Kanye West › Lyrics

If Kanye West could be pinned down to a lyrical trademark, boastfulness and sharp wit would pretty much cover it. Although he started out as a beatmaker and producer who was able to engineer huge hits for the likes of Jay-Z and... Read More

If Kanye West could be pinned down to a lyrical trademark, boastfulness and sharp wit would pretty much cover it. Although he started out as a beatmaker and producer who was able to engineer huge hits for the likes of Jay-Z and others, that quickly changed with the 2004 release of his solo debut, The College Dropout.

Perhaps it was his work on the hits of so many other artists that gave him an ability to see the emptiness of so many hip-hop songs that did little more than capitalize on the beat. His own approach is often issue-based and straight-forward. Rarely is a West track only built to fill the dancefloor as he is concerned with putting across a message for the masses to consider while they move. Whether it be rapping about opportunistic females ("Gold Digger") or holding a discussion with his maker ("Jesus Walks"), his means of making a point is often as humorous as it is poignant.

Where the Chicago native does not break from standard hip-hop convention is in the self-referencing manner of his lyrics. His swagger as a braggart is legendary and his flamboyantly egotistical offstage personality is reflected in his rhymes. Even when contrite, his manner is unapologetic, albeit self-effacing. For example, in the Late Registration track "Diamonds in Sierra Leone," Kanye cuts himself down and compares himself to a toddler for his well-documented tantrums, yet two lines later praises himself for "speaking from the soul."

He's similarly unrepentant in his hit "Touch the Sky," where he laments living a less than pious lifestyle. But as he swears he is "tryin' to right his wrongs" the irony of his situation is not lost on West as he states, "it's funny, them same wrongs helped me write this song."

Without a doubt, Kanye West will go down as a millennial hip-pop wordsmith, an artist with a gift for rhymes that cut both ways, bite in all the right places and define what hip-hop hits should be.