| Kanye West has never looked, sounded, or acted like anyone else in hip-hop, period. On "Everything I Am," West name-drops his contemporaries for their decadent lifestyles: "I never rock a mink coat in the wintertime like Killa Cam / Or rock some mink boots in the summertime like will.i.am / Let me know if you feel it man / 'Cause everything I'm not made me everything I am." Reluctant as I am to venerate diss tracks, he's right. Here is a rapper who risked his career to proclaim that President Bush hated black people on national television, who released an entire album produced by Jon Brion (producer/collaborator for Aimee Mann), and who started out life after higher education as a mid-level Roc-A-Fella producer who wore a polo shirt just to impress some sleazy record executives. Yes, he is known to sport jewelry and flashy clothing now and again, but no amount of bling can hide the sincere, vulnerable college dropout who kept on keeping on anyway. |
