Wake up Mr. West

Before I start,  let me say that I am a huge Kanye West fan. I like his word play in his album, the beats that he makes, his whole "I don't give a f@$k" attitude, and the way he dares to say exactly what is on his mind. In his own way, Kanye is really ahead of his time. With all that in mind, I feel that I have a right to discuss the recent antics of Mr. West. I also feel that I have a right to discuss a possible solution to some of the things that is troubling Kanye these days. This blog come isn't meant to throw slander to him. This post is just a fans view point of one of his favorite artist.

In the year of 2013, the name of Kanye West was in the mouths of most people for many different reasons.  One of the biggest events that changed his life was the birth of his daughter, North West. The name of his daughter had the world saying "did he really name his kid north west?" A few days later, he would drop his sixth album entitled Yeezus. That album would go on to be one or the best-selling rap albums of this year. He goes on to launch his Yeezus tour which, by the way, I am still upset that didn't get to see but I digress. From what I have been hearing about that tour, it is a must see. People have been saying that YEEZUS isn’t a tour, it is an experience. With all of these things happening in the life of Kanye, the two words in 2013 that became tied to his name were interviews and ranting.

This all began with an interview he did for the BBC. Out of all the things he talked about, one of the things that I feel he was the most passionate about is his leather jogging pants idea. He was upset that he came up with the idea with this odd combination, presented it to a major clothing company to not only to have it turned down, but to have his invention to be made and produced by the same people who turned his down. Due to this interview, funny man Jimmy Kimmel made a spoof of this interview on his late night talk show that has really funny.  Kanye didn't take to kindly to that and went on a twitter rampage on Jimmy. This started a "feud" between the two. Eventually, the two made up on Kimmel show and the so called "feud" had ended.

Now after his album dropped, his interviews became 75% rant, and 25% about Yeezus.  

His next interview was one that I never thought I would see. He would go on the breakfast club to be interviewed by DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlemagne tha God. Now one of the things that the breakfast club is known forward is there straight forward, no hold barred interviews.  Any and everything will be discussed on these interviews.  If you don't know who Charlemagne tha God is, he is basically a straightforward,  no bullshit person that says it like it is no matter if his opinion is popular or not. When Kanye was on there, Charlemagne told Kanye exactly how he felt.  First he said he didn't like Yeezus.  As the interview went on, he asked two questions that I felt would explain everything.  His questions were basically why he denounces these corporations, but said he needs them for his clothing line and why don't he just start his own line with all the resources that he has. Kanye gave his explanation, but it did not make any sense. It wasn't until his next interview that Kanye finally made sense to me.

The next interview that he was featured on was Sway in the Morning. Now the interview was a typical Kanye interview for the first half, you know, Kanye calling himself a genius, comparing himself to other great people, and other interesting things. Then when Sway asked why he doesn’t start up his own line, yeezy snapped telling Sway "You don't have all the answer Sway" and basically talking down to him. Now at this point, Sway looked like he wanted to knock Kanye out and I couldn't blame him. I mean what grown man wants to be yelled at/talked down to like a little child. After Kanye calmed down, he asked him the same question again and Kanye gave an honest/real answer for once.

As he was explaining his reason, there was four main points the he made that stuck out to me the most. 1. "As I work on clothing more, I not rapping as much." 2."I not rapping as much, I not having as much finance, I losing relevance." 3. "Relevance is part of my power that allows my brand to be big." 4." You juggle so crazy but then you get a Nike that can simply say the yeezys did good. That was a good job. Let me get you some more so you can start your own line cause obviously people are lining up for them." After he said all of that, all of his antic and rants finally made sense to me.

As far as all his antic and part of his rants are concerned, he is doing all of this to stay relevant. Just think about it. After his 5th album dropped, no one heard from Kanye or knew what he was doing. I assume that during his time away he was designing. He didn't pop back up until he started dating Kim Kardashian, and let’s be honest, that helped her career not Kanye’s career. Kanye really did not become relevant, at least to me, until his first interview on the BBC were his ranting first began. After that, people began to talk about him, thus he started to become relevant again which in turn started to give power back to his brand. If you look at point 3, he doing exactly what he believes he needs to do to make his brand powerful.  So basically everything he has done is for the betterment of his brand. Pretty clever Mr. West, pretty clever.

The last statement he made that involved Nike explains why he feels he needs these big corporations in order to get his clothing line established. He feels like he needs to go thru an already major clothing company in order for him to have his own clothing line. One of the things he was saying to Sway that he tried starting his own clothing line, invested 13 million into it, and lost all of his money. After going through that big of a lost, he still wants to start his line, but doesn't want to take that big of a gamble again. Can you blame him? No matter how much money you have, 13 million is still a lot of money. Losing that will hurt anybody; well expect Bill Gates and Oprah of course. Then you have to factor in that not only does he has to worry about his investment, he has to worry about how all the business decisions he makes will affect the future wellbeing of his daughter.

After all of that, do I agree with him? I somewhat agree with him. As a fan, I see where he is coming from. I can see how he feels that he needs these big name companies in order for his clothing line to come out and for people to see how great that he thinks he is. I can also somewhat see why he goes on and on with his rants. If that what he needs to stay relevant,  them he will continue to do so because that is want get his name out into the masses. Now as a person who one day wants to have his own business/company, I don't see why Kanye needs these companies in order to be great. He is an amazing artist, very smart, and has vast amounts of resources that he can pull together to pull of his clothing line. I think he is just scared and does not believe his own hype. I can understand the reason why he is mad with the fashion industry, but ranting and complaining about it will not make the situation any better. The best way to prove these companies from Mr. West is to prove them wrong, release and few clothing items, and show them why they had worked with you from the start.  As far as being relevant, Kanye is going about this all the wrong way. You don't need to whine, rant, bitch and moan to be relevant. When you rant, you don't sound smart. You say a lot of smart/right things but no one hear it due to your ranting and the way you say these things.  Just do want you always did to be relevant....make good music because to be honest Yeezus was not all that great to me. Maybe it is one of those albums that have to grow on me after listening to it multiple times. If you do have to rant, do it for a good reason like when you called out Bush on live TV.

Apparently I not the only one who feels this way. Famous people have put in their two cents on this matter as well.  Earlier this year Marc Echo, founder of the Echo clothing, stopped by the breakfast club to promote his new book. During his interview, he was asked his opinion of how Kanye feel he needs this big name companies. These are just a few points that he made. 1."Why the hell does he need these gatekeepers?" 2."You don't need the cosigns." 3."He's afraid to try on his own and screw up." 4. "Goalkeepers, the people, are going to transition and vote." During the same interview, Charlemagne says that he should make his line for the people. He said "Power will always be in the people, regular everyday people." One thing both Sway and Marc Echo asked was why doesn't Kanye start out small and slowing build up his clothing line.

So after all of this typing and thinking, I am just about ready to wrap up this post. So Mr. West, I believe all you have to do to get your clothing line up and out is just go back to the days that you was just a producer and want to become a rapper. No one just gave you a record deal. You had to prove that you was worthy of having one. Take those same lessons and apply them to getting your dreams out there to the world. Nothing worth having will come easy. Like I said earlier, just pull together your smarts and resources together, and I sure in no time your will see your dreams come to life. You just have to get humble and hungry for greatness once again.