Symbolism
The ubiquitous Kanye West
Kanye West was born on June 8th, 1977, raised in a middle class family in Chicago, Illinois. He apparently started rapping in third grade [13]. West began to pursue music seriously in the late 90s after dropping out of college. He started out as a producer but was signed to Roc-A-Fella records, founded by Jay-Z, in 2002 and released his debut album, College Dropout in 2004.
Kanye has released 7 studio albums, all achieving great success and are critically acclaimed. He has colaborated with artists such as Rihanna, Jay Z, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Beyonce, and most recently Sir Paul McCartney. He has received 124 awards so far in his career, including 21 grammy awards.
Kanye is well known for being very egotistic, outspoken, a perfectionist, and controversial but he is also known for standing up for what he believes in and staying true to who he is, creating music on his own terms and keeping his own style. Kanye has created many thought provoking songs and continues to be unpredictable and forward in his thinking and endeavors.
Background
Always controversial, here is Kanye West with Mike Myers during a live TV fundraiser for hurricane Katrina victims. Kanye goes completely off script and states the memorable "George Bush doesn't care about black people".
MUSIC & Religion
Music has a powerful force on people. It can make you feel different emotions and empower you. Kanye West has altered the rap/hip hop genre and has adopted an alternative form of expressing his music. Regardless of his antics and his personal life, his music remains very influential and many call him a 'genuis' in the rap industry [16].
Kanye is clearly very egocentric and thinks highly of himself and his work; he named his last album Yeezus and includes a song titled ‘I am God ft. God’. While he has this massive ego, and gets highly offended when things are not done according to how he wants them to go (flashback to the 2009 VMAs of Taylor Swift winning an award when Kanye stepped in like “Imma let you finish, but Beyonce had the greatest music video of all time!” and most recently Beck at the 2015 VMAs), he told the New York Times magazine in 2013 “the religious references on Yeezus are actually not so much about him becoming more self important as they are about gods getting less so. Yeezus is the culmination of a transformation from a fairly traditional Christian outlook to a more secular vision” [20].
While some of his music such as Jesus Walks portrays his broken relationship with religion and wanting to reconnect with God but is afraid because of how long it has been since he last prayed, other songs he has written are more about retreating from organized Christianity, such as the song No Church in the Wild.
