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Hip-hop heavyweight Kanye West has publically shown his support for president-elect Barack Obama ever since the senator from Illinois announced his decision to run for president earlier this year, and West is nothing but floored coming out of Obama’s victorious campaign this week. Paying tribute to the Obama campaign, West wrote the words “Hi Mom, Obama Won!” on his website’s blog, a touching move from the rapper whose mother Donda passed away less than a year ago after complications with surgery.
Other fervent Obama supporters in the hip-hop community include artists Will.i.am, Sean “Diddy” Combs, Stevie Wonder, Will Smith, Q-Tip, John Legend, Jay-Z, Talib Kweli, Ludacris, Common, Mos Def, Ne-Yo, Nas, Young Jeezy, the Game, Herbie Hancock, Usher and more. Chicago talk show guru Oprah Winfrey has also been a supporting figure in the Obama campaign, and she was in attendance at Grant Park in Chicago Tuesday night as Barack Obama made his historic election speech. Brad Pitt was also in the crowd, and several other public figures celebrated Obama’s victory on television programs, websites and interviews as the presidential election concluded. Kanye West’s declaration on his website was one of many, but the shout-out to his late mother was one of the most memorable notes of Obama excitement.
West, a Chicago, Illinois native, has been incredibly involved in the presidential campaign this year, but before he was dominating the music (and now, political) scene, the fresh rapper was blazing through the Midwest with his hip-hop talent and unrelenting perseverance. West first burst on the music scene in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, getting his foot in the door by appearing on Jay-Z’s Blueprint album. West’s 2004 album The College Dropout was the massive success the rapper had been waiting for, and songs like “Jesus Walks” and “Slow Jamz” placed the name Kanye West among the big dogs in the hip-hop industry.
Since 2004, Kanye West has recorded and released several number ones on the Billboard charts ranging from “Gold Digger” and “Good Life” to “Stronger,” also garnering eight Grammy Awards in the wake of his musical peak. The rapper’s confident feel-good anthems have dominated radio waves and television channels for several years now, and he’s been rocking out live performances to everyone with Kanye West tickets just as long. If you haven’t heard West’s live rendition of “Stronger” in concert, head over to and discover the Kanye West magic for yourself.
Aside from producing some of the most powerful hip-hop music on the scene these days, West has also become a fearless public icon in the media for anything and everything he believes in. The rapper has been tapped on camera saying that George Bush doesn’t care about black people in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, also depicted as Jesus Christ on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and now his strong support for president-elect Barack Obama has earned him some time in the spotlight, as well. West is still busy performing and supporting his new album 808s & Heartbreak, and the rapper hasn’t shown any signs of a slowdown.
There's countless examples of rappers claiming to be the biggest thing ever (it's only a wonder more of them haven't appropriated John Lennon's famous assertion that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus). If would be unfair to single out Kanye West for being having a bit of an ego issue, as anyone who has followed Lil Wayne's claims in the music press can attest to. With Kanye West tickets at http://www.stubhub.com/kanye-west-tickets selling the way they do, his fans clearly share the sentiments of critics. But Kanye West—who, it should be noted, is one of the most talented working rappers, and continues to redefine what hip-hop sounds like—definitely has a big head.
Quotes to the press claiming he's “the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice” suggest the due praise he's received from critics have helped build that messiah complex. Other quotes, such as the infamous pounding of keys on his MacBook Air (so hard he could break it) in response to “squid brains” who were displeased with his tardy arrival at Bonnaroo in 2008 made him a bit of a punch line.
It's not surprising that comedians actually started using Kanye as a punch line. In early December, fake political pundit Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report, began Operation: Humble Kanye, a tongue in cheek attempt to communicate that, possibly, maybe, Kanye was taking himself too seriously. Calling him a “sun glasses mannequin” probably didn't earn Colbert any love from Kanye, but what really irked him was Colbert's suggestion that everyone buy his Christmas album at the same time that Wednesday, effectively pushing Kanye's synth- and Auto-Tune-laden record 808s and Heartbreak out of the number one spot on the iTunes chart.
The public missive clearly reached Kanye, who responded on Twitter with “Who the **** is Stephen Colbert?” The blogs picked up both, making it an even more public disagreement. But it must have hurt even more the next night, when Colbert remarked that Operation: Humble Kanye was a success. Though Colbert's Christmas album (which he had been shamelessly plugging on his show) moved up to number four on the chart, Kanye's record slipped below it.
Colbert responded on air by holding up a cardboard cut-out of comedian Mike Myers and claiming “Kanye doesn't like Colbert people,” a reference to yet another controversy West incurred after Hurricane Katrina hit (he had originally claimed the slow response of the federal government was because “George Bush doesn't like black people,” while a visibly pained Myers tried not to react).
Will any of this go to Kanye's head? It remains unlikely. An ego is somewhat necessary to create great art—and if a good or even great popular music album is art, than that is surely what Kanye West makes. But hopefully as he grows older, he can develop a taste for humble pie, as well.