Kanye West - Cool or Catastrophic?

Kanye West is a bit like marmite really. You either love him or hate him. I have always been a fan of Kanye's music, and do generally find his Twitter outbursts quite amusing, but I can easily understand how he can rub people up the wrong way. He is a man who can't help but make headline news wherever he goes, and along with his wife Kim, is arguably one of the most influential people in the world - well, he would think so anyway. If you measured Kanye West's ego, it would be the size of the stratosphere, or perhaps even bigger.

There must have been a time when Kanye was a humble young man. Well, not really! In an interview with the New York Times, he had this to say about his pre-fame days. "I knew when I wrote the line 'light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson' I was going to be a big star. At the time, they used to have the Virgin music [stores], and I would go there and just go up the escalator and say to myself, 'I'm soaking in these last moments of anonymity." Okay Kanye. This is the man who now feels he is better than Picasso, Escobar and on par with Steve Jobs.

So let's take it back to the beginning. Kanye Omari West was born in Atlanta on June 8th 1977, raised in Chicago and began writing poetry at the age of 5 years old. He would go on to win a scholarship at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, but soon dropped out to focus on his music career as a producer ('The College Dropout' was the name of Kanye's first album in 2004.) And that's where Kanye's story begins really, producing songs for the likes of Alicia Keys and Jay-Z before making music himself. Since then, Mr West has won a whopping 21 Grammys, had 5 no 1 albums and sold over $30 million digital singles in American alone. That gives him some bragging rights, I guess.

What gets me about Kanye is that he has an opinion on everything. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, if anything its good to be outspoken and voice your opinions, but when Kanye West does this it becomes a bit annoying. Take his lengthy tirades on Twitter, where he literally does go on a mad one and criticise practically everyone, from the Grammys supposed racism to his ex Amber Rose. Or that time he asked Mark Zuckerberg to "invest 1 billion dollars into Kanye West ideas ...after realizing he is the greatest living artist and greatest artist of all time."  Only someone with a huge ego, and no shame, would ever ask something so stupid and egocentric on social media. His little outbursts got so bad that Kim Kardashian and her mother Kris Jenner began to think it was damaging their families image - not that it hadn't already been damaged enough. And his constantly comparing himself to God and Jesus is just ridiculous. How can someone be so up themselves? "The Bible had 20, 30, 40, 50 characters in it. You don’t think that I would be one of the characters of today’s modern Bible?" I really have no comment.

Most famously, Kanye received world wide attention when he jumped up on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards, interrupted Taylor Swift halfway through her acceptance speech and told everyone that 'Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time.' Ouch. Since then, there has been an ongoing spat between the two, until recently when footage emerged of Swift agreeing to West's controversial lyrics about her in his song 'Famous' which at the time of release, she very publicly criticized. I am no fan of Taylor Swift and believe that she did deserve her comeuppance for making Kanye look like a horrible, evil human being. So that makes Kanye pretty cool. He has also fallen out with a long list of celebrities, including Wiz Khalifa, George Bush and Amber Rose.

Lets bring in Kim Kardashian, another self absorbed individual. The pair are perfectly suited for each other, with Kanye being a massive influence on the Kardashian family. Remember how Kim used to dress before she met Kanye? And that whole image transformation she undertook on Kanye's orders? Wherever the couple go, the paparazzi follow such as their extravagant wedding in 2014, which had guests jetting from Paris to Italy.

What I do admire about Kanye is his love for his family, especially his mum Donda who passed away a few years ago. It was Kanye who put his foot down about daughter North appearing in his wife's reality show 'Keeping up with the Kardashians.' It didn't last for long mind, with North making more appearances as the years went by, but it shows Kanye's desire to keep his daughter out of the public eye. (He once attacked a photographer, so beware paparazzi!) Whenever Kanye does appear on Kuwtk himself, he comes across as very sweet, humble and almost shy, believe it or not! There are two sides to every story.

And then there's Kanye West the fashion designer. In this area, I must admit Kanye is pretty cool, and it seems that the fashion industry are in agreement too. When he proclaimed that he would be showing a collection at Paris Fashion Week, it was met with snide remarks and a lot of scoffing from the fashion elite. Even if his first few shows didn't receive very good reviews, he persevered and has one of the most recognized brands in the world now in association with Adidas, Yeezy. The Yeezy collection has been copied everywhere and sought after by everyone, especially the Yeezy Boost trainers, which are so far Kanye's best sellers. And lets no forget the massive show at Madison Square Gardens during New York Fashion Week last year. The actual clothes looked like they belonged to a homeless man sitting on a street corner, but the overall show was pretty epic, specially streamed in cinemas around the world. And he managed to call in Naomi Campbell to walk for him.

Overall, I am a big fan of Kanye. Putting his ego to one side, there is something quite likeable about him and his music is amazing, especially 'Life of Pablo.' He controls his image exceptionally and is a great walking advertisement for the Kanye West brand. He will continue to be annoying, outspoken and self absorbed, but then that's Kanye, King of Cool and a figure who will go down as one of the 21st century's biggest stars. What better way to finish than with some wise words from Yeezy himself, "I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice." 

Kanye taking a bow at his fashion show