The influence of Kanye West’s music

By Caleb Schwarz

The second part of Kanye West’s latest album, ‘Vultures’ is set to release any day now and with it on the horizon, it couldn’t be a better time to enlighten yourself and listen to some of West’s iconic catalog and get a feel for his music.

Kanye West has been in the rap game for nearly 20 years at that point and from his first album, The College Dropout to his most recent Vultures I, he has had massive success and received much praise including 24 Grammy’s and multiple award winning albums. He has been a powerful and influential force in the music industry with projects such as 808’s and Heartbreaks going on to revolutionize rap as a whole with its use of the 808 drum system or the use of his soulful sampling from the college dropout days.

I was personally first introduced to Kanye West in a very low point of my life. I was struggling emotionally and socially for several months but somewhere in that time I listened to a handful of Kanye songs and almost immediately I knew there was something special about his music. It invoked very strong feelings and had the ability to motivate me like nothing else at that time. When I would go for runs during frigid winter nights I would be fueled by his music and when I needed to clear my head from the pointless drama of life I would lay on my bed, stare at the ceiling, and blast various hits from Kanye’s catalog.

One of Kanye’s strong suits is piecing together not just a great song, but a great album with 10+ amazing tracks each with their own little story but they all have a cohesion and a consistent sound theme. Before Kanye, I had never listened to an album front to back but for the first time, I set aside about an hour to marathon through West’s The Life of Pablo, his seventh studio album. I’ve been nearly addicted to his music since.

Most artist’s first album isn’t a masterpiece which makes sense as they are just dipping their toes into the game, however The College Dropout, West’s first solo-studio album was something else. It is widely acclaimed and praised from the year it released (2004) to the current day due to its soul-sampling, iconic features, and the subject matter of many songs. Kanye had distinction from other rappers because he wasn’t dealing drugs or shooting people in the streets, he was kind of just a guy who’d had bumps in his life but nothing crazy. This makes him and his songs much more relatable; they feel more down to earth.

My favorite example from The College Dropout has to be Spaceship, which has an addicting instrumental and lyrics speaking about a dead-end job, discrimination in the workplace, and wishing for a ‘spaceship’ to sweep you away and take you away to a better life. This is something many people can relate to but it’s done in a way that still sounds amazing. Kanye was one of the first rappers to really step into the idea of more introspective rapping. 

Another song, Roses, from Late Registration, Kanye’s second album, is a song about the passing of Kanye’s grandmother in the hospital. In Roses he raps about how if she was rich or famous she would probably live as big public figures always have the best medical staff available but because she lived a ‘simple’ or ‘normal’ life, this is where it ends. Most people have lost someone in their life making this a relatable subject but again, especially at this time, rapping about something like the passing of a loved one was unheard of despite the emotional gravitas. It wasn’t “cool” but Kanye didn’t care, he did it anyway. The relatability of Kanye’s music is a great draw as virtually anyone can find something they can hold on to from his music.

Another great aspect of Kanye West’s music is how revolutionary it has been. Kanye’s 4th album, 808’s and Heartbreaks is a drastic contrast from the three preceding albums he produced as it takes on much darker undertones. This was due to a combination of West’s mother passing and his fiance leaving him putting Kanye in a very depressing situation. From this however, he was able to pour his soul into an album which sounded like nothing else at the time primarily from Kanye’s use of the 808 drum system where the album gets half of its name from.

808’s also uses a lot more of an electronic, synthy sort of sound, a feature which is abundantly apparent in songs like Robocop which almost sounds industrial and Heartless which blends the electronic beats with Kanye’s auto tuned vocals for a hauntingly soulless performance, a feature alluded to in the line “Somewhere far along this road He lost his soul to a woman so heartless”.

This ‘industrial’ or electronic vibe can also be seen in Kanye’s 6th studio album, Yeezus, which like 808’s would go on to be massively influential in the rap and hip-hop community. The best I can do to convey the rawness of this album is to direct you to listen to I Am a God which sounds just as psychotic as the title is. I would rarely listen to a song like this but it’s almost more of an experience than a song. There’s a particular part where Kanye is just screaming his heart out in a robotic autotune and it still gives me legitimate chills. I could imagine a song like this playing in the background of a horror movie. This unfiltered nature of Yeezus would go on to break the ground for other artists to try similar sounds and beats in their music.

So, in conclusion, I would highly recommend listening to Kanye’s music primarily due to his earlier, more introspective rapping about common subjects that anyone could vibe out to on The College Dropout and just for the pure experience of his music alone. There is really nothing else that sounds quite like Yeezus and 808’s and Heartbreak revolutionized rap through its electronic instrumentals and 808 drums. Kanye has cemented himself as a part of music history so missing out on his art would be a mistake. Kanye West has over 10 solo albums so find an hour or so and binge one of your choice. I promise you’ll get a very strong reaction whether it be enjoyment, amazement, or just pure bewilderment.