It amazes me how many people are still writing him off as a commercial rap phony. I hear people say things like, "Oh, I hate all of the popular stuff. Ya know, Paul Wall, 50 Cent, Akon, Lil' Jon, Kanye West....shit like that." I find it to be extremely ballsy to group Kanye in with that crew.

He is one of the most talented hip-hop producers in recent memory. I love all of the different influences he incorporates into his beats (especially classical). He's very consistent and versatile. If your argument is that he sucks at rapping, then that's just silly. I don't hear anyone shunning NWA and The Chronic because Dr. Dre sucks at rapping.

I'm not familiar with his entire production catalogue because he has worked with a lot of artists who I don't like much, but here's a sample of other stuff he's done:

Common's Be
Jay-Z - Encore
Ludacris - Stand Up (very solid party track)
Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
Nas - Poppa Was a Playa, Still Dreaming, Let There Be Light
Talib Kweli - Get By

I think there is a lot of depth in his production, which is the reason the critics have been so generous to him. He's a very good musician. I'm not sure why people are still hatin on him.

I don't listen to hip-hop, but he's definitely within the 5 rap artists I can actually listen to.

two things put doubts in people's mind, the ego and he's too mainstream.

the ego to me is funny, but it comes off too much like a gimmick. no one can love themselves that much, if he showed some humility sometimes people would appreciate him more.

but the mainstream thing is where people are most ready to dismiss his work. he's the next diddy in the eyes of people that don't know the full extent of his catalog, which is really a shame. he might be the only mainstream hip hop artist that still tries to make an entire album, not two singles and a bunch of garbage.

when i had my music columnist gig, i assigned myself reviews of two records that came out that day, cee-lo's second solo release and kanye's debut. i was expecting to laugh at one and be blown away by the other. it happened, but not the way i expected.

Vanilla all round.

lucifer and do you wanna ride are 2 awesome kanye-produced songs

super macho man has appeared twice in this htread.

that's his problem, he comes off like any other mainstream rapper who is full of himself.

he has his great moments, moreso as a producer, but I never dug any of his LPs.

k west also produced the takeover

Good producer, but his albums are so whitebread it's ridiculous. You failed out of college! Oh, the horror!

didn't he do H to the Izzo?

yes

Haters need to check out Common's new album.

Am I crazy to think that Dre is a better rapper than Kanye?

I have one of his albums in my iPod, but I almost always end up skipping the track when it comes up on shuffle. I did really dig "Get Em High" when that cam up the other day.

I don't know, I'm not going to defend either way. But the thing with Dre is it is pretty well documented that many of his verses were actually written by other people (Ice Cube, Nas and Eminem to name a few).

I think that, overall, I may be more interested in Kanye's concepts. But either way, they both prove to be the most valuable when they produce albums for other rappers, i.e. Doggystyle and Common's two most recent albums.

plus dj quik supposedly ghost-produced a bunch of his good beats

dres albums are prob better than kanyes, but its not dres raps that make em good

i'm going to give more of the credit to spike jonze on this one... but obviously this all has kanye's fingerprints on it...

http://youraudiofix.com/2009/10/19/kany ... nze-video/

How can anybody hate Kanye West after watching that video

That is the most ridiculous shit I've ever seen. I really want those 11 minutes back.

I couldn't make it through all 11. I stopped at 6.

So I'd like those 6 minutes back.