Kanye West: Influence in Rap Culture and Impact

Introduction

From Best Male Artist at the 2004 and 2005 World Music Awards to Selling 2.3 Million copies of his album. ”The College Dropout’ in the first week with that album getting 10 Grammy nominations including album of the year and best rap album”(quora.com). Kanye West was not always as successful Kanye grew up from humble beginnings in a middle class family. Which is Similar to my life that’s why many relate to him as a child. Kanye West as an influence inspired many people by changing hip hop he helped develop a genre of music in a way that only few others have Such as Biggie, Eminem and Tupac. Kanye has influenced millions with his music and his cultural impact on clothing as well has changed many people and styles.

Early Life and Musical Impact of Kanye West

Kanye West was Born on June 8th 1977 in Atlanta Georgia. He started writing poetry at age 5 and making his own music by the 7th grade. “Kanye has modernized mainstream music swaying it towards Hip-Hop”. ”Kanye West started to get more involved in Hip-Hop, when he turned 17 he wrote his own rap song called “Green Eggs and Ham”(TheFamousPeople.com). Kanye’s Music has inspired millions and to this day he still does without Kanye not many people would have been the same. Kanye changed music for the better with his style of music he has inspired millions and millions.

Kanye’s social life was very exciting because when he started getting famous he met many famous celebrities. He was also diagnosed with Bi-polar. He had a great relationship with Jay-Z and was actually signed by Jay-Z to Rocafella. People who got introduced to Kanye at a young age. Kanye’s social life is mainly busy with Kim Kardashian and 3 children and has many businesses and owning a company named after his mother. ”Kanye cared so much for his mother even breaking down singing a song about her”.(Quora.com)

Kanye’s impact on cultural trends were astonishing. When Kanye created the shoes known as yeezys the culture of shoes and clothing changed to a more expensive taste of items. From yeezys being 400 to 5000 dollars when the yeezys came to market it changed the cultural perspective of people. The yeezys made people buy them no matter the price because of kanye’s popularity. “The first time kanye dropped his pairs of shoes they retailed at $350 and over 9,000 pairs were made and the return of yeezys are the return of Adidas is thanks to what they call the Kanye or yeezy effect”(Teen Vogue).

Cultural Trends and Clothing Impact

Kanye’s political view had impacted millions of people by talking to Donald Trump and getting the chance to meet him. Kanye had tweets that were very controversial and those tweets did not help with his following and affected Kanye very much. Kanye regained most of his trust back by helping his community and apologizing for what he did. Kanye while meeting Donald Trump they talk to him about criminal justice history and how that has impacted many young black americans about racism. Kanye’s political view has also impacted many young mexicans because he starts to introduce the problem of many Mexican people trying to cross the border for a better life and how that is not helping anyone(USAToday.com).

“Kanye’s has had many conflicts including social media feed in truly the best way to reach reconciliation”(ChicagoTribute.com). One conflict is his social media tweets which were on twitter and were mainly about racism and those tweets had so much backlash. Kanye had started receiving death threats and made him and his wife Kim Kardashian very nervous and worried of their financial worries. Another one of Kanye’s disputes were with him and his MAGA hat which he would wear and saying that slavery was disguised and that it never ended and by him wearing a MAGA hat many people had lost so much respect for what he has done. Kanye has had many bad conflicts with his life but kanye has always showed to many people with inspirational quotes on why life is important and why he is so smart for the accomplishments that he has done.

Kanye West as an Influence

Kanye has been influenced by many people who were his idols and helped make him who he is today. Some people who were his idols were Jay-Z and Michael Jackson they helped influence him to be who he is and make the music he is able to give us today. He also talks about the most power influencer who is Paul The Apostle(Genius.com). Kanye has impacted people through Music and through clothing. Kanye has influenced many people but who influenced Kanye, many Gods have influenced kanye and Kanye still represents that through his music.

Kanye West lived through a time were his parents divorced only three years after they moved to Chicago. He lived in a suburban home and attended a High School in Chicago. He spent his summers with his father over the weekend. “Kanye had a very rough childhood only living with his mother and doing so good in school”(Britannica.com). Through all of kanye’s childhood he has gone through all the rough parts in his life and overcame everything and all the hard work has paid off.

Conclusion

As expressed in the essay Kanye can be seen as an important leader because he influenced millions of people through his music, his style of clothing, and his brand overall. Kanye West has found a way to speak to people through his lyricism and speaks about real world problems. Kanye has put music forward that helps teenagers deal with serious problems such as clinical depression and mental disorders. 

Works Cited

1. 'Kanye West Biography.' TheFamousPeople.com. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/kanye-west-3491.php
2. 'Kanye West's Musical Achievements.' Quora.com. https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-Kanye-Wests-musical-achievements
3. 'How Kanye West's Yeezy Changed Sneaker Culture.' Teen Vogue. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-kanye-wests-yeezy-changed-sneaker-culture
4. 'Kanye West's 2020 Presidential Bid.' USAToday.com. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/10/15/kanye-wests-2020-presidential-bid-what-we-know/3652102001/
5. 'Kanye West's Influences.' Genius.com. https://genius.com/Kanye-west-influences-annotated
6. 'Kanye West.' Britannica.com. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kanye-West
7. 'Kanye West: A Conflicted Genius.' Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-kanye-west-mental-health-tweet-20180425-story.html