Kanye: Five reasons why you should quit hatin' and start lovin'

Usually people get a little surprised when I tell them I enjoy rap. I mean, I'm not exactly the stereotype you would consider having Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Ice T, L.O.C., Dr. Dre etc. on the ipod. I am a white, 32 year old female Scandinavian brunette, and English is not my native language, making it sometimes a bit difficult to follow along the lyrics. But what I mostly fall for when hearing rap, is firstly a good beat, and then I pick up phrases hear and there. But Kanye West revolutionized rap for me, because he samples great soul songs (and I love a good soul theme), I can actually hear what he is rapping, and he doesn't rap about the stereotype sex, drugs and "hoes", licking somebody's lollipop, getting caught in Compton and being thrown in jail, escaping police and what-have-we-not, but his lyrics contain an ironic twist, and are relatable.

Duly noted, Kanye West has put himself into sticky situations, commenting and saying outrageous things, controversies in the media, revealing a not so appealing personality, most notibly, appearing on stage at the European MTV awards show in 2006, when Justice won best video, and stressed that he thought that it was unfair that he didnt win. And later in 2009, at the MTV video music awards show he stole the mic from Taylor Swift winning for Best Female Video, and said that he think Beyonce should had won. This really threw people over the edge.

History is filled with tactless musicians, my two favorite ones are: In the mid eighties, an elder Serge Gainsbourg told a young fresh Whitney Houston that she was beautiful and that he would very much like to f+++ her. And off media, in 2004, Dave Matthews Band's tour bus dumped 800 pounds of human waste off a bridge, off Chicago River... onto heads of people aboard an architectual tour boat.

Either way, Kanye West's personality has closed off many people's curiousity to explore his musical talent. And that is a shame. If you are not aquanted with his music, his wonderful soul samples intwined, I will be delighted to show you my five favorites, and at the same time five reasons why you should start loving his music -  if you know his music.. I hope you will enjoy this visit.


Reason 1. Through the Wire
In 2004 Kanye West released his debut album at the same time embarked upon his college album trilogy. The debut album was different from the dominent topics of the genre at the time, and dealt with self-consciousness, family and personal struggles such as recovering from a near fatal car crash that left his jaw shattered. The jaw had to be wired shut and two weeks after being admitted to the hospital, he recorded the song Through the Wire, with his jaw still wired shut.
Through the Wire can be found on the album The College Dropout.

The College Dropout also features the very wonderful sleek slow jams and soul singers tribute "Slow Jamz", the completely ironic "The New Workout Plan" that ironically tells a tale about how many girls have followed Kanye's Workout Plan, and how this have changed their lives, the very nice soul sample beats of "All Falls Down", "Get Em High", "Family Business" and "Never Let me Down" and the  critical praised "Jesus Walks".

Reason 2. Gold Digger.
On Gold Digger, Jamie Foxx features, and many mistakenly think that Kanye West wrote the song and got a hold of Foxx after being featured as Ray Charles in the award winning movie "Ray". However the song was actually recorded, long before "Ray" was developed. I love the song Gold Digger. It has a great beat, and this is actually a rap song, where I think lyrics are brilliant and excellent executed. Gold Digger is about a man who marries a woman that manipulates him for financial gain.
Gold Digger can be found on the album Late Registration.

Late Registration also features the wonderful James Bond sampling on "Diamonds From Sierra Leone", more soul samplings on "Gone",  "Addiction" and "Touch the Sky", and hilarious skits about Kanye West joining a fraternity, where the main regulation is that you HAVE to be broke.

Reason 3. Flashing Lights
Kanye West's third album Graduation is filled with great songs. Such as the Daft Punk sample "Stronger", the slow intro "Good Morning", more soul samplings with "Everything I am" and "I Wonder" and the great "Good Life".
However I LOVE Flashing Lights. The down-tempo of it and the beat. That's all.
Flashing Lights can be found on the album Graduation.

Reason 4. Welcome to Heartbreak.
On the fourth album 808s & Heartbreak Kanye West took a drastic turn and made a bold gesture. Rather than rapping, Kanye West sings on the album containing themes like loneliness, heartbreak and love, inspired by his private life where his mother died and breaking off an engagement. The album is heavy on auto tune, and even though I am not into that, I still think the albums lyrical content is beautiful. "Welcome to Heartbreak" soon became one of my favorite Kanye West songs of all time, simply because the lyrics continously gets me in tears, stressed further with the deep sorrowful contrabass. I'd never think that a rap artist would get me there, but I'm there everytime on this song.
Welcome to Heartbreak is featured on 808s & Heartbreak.

808s & Heartbreak also features the popular "Heartless", "Love Lockdown" and "Paranoid". If you are like me and are having a hard time with autotune, start with Welcome to Heartbreak, and then dwell in the lyrics of this album.

Reason 5: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Since I havent explored his recently released fifth studio album throughly yet, I will not call out one single. But name several songs. The album retells Roald Dahls rework of Cinderella on the grand "Dark Fantasy", has several great soul samplings, such as on "Gorgeous" and "Devil in a new dress", and has nice hooks on "Runaway", "Power" and the coming up smash hit "All of the lights."