Critics admire his work all time

He easily makes it to the year-end lists of best albums/songs

He produces his own shit

So people pretty much say he's THE greatest musician of our time.

What is your opinion?

And if he wasn't, who is the greatest of our time then?!

[Edited 6/12/13 7:34am]

Not now, not ever IMO.

I rank his musicianship as highly as I rank Justin Timberlake's ability on the axe.

[Edited 6/12/13 8:27am]

He's a musician?! Good one!

That slacker Esperanza Spalding better take a seat as long as Kanye is still kicking!

Define "our time."

Envision Kanye West walking on the stage for a jam session with nothing but musical instruments and a microphone. Take, say, a half-dozen of the greatest musicians in rock history: A random selection --

Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen.

Honestly, how would he fare? I love Kanye's work myself, but let's be real, you can't call him a musician. He's a rapper and producer.

He could be the 21st century's answer to Phil Spector. Maybe.

namepeace said:

Define "our time."

Envision Kanye West walking on the stage for a jam session with nothing but musical instruments and a microphone. Take, say, a half-dozen of the greatest musicians in rock history: A random selection --

Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen.

Honestly, how would he fare? I love Kanye's work myself, but let's be real, you can't call him a musician. He's a rapper and producer.

He could be the 21st century's answer to Phil Spector. Maybe.

He's also an arrogant asshole. Can't stand one thing about this guy.

Empress said:

namepeace said:

Define "our time."

Envision Kanye West walking on the stage for a jam session with nothing but musical instruments and a microphone. Take, say, a half-dozen of the greatest musicians in rock history: A random selection --

Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen.

Honestly, how would he fare? I love Kanye's work myself, but let's be real, you can't call him a musician. He's a rapper and producer.

He could be the 21st century's answer to Phil Spector. Maybe.

He's also . . . arrogant . . . Can't stand one thing about this guy.

True, I can only laugh at how he acts.

Yeezus? Please-us.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be half-empty if self-involved jerks were excluded.

Since she actually chopped up her own piano playing,

I think in just 5 Days she's already GREATer than Kanye..

Shawy89 said:

Critics admire his work all time

He easily makes it to the year-end lists of best albums/songs

He produces his own shit

So people pretty much say he's THE greatest musician of our time.

What is your opinion?

And if he wasn't, who is the greatest of our time then?!

[Edited 6/12/13 7:34am]

In my opinion - No.

I'd say the greatest of our time is Prince. Others in my conversation would be Dan Fogelberg and Bruce Springsteen.

But ALL art is subjective. If you think Kanye West is the best of our time, then for you he is the best of our time.

Hell no.

He's nothing but a damn sampler.

I can't take this question seriously.

He is one of the best but Kanye is not really a musician per say... a great producer, writer and rapper yes but musician that is up for debate.

Also asking this question on the org is asking for trouble

Either way Kanye has taken more chances than any other rap artist of the last decade he did an album that sounds like a prog-rock hip-hop mesh, he has done political and social songs, songs about supporting gay rights, songs about his damaged love life and how being an asshole has fucked him with everyone around him.

He at leats is honest and his newer songs have sounded like a cross between NIN, Marilyn Manson and Radiohead.

He is more than just a hip-hop artist with all he has done and that will forever make him unique even if the org tries to pretend people like Kanye or Lady GaGa aren't talented.

PS

If you made the 1,000th thread about Janet Jackson pooped out Jesus and invented dance, music and rhythum you would have gotten a lot more positive responses

Gunsnhalen said:

He is one of the best but Kanye is not really a musician per say... a great producer, writer and rapper yes but musician that is up for debate.

Also asking this question on the org is asking for trouble

Either way Kanye has taken more chances than any other rap artist of the last decade he did an album that sounds like a prog-rock hip-hop mesh, he has done political and social songs, songs about supporting gay rights, songs about his damaged love life and how being an asshole has fucked him with everyone around him.

He at leats is honest and his newer songs have sounded like a cross between NIN, Marilyn Manson and Radiohead.

He is more than just a hip-hop artist with all he has done and that will forever make him unique even if the org tries to pretend people like Kanye or Lady GaGa aren't talented.

How hard it is 2 sound like any artist when all u do is sample their music?

In my opinion, yes!!

Name one instrument he plays, then ask yourself that question again.......

the fact that someone actually had the audacity to even ask this question..

this shows HOW FAR AWAY this current generation is from knowing/understanding/recognizing what

GOOD MUSIC

is.

Kanye is no more a musician than I am a doctor

(for the record.. I am NOT a doctor.)

sure - I could put on the white doctor jacket & say things like "your blood pressure's too high" or "you have a contusion of the tibula"..

but just saying those things DOES NOT make me a doctor.

too often (& for too long) Prince is an asshole.

he can, however, play the hell out of a guitar

& essentially he is very good at whatever instrument he decides to pick up.

so whatever anyone thinks of prince - whether anyone likes him as a person or not - he clearly is a SUPREMELY TALENTED musician.

if you say "chord progression" or "A minor chord" to Kanye or any other rapper..

he will look at you like you're crazy, like you just landed from another planet.

so if anybody really digs Kanye's & is into all that - good for them.

let's not confuse "liking Kanye's 'music' " with "oh, Kanye's a great musician"

because they are 2 completely different things.

Taurus said:

Name one instrument he plays, then ask yourself that question again.......

Maybe not "musician" but artist yes!! He is fearless in his approach, tries new things most hip hop artists would never attempt and does it well. I almost don't even think of him as a rapper anymore. He's just an artist IMO.

Empress said:

namepeace said:

Define "our time."

