In Defence of Kanye West

I suspect some of you could do without the Kanye West posting and think I'm a complete douche... so this is to/for all of you... it isn't a screw you, but I just felt I should explain/defend myself... particularly since Kanye is likely, barring some act of God, going to land at #1 again this year. Although, I've been going over my list, and I think at the very least, its pretty well rounded. So, maybe the point is that even if you think liking Kanye makes me douchey, I do like some non-douchey stuff, (or maybe you're the douche, or douchette -- way to alienate your readers Rob!).

My buddy Mr. Grosman and I have this on-going discussion about Kanye - he hates him and I, obviously, don't - and Grosman talks about his arrogance (and so does this Slate piece) and they find it annoying. People complain about Kanye using auto-tune saying that he can't sing, that's he's ripping off T-Pain, and that he's demonizing his ex in the new album. [Eds. note: it worked well for Eminen... for a while] MrG also adds that Kanye was a complete cock-bag during his performance at Bonaroo last year... people weren't impressed. To all those points I say, fair enough. I can't say that I really disagree with any of them.

But I see Kanye in the same way that I see somebody like Stephen Colbert... as kind of a caricature of our culture. I mean, Kanye may actually be a dick in real life, I don't know, but that doesn't really matter to me. What does matter to me is that Kanye produces catchy tunes, hot beats, and... that's it really. So, when Kanye talks about his cars/cribs and then in the next song talks about how lonley he is, to me, that's part of the character. And, when you complain about Kanye being a dick that's like complaining about Colbert being biased, or Spencer Pratt being a dick... ... its just not worth worrying about...

Rosie also sent me another Slate piece on the 808 (the drum machine) in 808s & Heartbreaks...