College prof told me Kanye West is a top-10 musician, all time.

dont get it wrote:

Why do you think he's not a great rapper? His best is as good as anyone else that's around today (Eminem, jay z, Lil Wayne, etc). None of those guys are nearly as funny in their words also.

I love Kanye, but he is not as good a rapper as the other guys you mentioned. Some of his raps are corny or obvious. I'd call him an average rapper. I love his production though, it's amazing and it's enough to elevate the songs despite the average lyrical flow.

I did hate those horrible songs where he sings with autotune, but he has enough other great songs that I forgive him. Sometimes you take a chance, that's cool.

I'm told he's a genius, personally.

College prof told me Kanye West is a top-10 musician, all time. 12/19/2012 9:59PM

Don't listen to those whacko far-leftist academic indoctrinators.

Kanye is a great musician like McDonald’s is a great restaurant. He’s very popular and sells a lot of music.

When people first heard Gold Digger, they were telling me how genius the song was. I listened to it objectively, but just couldn’t see how it differed from a run of the mill pop/rap song.

If Kanye is top 10, then by the same criteria, Baby Face and Dr. Dre are in top ten also

your opinion on kanye holds no weight if only exposure you've had is Gold Digger

for people saying that a top 10 musician must be a virtuoso, I think you are using a antiquated standard of judging musicians. a top musician of our time should not be held to the same standard that we hold classical composers/jazz musicians to. i understand if you do not enjoy contemporary music as much as music of the past, but to say that today's musicians must conform to that model is unfair and myopic. The same may have been said for pioneering jazz musicians/rock musicians in their time.

also, Graduation is a masterpiece of the burgeoning internet age

The Donald. wrote:

I'm told he's a genius, personally.

Seems to be an expert in aviation technology too.

I have nothing to say on this topic.

jerome's in the house wrote:

your opinion on kanye holds no weight if only exposure you've had is Gold Digger

for people saying that a top 10 musician must be a virtuoso, I think you are using a antiquated standard of judging musicians. a top musician of our time should not be held to the same standard that we hold classical composers/jazz musicians to. i understand if you do not enjoy contemporary music as much as music of the past, but to say that today's musicians must conform to that model is unfair and myopic. The same may have been said for pioneering jazz musicians/rock musicians in their time.

also, Graduation is a masterpiece of the burgeoning internet age

No gold digger is not my only exposure to Kanye West.

Yes, I do enjoy contemporary music

He certainly isn’t groundbreaking by any means, he certainly hasn’t displayed musical creativity/genius

Kanye is brilliant; he is by far the most influential artist of the 21st century. His creativity won't be understood for many years to come. Peoples reactions to Miles Davis being proclaimed as an all time great were similar to this when he was still releasing music. To me the impact he makes on others is just as important as musical ability. It won't be until we see the impacts and innovations that he fostered in other artists that we will be able to properly rank and appreciate his work.

With that being said, I'm personally not the biggest fan of some of his poppier hits. I recommend taking a deeper dive into the artist before making judgements about all of his work. I can look past some of his egotism and more outlandish remarks with the belief that it's a facade to draw attention to his work just as I can look past some of his poppier songs. I don't fault people that can't do that though.

If you can listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and not recognise it to be the work of a genius then you, my friends, have cloth ears.

The fact that so many books still name the Beatles as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success. The Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worthy of being saved.

Seriously, I would recommend asking this question on /mu/

Earl Anthony is one of the top 10 greatest athletes of all time.

I can't really comment on Kanye as I've only ever heard one of his songs, but I have spent a lot of time in academia, and I can say that a lot of professors are full of crap.

“No one should be taking Kanye West seriously,” Setmayer decreed. Why not? Because, she said, “he clearly has issues. He’s already been hospitalized.” Let’s repeat that: No one should be taking Kanye West seriously. He clearly has issues. He’s already been hospitalized.

Kanye is rearranged to spell Kenya which we all know is the best at distance running so Kanye is the best at his craft which is music and if you didn't know that already you should be hospitalized yourself because that's really more ignorant than the other musicians you believe should be in the top 10!

Listen to any Kanye West song, and then go play "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys and tell me who the genius is....

Kanye West wouldn't make a zit on the butt of.....

Louis Armstrong

Robert Johnson

Bessie Smith

The Carter Family

Jimmie Rodgers

Duke Ellington

Can Calloway

Count Basie

Frank Sinatra

The Mills Bros

The Ink Spots

Muddy Waters

Hank Williams

The Platters

The Drifters

Roy Acuff

Patsy Cline

BB King

Miles Davis

John Coltrane

Marty Robbins

Nat King Cole

Sam Cooke

The Beatles

The Beach Boys

The Rolling Stones

Bob Dylan

Jimi Hendrix

Led Zeppelin

Tom Waits

Where on earth does this theory teacher teach?! Was this middle school?

me987 wrote:

Listen to any Kanye West song, and then go play "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys and tell me who the genius is....

This is funny because I absolutely love both The Beach Boys and Kanye West. And probably my favourite Beach Boys album is Beach Boys Love You which showcases the genius of Brian Wilson because moving into the synthesizer era he was able to produce the same sonic complexities, previously done with a lot of hard harmonising work and time in the recording studio, on the keyboard. He showed the same genius in layering music 10 years after Pet Sounds.

Anyway, it's ridiculous to make that statement as anyone who's really spent some time listening to Kanye's output would recognize him to be a similar master craftsman. And in fact it's probably easier to recognise the creative genius of Kanye West once you establish what that really is. It's not a rapper / pop singer / solo artist, it's as a music producer. He no doubt sits at a laptop and weaves together input from different sources to produce the same style multi-layered works of genius that Brian Wilson could do, that can just make you laugh out loud sometimes at how beautiful / clever they are.