geniuses, in the end, it's the walk with God that counts.  Genius is a trait, like hair color.  Genius is not a virtue.  It doesn't take a genius to get into Heaven.  It only takes humility.  Humility is a choice, an action, anyone can do.  We shall see if Kanye West's conversion is genuine in time.  I'm inclined to believe he's always been a Christian, but only now is "coming out."  Whatever the case, God bless Kanye West.