Kanye West: Unafraid

In recent years, the artist Kanye West has created a controversial atmosphere that overshadows his talent and sometimes causes listeners to turn the dial when his songs come on the radio. A musical genius, West has created countless hits and recorded numerous number one songs as well as been involved in other peoples success by the hundreds. His unrelenting drive and persistence brought him to the top, where he smiled at the world and called himself the best. This fearlessness of being himself is both what has brought him fame and what has brought controversy. Through the lens of Langston Hughes's "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," West is what Hughes may call a "great". Hughes said: "...no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself" (1192). This is a motto that one could see Kanye West lives by. He is unapologetic for his pride, his boastfulness, his faith in himself as an artist and producer. He has a style that creates followers and rhymes that can contend with other great artists such as Biggie Smalls and Tupac. Although West is unafraid of being himself, he must have faced walls and obstacles on the way to the top, as Hughes describes: "A very high mountain indeed for the would-be racial artist to climb in order to discover himself and his people" (1193). West's rise to fame was not quick and easy, as shown in his video, "Through the Wire" which was the first track to become a hit off of his College Dropout album. In this video we see an artist who nearly died in a car accident and had his mouth wired shut in recovery, but we also see a man determined to work hard and create something from the event. Kanye in this video embodies the racial artist that Hughes describes in his essay; one who faces a steep climb to stardom, criticism, and misunderstanding but still creates music and rhymes despite the turmoil.

Works Cited

Cain, Finke, Johnson, Leitch, McGowan, Sharpley-Witing, Williams, eds. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and The Racial Mountain." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 1192-96.

West, Kanye. "Through the Wire." The College Dropout. Roc-A-Fella Records, 2004. Music Video. via Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvb-1wjAtk4. 12 August 2010. Web.