Music producer and keyboardist, Bob Ezrin has written a damning critique of rapper, Kanye West. Here’s the full text of Ezrin’s blogpost.
I feel like opening with โWhat kind of crazy, fucked up world is it where this guy is considered to be culturally important!!???โ But thatโs your line.
Sure, he made some great music for himself and others. But in spite of what the aspirationally-cool media keeps saying about him, unlike other creators in his genre like Jay-Z, Tupac, Biggie or even M.C. Hammer for that matter, itโs unlikely that weโll be quoting too many of Kanyeโs songs 20 years from now. He didnโt open up new avenues of public discourse like NWA, or introduce the world to a new art form like Grandmaster Flash, or even meaningfully and memorably address social issues through his music like Marshall, Macklemore and Kendrick. In my opinion, his productions are his best work โ and I admit Iโm jealous of several of them โ but I donโt think heโs on quite the same level as Timbaland and Rick Rubin among several others. His songwriting โ meaning the stuff with melodies โ is sophomoric at best. I was embarrassed for Sir Paul โ one of the greatest Artists of our era โ by their collaboration, though it was pointed out to me that this got him his highest chart position in decades. So I guess he didnโt mind. But I kind of did!
Instead Kanyeโs greatest achievements have been in the form of excessive behavior, egomaniacal tantrums and tasteless grandstanding. What he is a true artist at is living his life out loud โ and shoving it down the throats of the rest of us whether we give a shit or not. Heโs like that flasher who interrupts a critical game by running naked across the field. Is that art??? Maybe it is. Maybe as Caramanica says, life as โan unending data streamโ is a new art form. But should it be, honestly? Hell, Forbes named this guy one of the 100 most influential people IN THE WORLD in 2005 and 2015!! Seriously??? Influencing WHAT exactly?
In the review of the endless new album, Caramanica wonders if โbeing slightly finished is the new finished.โ And that just makes my blood boil. The great musicians, writers, poets, rappers, performers, dancers, players, conductors, directors and producers work all their lives for that one moment of complete perfection โ that one brilliant performance, that one perfect song, that one enduring and life-altering work. 10,000 hours is peanuts in comparison to the real amount of time spent by true artists in their lifelong pursuit of excellence. But no one else that I have seen is this happy to have the audience watching all along the way. They are working to the culmination of something; to the exquisite feeling of completion that comes from working and reworking until that moment when their creation, or their performance, is as good as it could possibly be. This guy is just feeding the media machine and Iโm not even certain to what end. Maybe he JUST needs the attention, like that flasher, and isnโt happy unless heโs the center of it.
What galls me the most though is the thought that he and others โ especially the media โ might actually BELIEVE that heโs an artist. With a capital โA.โ That what heโs doing is of any real consequence besides for the sheer train wreck gawker value of it.
I donโt even know why Iโm so angry about this. Except maybe I lament for a world where being truly, world-shakingly excellent at anything โ at least in the field of popular music if not elsewhere โ is no longer absolutely necessary. You can be a star today just by creating a public life that people pay attention to. Thatโs it. All you have to do is be interesting or likable or shocking enough and you can have your 15 minutes of fameโฆeven if that means that no one will remember you or what youโve done in just a few years. Line โem up. How many โpopular artistsโ have come and gone in just the last decades. In my mind (which is a pretty busy as often too judgmental place, I will admit) real artists make stuff that changes the world and LASTS.
I havenโt heard it yet. Is that what The Life of Pablo is? If so, then I take it all back.
I just needed to rant to someone.
Kanye West’s predictable response on Twitter wasn’t very kind.
Has anybody ever heard of Bob Ezrin???
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
What the fuck does he know about rapโฆ
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
Iโm tired of old people that have no connection with anything trying to comment on music!
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
Do something relevantโฆ Please donโt speak on me bro ever again!!!
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
Your kids are ashamed of their dadโฆ Sorry for speaking about kidsโฆ but could you imagine if you were Bob Ezrinโs kidsโฆ
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
Bro you said Macklemore was more important musically than meโฆ no offense to Macklemore, heโs a nice human being!
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
Bob please never speak in public againโฆ you are everything that is wrong with the old guard โฆ
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
Ezrin I truly feel sorry for your friends and family that they have had to suffer an idiot like you for so many yearsโฆ
โ KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 24, 2016
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