Envision Kanye West walking on the stage for a jam session with nothing but musical instruments and a microphone. Take, say, a half-dozen of the greatest musicians in rock history: A random selection --

Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen.

Honestly, how would he fare? I love Kanye's work myself, but let's be real, you can't call him a musician. He's a rapper and producer.

He could be the 21st century's answer to Phil Spector. Maybe.

He's also an arrogant asshole. Can't stand one thing about this guy.

Like namepeace said--he could be the 21st century's answer to Phil Spector.

Actually, that might be unfair. Has Kanye ever pulled a gun on anybody at the board in the studio?

I have no way of judging, honestly. I like a lot of what I've heard from Kanye (though I've never listened to an album, just individual tracks--and I get the impression that Kanye does work with the longer "album" format as an actual thing more than a lot of people today), but I don't know how to really compare what he's doing to make his tracks with what people performing in more traditional ways do to make theirs. Could he walk into a room with McCartney, Hendrix, Berry, Wonder, and Springsteen, pick up an instrument or sit down to one and play some basic blues pattern with them for ten or fifteen minutes and contribute a few interesting bars of a solo out of that? No, probably not. Could he go into a studio with one of them, and contribute significantly to a worthwhile track, doing good things that they couldn't (and I don't mean just add an inconsequential rap)? Quite possibly. Of course, many musicians do that on those people's recordings every day.

Look, he makes music, and it's often pretty good--yes, it involves sampling, but that's not all it is--and everybody listed above sometimes plays old riffs in order to create a new work (and everything's built on previous works, even when they don't actually borrow a riff there are other traceable bits everywhere in their catalogs). That people can now do that without using guitars and drums and keyboards doesn't mean that those people aren't musicians.

Certainly he's arrogant. And I probably wouldn't care to spend time with him.

And there's no way I can make an argument that he's the "greatest musician of our time" no matter how you define "our time." I'm not sure I could really make that argument for anyone, though. I think he's important--not only for what he's actually done, but also because I suspect that he's creating a body of work that will remain influential for a while, at least. I think there will be future artists who will refer to Kanye when they name albums that mattered to them.

Who knows--the greatest musician of our time might be someone whose name never appeared as the "artist" on a release recording. Obviously, it could be someone who never appeared on a recording at all--or some session player. Or the bassist in a band with a horrible singer so you've never heard of them.

Taurus said:

Name one instrument he plays, then ask yourself that question again.......

Are vocalists not musicians?

Are people who compose melodies but don't play an instrument not musicians?

What if you whistle really good?

Just curious. I'd at the very least say that singers are musicians. And if drummers (who don't really contribute much melodically or harmonically) are musicians, and they obviously are, than a rapper (a rhythmic even if melodic vocalizer) is too.

And I can't see really excluding composers, either.

And if you'd ever heard me whistle, well... there's no argument there, either.

Now, if the question was, is Kanye the greatest guitarist of our time.... I'm guessing not. Keyboardist.... nope. Bassist... nope. Drummer.... nah. Kazooist.... I'm going to go out on a limb and say "No."

Is Kanye the greatest rapper of our time.... I don't think you'll find many who would say that, really.

Is Kanye the greatest musician (defined as someone who creates music).... I'm not going to say that, either--but like I said in another post, I'm not going to argue that for anyone.

But I don't think it's a ridiculous question because he's not an instrumentalist. That's a different issue.

[Edited 6/12/13 16:49pm]

I think the greatest musician of our time, seeing that he died in 1991, is Miles Davis. And

y'all may not like this, but Kanye could turn out to be just as influential as Davis was too:

you have to remember how powerul an art form hip hop is and recognize that Kanye is one

of the few who is realigning its boundaries.

Shawy89 said:

Critics admire his work all time

He easily makes it to the year-end lists of best albums/songs

He produces his own shit

So people pretty much say he's THE greatest musician of our time.

What is your opinion?

And if he wasn't, who is the greatest of our time then?!

[Edited 6/12/13 7:34am]

Kanye is very gifted. He is not the greatest musician of our time though. is the G.O.A.T in any time period.

But I will say this about Kanye! When I met him he was very humble & down to earth, no attitude & very approachable! I guess the dirty muziq industry corrupted him. Plus I feel losing his mother so tragically changed him forever. I will always have a likeness for him remembering that person i met. I believe he is still in him.

Graycap23 said:

Gunsnhalen said:

He is one of the best but Kanye is not really a musician per say... a great producer, writer and rapper yes but musician that is up for debate.

Also asking this question on the org is asking for trouble

Either way Kanye has taken more chances than any other rap artist of the last decade he did an album that sounds like a prog-rock hip-hop mesh, he has done political and social songs, songs about supporting gay rights, songs about his damaged love life and how being an asshole has fucked him with everyone around him.

He at leats is honest and his newer songs have sounded like a cross between NIN, Marilyn Manson and Radiohead.

He is more than just a hip-hop artist with all he has done and that will forever make him unique even if the org tries to pretend people like Kanye or Lady GaGa aren't talented.

How hard it is 2 sound like any artist when all u do is sample their music?

He actually does play a few instruments he just doesn't excel in instrumentation like say Prince does.

And also some of his songs aren't samples and are actual orchestras and artists playing on it a good example is All of The Lights which has a full orchestra and Elton John on Piano.

Or Late Registration Roses, Bring Me Down(Feat. Brandy), Diamonds From Sierra Leone etc. Had a full orchestra on it that composed original material with Kanye present helping out.

Gunsnhalen said:

Graycap23 said:

Hell to the NAW!