Canadian music producer and keyboardist, best known for his
work with Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Pink has written an opinion on his blog
about Kanye West.
In his view, Kanye’s greatest achievements have been in the form of excessive behavior, egomaniacal tantrums and tasteless grandstanding.
Read the excerpts of his article:
Kanye in the NYT? WTF???
I feel like opening with “What kind of crazy, fucked up
world is it where this guy is considered to be culturally important!!???” But
that’s your line.
Sure, he made some great music for himself and others. But
in spite of what the aspirationally-cool media keeps saying about him, unlike
other creators in his genre like Jay-Z, Tupac, Biggie or even M.C. Hammer for
that matter, it’s unlikely that we’ll be quoting too many of Kanye’s songs 20
years from now. He didn’t open up new avenues of public discourse like NWA, or
introduce the world to a new art form like Grandmaster Flash, or even
meaningfully and memorably address social issues through his music like
Marshall, Macklemore and Kendrick. In my opinion, his productions are his best
work – and I admit I’m jealous of several of them – but I don’t think he’s on
quite the same level as Timbaland and Rick Rubin among several others. His
songwriting – meaning the stuff with melodies – is sophomoric at best. I was
embarrassed for Sir Paul – one of the greatest Artists of our era – by their
collaboration, though it was pointed out to me that this got him his highest
chart position in decades. So I guess he didn’t mind. But I kind of did!
Instead Kanye’s greatest achievements have been in the form
of excessive behavior, egomaniacal tantrums and tasteless grandstanding. What
he is a true artist at is living his life out loud – and shoving it down the
throats of the rest of us whether we give a shit or not. He’s like that flasher
who interrupts a critical game by running naked across the field. Is that
art??? Maybe it is. Maybe as Caramanica says, life as “an unending data stream”
is a new art form. But should it be, honestly? Hell, Forbes named this guy one
of the 100 most influential people IN THE WORLD in 2005 and 2015!! Seriously???
Influencing WHAT exactly?
In the review of the endless new album, Caramanica wonders
if “being slightly finished is the new finished.” And that just makes my blood
boil. The great musicians, writers, poets, rappers, performers, dancers,
players, conductors, directors and
producers work all their lives for that one moment of complete perfection –
that one brilliant performance, that one perfect song, that one enduring and
life-altering work. 10,000 hours is peanuts in comparison to the real amount of
time spent by true artists in their lifelong pursuit of excellence. But no one
else that I have seen is this happy to have the audience watching all along the
way. They are working to the culmination of something; to the exquisite feeling
of completion that comes from working and reworking until that moment when
their creation, or their performance, is as good as it could possibly be. This
guy is just feeding the media machine and I’m not even certain to what end.
Maybe he JUST needs the attention, like that flasher, and isn’t happy unless
he’s the center of it.
What galls me the most though is the thought that he and
others – especially the media – might actually BELIEVE that he’s an artist.
With a capital “A.” That what he’s doing is of any real consequence besides for
the sheer train wreck gawker value of it.
I don’t even know why I’m so angry about this. Except maybe
I lament for a world where being truly, world-shakingly excellent at anything –
at least in the field of popular music if not elsewhere – is no longer
absolutely necessary. You can be a star today just by creating a public life
that people pay attention to. That’s it. All you have to do is be interesting
or likable or shocking enough and you can have your 15 minutes of fame…even if
that means that no one will remember you or what you’ve done in just a few
years. Line ‘em up. How many “popular artists” have come and gone in just the
last decades. In my mind (which is a pretty busy as often too judgmental place,
I will admit) real artists make stuff that changes the world and LASTS.
I haven’t heard it yet. Is that what The Life of Pablo is?
If so, then I take it all back.
I just needed to rant to someone.
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