Hip hop is heading West, discovers Hattie Collins
Despite the fact that he’s cited as The Worlds Fastest Rapper in the Guinness Book Of Records, it’s taken Chicago rhymer Twista 10 years of rapid raps to finally become the proud owner of this week’s coveted No 1 Billboard single, Slow Jamz.
However, it’s not Twista’s brain-boggling 264-words-in-62-seconds raps that are on peoples lips, rather it’s the songs scene-stealing co-star/producer making headlines; hip hop hit-maker Kanye West. He nicks the limelight with both witty wordplay and artful production - cunningly disguising the sex-soaked homage to humping as a soul-soaked ballad.
Right now Kanye (pronounced Can-Yay) West, 26, is arguably at the top of his game. Beginning his professional life in 1999 as producer for former Puff Daddy protégé Ma$e (who he cites, alongside Malcolm X, as the greatest ever public speaker), this year alone he’s produced hits for Alicia Keys, Ludacris and Jay-Z and recently received acclaim for as his own single Through The Wire, a nod to the wired-up mouth received after a near-fatal car crash in 2002
Initially known for simply speeding up dusty soul samples for everyone from Britney to Da Brat, Jay-Z to Janet Jackson, on his own debut, College Dropout, West experiments epically with gospel choirs, barbershop quartets, taut horn sections, sweeping strings and deft drum patterns.
Lyrically, his Roc-A-Fella Records boss Damon Dash– the embodiment of bling - claims he’s genius, while Mos Def –the pinnacle of politicised poetry - heralds him as hip hops future. Sidestepping lyrical lore that one must only work solely within the realm of either rapping braggadocio (gold and girls) or ‘backpack’ (socially conscious) West does both brilliantly. Lines like ‘I went to Jakob (the Jeweller) with 25 thou’ are preceded by ‘couldn’t afford a car so she named her daughter Alexis (a Lexus)’; thereby successfully straddling hip hops dichotomous façade with humour and poignancy.
It’s his ability to highlight both the celebration of and struggle with hip hop’s materialistic obsessions that results with West wholeheartedly representing the common person. He sold khakis at The Gap, not crack, he points out, studied English not the street hustle. And, yes, he likes to have sex and spend $25,000 on jewellery, but it bothers him that “For that paper look how low we’ll stoop/ Even when you in a Benz you still a nigga in a coupe.”
Furthermore his album, refreshingly, is well worthy of the attention it’s garnering, even if most the hype comes from his own mouth. Nonchalantly peppering interviews with ego-driven asides like, “I am to rappers/producers what Eminem is to white rappers. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t me just so I could enjoy myself more,” this is a man who knows not the meaning of modesty. But then the smug so and so has the right to boast because, as he himself not so subtly puts it, Kanye West just could be “what music will be for the next four years at least.”
As for the somewhat overshadowed Twista, perhaps he can take comfort in the fact that his album, Kamikaze, featuring production from West, also reached No 1 this week. Proof that having friends in the right places, i.e. behind the mixing desk as well as in front, can create a storm for both you and them.
Kanye West’s album College Dropout is out now
A version of this appeared in the Guardian Guide
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