Dallas Penn: KanYe West Stays Ice Cold…
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 am
Views: 2580
If you haven’t watched the video for KanYe West’s ‘Coldest Winter’ off the 808s & Heartbreak album go here…
Okay, you’re back? Good.
First off, let me say that I love the video. It has a creepy kind of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ vibe where you imagine that the woman was escaping from some ritualistic torture or some freaky orgy with old rich men. It seems like a bad dream. I refrained from calling it a nightmare since there is a song on 808s called ‘C U In My Nightmares’ (at least that’s what it was called on my, er, press copy). I still want to see a gory, bloody video to come from the 808s project.
The second thing I have to give ‘Ye Tudda credit for is producing music videos for an album that is over a year old and gets no more radio play. These videos are being paid for directly out of KanYe’s pocket. No way Def Jam is funding these joints right now, especially since they just allocated seven figures to put Shyne back in the spotlight. Why is KanYe West paying for these videos? Because he is an artist.
Back when the 808s & Heartbreak album dropped I told the esteemed and ageless blogging wonder Combat Jack that album would be a classic. Combat Jack began to worry about my mental health and wondered if I had joined a cult. Apparently we were both right. The 808s & Heartbreak album is a cult classic. The people that fux with the album like myself are passionate about it. While the people that h8 on the album because they don’t understand it stay sniping.
One of the worst arguments against 808s was that it “wasn’t Hip-Hop”. That’s a load of crap if I have ever heard it. Hip-Hop is broad and diverse. Everything from Gnarls Barkley and Andre 3000 to Jay-Z and Lil’ Wayne falls under the flag of Hip-Hop. I think 808s & Heartbreak dealt with loss and pain too terrible for most people to bear without having their own breakdown and still people wonder why KanYe hasn’t hit a wall since the tragic passing of his mother. Again, KanYe West is an artist. And artists make art.
Third and most important is to select a muse that challenges you to create your best art. Amber Rose does that for KanYe. Without her he is simply an evil genius, but with her by his side he becomes a coldly calculating sinister musical madman. Wearing leather shirts and sipping on Hennessy str8 from the bottle and interrupting white princesses awards acceptance speeches. The right muse can make you a manimal. That is what Amber Rose has done for Mr. West.
I’m going to keep enjoying the output [ll] from this man on fire who is the coldest man in the entertainment game today. When his latest album drops and he is rhyming better than the best rappers don’t act all surprised either. Right now no one is colder than KanYe.
