Kanye Samples Wicked

Imma let you finish Kristin, but I'm more popular than you.

  Right off the bat I'll say that this post has been a struggle not only because it's been maybe two months since my last one, but also because it's about Kanye West. Not only is his music causing my inner hipster to start strangling herself with a pair of urban outfitters leggings, but also my inner normal person is going "hey that guy's a douche." Could this guy get any more pretentious? So with that being said, I will try and move on.

  My main objective is to talk about todays rap artists and sampling. You're not alone in realizing that almost every friggin' rapper out there today is layin' rhymes over yesterday's top indie song. When Kid Cudi sampled Paul Simon on 50 Ways to Make a Record, it was all I could do to not spit out my orange juice all over my keyboard. As a fan of Paul Simon, I'd say it's a good song because I already liked the melody, but really? It's just a ridiculous concept. And then there's Hoodie Allen whose last album was almost entirely him rapping over sampled artists, not to mention Chiddy Bang's "Truth". And then let's also not forget Big Boi's "General Patton" which samples Giuseppe Verdi's opera, "Vieni, o guerriero vindice,” perhaps the most random of them all.

  Recently, I was in my friends car listening to their CD. It soon dawned on me that I was listening to Kristin Chenoweth sing Popular. And then Kanye West started rapping? Nope, the new thing isn't sampling indie songs anymore, it isn't sampling the Numa Numa song like T.I. and Rihanna, and it definitely isn't sampling opera (sorry Big Boi.) I guess it's Broadway. But let me remind you that Kanye definitely isn't the first rap artist to do this, since Jay-Z already did it first with "Hard Knock Life" in 1998. Some argue that these artists are "stealing" but personally I think once a song's out there it's just as much mine as it is yours. Trying to hold onto something as intangible as music seems a little silly. All in all, I think that without artists being able to access each other's music and add their own style would probably end music as we know it. And in the end I guess I would have to admit that Kanye's a creative guy despite his obvious shortcomings.


Brand New x Popular (Flipboitamidles Remix) - Kanye West (remixed version. haven't found the real one yet)

It's a Hard Knock Life - Jay-Z



Happy Hipster Halloween erryone.
-K