Slate has an interesting article about hip-hop rapper, Kayne West. The author of the article is calling him-hop's savior who will help lift the genre out of its bland doldrums. Missy Elliot summarizes what's wrong with hiphop, ""It's all too predictable. When people put stuff out, it's like 'Here … is … the … thug … song. Here … is … the … club … song.' You can tell by hearing it once. Music is supposed to be unexpected. You wanna feel it like 'Ooooh!'" and Jay-Z said, "Hip-hop's corny now." This guy Kayne sounds interesting. He's responsible for a lot of the good stuff you can find on Jay-Z's new album, apparently. They compare him a little bit with Richard Pryor's old standup material. And also interestingly, he's a Christian. His new album is called College Dropout.
Posted by scott at February 24, 2004 11:57 AM | TrackBack"And also interestingly, he's a Christian."
I'm guessing here, but that's probably like saying that all those people who thank God at the Academy Awards or after winning the Super Bowl are Christians. Then again, I'm cynical.
Of course, a line in one of his cameos is "I'ma play this Vandross, you gonna take yo pants off." I'm assuming he's not a doctor, a married man, or a fashion underwear designer.
Posted by: Russ at February 24, 2004 01:48 PMWait, that's Kayne? Isn't that the song where he goes through all the different R&B singers he's going to play - Anita, Luther, etc.? Man, that song is raunchy. That's the same guy?
Posted by: scott cunningham at February 24, 2004 05:19 PMWait, Russ, isn't that the Jay-Z song, not the Kayne song? Is it the one where he's talking about wanting to take the girl back to his hotel room? I think that's Jay-Z. I actually haven't heard Kayne before - at least I don't think so.
Posted by: scott cunningham at February 25, 2004 12:12 AMKanye raps the first verse of the song you are talking about (the one mentioning all the different R&B singers). It's by "Twista" and is called "Slow Jamz."
Here's a link to the lyrics:
http://www.anysonglyrics.com/lyrics/t/twista/slow-jamz.htm
He's a great rapper and I only pointed out what I did because I didn't want people to think he was a "Christian Rapper." He can be a rapper who happens to be a Christian (whether he lives it or not), but he's no "Christian Rapper."
Posted by: Russ at February 25, 2004 11:15 AMHis biggest song to date that you may have heard is "Through the Wire." He broke his jaw last year and it had to be wired shut. So he rapped "through the wire" to make "Through the Wire." He rapped with a broken, wired shut jaw.
The video is on MTV.com.
Posted by: Russ at February 25, 2004 11:24 AMI listened to some o fhis music after reading this post, and I was really impressed. His "workout plan" song (I think it's called "work it out") was hysterical. I agree that if he is indeed a Christian, it is not much reflected in his work, in that the content is defnitely not as annoyingly self-congratulatory as most rap is, but he does not distance himself too much from the sex and materials obsessed rap culture, except to sometimes parody it as in the aforementioned song. "Dreams of fuckin lil' kim" did not strike me as a deep meditation on truth and beauty though.
Posted by: Matthew at February 26, 2004 12:20 PM