The Controversial Kanye West

Kanye West is a name you don't hear too much in the underground anymore, what with his auto-tuning and his pop star aspirations but many of us forget how good Kanye can be behind the boards. He's worked with a wide range of artists and is always good for some good production, so I thought I'd take a look at him as I begin to delve into the underground. First up is his production work he did with Talib Kweli on his solo debut Quality, specifically the song "Good to You."

http://www.last.fm/music/Talib+Kweli/_/Good+To+You (sorry about the poor quality of video on there, I couldn't really find a good video representative of the quality production; just download the whole album at: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=si4rslft)

The song uses a sample from "Simply Beautiful" by Al Green as the basis for the production and Kanye perfectly loops a part of the song to create a syrupy, luscious beat. When the beat drops and it's just "Simply Beautiful" playing you know you're in the hands of an excellent producer.

While most people learned about Kanye through his production for Jay-Z on The Blueprint (which was fantastic by the way), I feel like one of the finest tracks he's produced was for Jay-Z's former rival Nas, on the track "Poppa Was a Playa" from the Lost Tapes LP. While not as immediately brilliant as "Good to You," the more subtle style of this track perfectly fits Nas' style of rap. As fans of Nas know the man has trouble picking good beats and, even worse, staying on beat, so the fact that he does both on this track speaks volumes about Kanye's work here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-BQ14aJxLQ

The real question that remains is Kanye's respectability as a producer. A lot of people feel like he's fell off since his Graduation LP and especially since 808s and Heartbreaks. Certainly Kanye's abandoned the underground, but if you think about it Kanye never really was underground to begin with. He got big by producing for Jay-Z. The reason the underground and indie circles respect him by and large is because he's a damn good producer and I certainly don't think that's changed at all. If anything he's become a more diverse producer, stepping away from his soul roots and into something more abstract. Let's look at Love Lockdown for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVZX-W3vo9I

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not a rap song. But what it is is a very well produced and understated song. The drums that come in at the chorus and the bassy beat during the verses perfectly match Kanye's heartbreak and create one hell of a sonic mood.

I wanted to discuss Kanye a little bit because I think he's one hell of a producer and we really don't see that too much in the mainstream. The fact that he works with underground artists and still manages to make good tracks for them says volumes about his adaptability and versatility as a producer.

I might have more on Kanye a little later, I don't know. Look for my next post to be about the one and only Madlib, the father of some of the best beats ever conceived. That certainly will be interesting!

Until then...

Peace.