So Kanye West’s tour kicked off the other day, and judging by the Reviews it looks to be an amazing adventure. I hope to have my tickets soon when he comes to my city of Saskatoon.

I have always been a fan of Kanye. In fact, I credit him with restoring my faith in mainstream hip-hop. Although I am mainly a guitar oriented music lover these days, I used to be into hardcore hip-hop, like Eazy-E and 2Pac.

What I enjoyed about early 90’s hip-hop was not only the beats, but the message. And Kanye brought it back to the message….Instead of the Benjamins.

It used to be that rapping about a better life was true to the artist. They came from struggles and now they had it made. But when a whole genre is co-opted by a single idea (that being money) the art tends to suffer.

We saw this in not only rap, but in Grunge in the mid 90’s when it became so depressing and commercialized that the genre imploded, making way for the Happy Boy bands of the late 90’s.

Today we are seeing the same ethos brought to Emo, Strokes rock, and Nickelback jock rock. The one original idea that starts the genre is the idea that everyone hops on to and imitates it to death.

The point being, if you are true to yourself you cannot help but be original and that is why people will come to you.

peace

Voyno

The New Rockstar Philosophy