I’ve been trying to write this simple blog post since last night. I guess I don’t really know what to write, exactly. I don’t want to just post something like, “Kanye West writes about creativity” or “this is dope, read it”, I guess neither of those are, well, very creative. But, creativity takes time, and time is not something that gets enough value in this online-print/blog/music site world that we operate in. It’s all about who is first to leak a song, post a video, etc… But, real creativity takes development. Yes, it happens in a spark, and an idea can seem to pop up instantly without notice, but the proper implementation takes time and effort. It’s something Kanye touches on in his blog post with the same title as he thinks back to the time period in which he made College Dropout, the last time he really was the underdog. This is the first blog piece I’ve seen Kanye write, or the first time I’ve seen him say publicly, “I never think I’m not the underdog”. It’s something I’ve thought about Kanye for years. I also think it is something embedded in Chicagoans (we are the second city) and even moreso for Chicagoans from the Southside, Sox fans, and minorities from Chicago. A friend of mine from Ohio once said to me that he equates Sox fans and Chicagoans to a short kid who walks around saying, ‘stop calling me short’ when nobody is really mentioning height.
Throughout all of his LPs, Kanye has played the underdog role, and I also think that some of his actions are done consciously or sub-consciously to place himself in positions where he really is the underdog so that he can continue his art, as he says in is post. Kanye also writes that he is tormented to create, and it is what has kept him alive. To be alive is to think, is to create, is to fight for creativity. I’m not sure how Kanye is faring in his fight, but his blog post details his torment, as well as that of Alexander McQueen, who recently committed suicide a few weeks ago.
I had a talk with someone last night about how we are living in a world of our own design. Everything that we see, that we want, that we act to make happen becomes the world we live in. We wanted faster gratification, we got it with the Internet, with leaks of music that is not fully finished, with fast food that makes us fat and unhappy, with instant messengers with Blackberrys… Kanye wanted the world to love his music, and we do. He wanted WGCI to play his music, and they have. His artistic greatness is almost unparalleled, yet at times, we have made it so hard for him to create and at times, he has made it hard for us to truly appreciate.
Kanye’s blog about Creativity is amazing. It is scary, it is honest, it is the business and it’s a great setup for what I’m hearing is going to be a fantastic album. I hope it is not his last work, as pieces of this kind of hint. It also reminds of an interview I saw with him before Late Registration came out. The interviewer asked him something about his critics and Kanye answered, ‘well, what if I just don’t make records anymore. How about that?’
I think we have some kind of answer with this piece.
Read Kanye’s post here.