Table of Kantents

“This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you,” Don McLean sings on “Vincent.” Though those words were written about Van Gogh, they could be applied to his modern day counterpart, Kanye West.

Much like Vincent Van Gogh, Kanye is vastly under-appreciated. With each new album, fashion show, and interview, he reveals a piece of his soul to the world. Many pass him off as “insane” or “ranting,” but if they took the time to listen, they’d see there was a vast trove of knowledge he’s bestowing upon the world. His artistic methods don’t always resonate with the public, but neither did Van Gogh’s with his contemporaries. Kanye himself has said “name one genius that ain’t crazy,” and he’s absolutely right. All innovation is misunderstood at first, before the rest of the population can see its merits. 

In around 1512, Michelangelo painted a fresco on the roof of the Sistine Chapel which stands as one of the most iconic pieces of the Renaissance. The image depicts God giving the gift of life to Adam and start of humanity. Unfortunately, Michelangelo was not alive in 1977 when another miracle occurred: the birth of Kanye.

If the image were to be improved and modernized to contemporary standards, Michelangelo would have painted Kanye West receiving the gift of talent from God. Here the depiction shows how Michelangelo would have conceived this painting today, had he known Kanye during his lifetime.

In 1964, the Surrealist René Magritte painted the iconic “Son of Man.” The image serves as a self-portrait with a lone apple obscuring his face. About this painting, he said, “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.” 

If Magritte had been alive during the 21st century, he would have, no doubt, modernized his painting for a contemporary audience. Kanye West would naturally be the most fitting subject. The idea that “everything we see hides another thing” is a theme that reverberates through Kanye West’s art and his life, in the grander sense. Magritte would have had a strong appreciation for that fact, and thus, would have improved the painting by the inclusion of Kanye West. Kanye West being obscured by the apple is a direct symbolism for how the media and other channels obscure the meaning of Kanye’s messages, whether intentionally or due to their inability to grasp his genius.

Every now and then, Kanye breaks the metaphysical boundaries set by tweeting standards, and this is a prime example of his craft.

Kanye calls his tweet “contemporary art.” Much of contemporary art has the hallmark of being self-referential and metaphysical. Here, Kanye is demonstrating that very attribute in his tweet. It is this mastery of demonstrating a modern art concept in 140 characters that makes Kanye the visionary he is today.

In this specific tweet, he references the critics and others, as is a recurrent theme in many of his tweets. Here he calls them the “people telling [him] what to tweet and not to tweet.” The parallelism here is striking as the “people” are not only trying to stifle his creativity by keeping him silent, but they are also attempting to manipulate him. They are telling him to say things that he may not really mean.

Between 1893 and 1910, Edvard Munch created four different iterations of “The Scream,” which has remained an icon ever since. This is the most recognizable image of the painting. 

There are many theories as to the meaning of the painting. Edvard Munch has said that it appeared to him as a force of nature one evening while on a stroll. He felt a scream reverberate through the scenery around him and was inspired to paint it.

If we were to have a human manifest this symbolic event, there is no better one than Kanye West. Kanye has been a reflection of society and the very fabric of this world. He embodies nature and states things as they are in the world around him. Thus, this painting has been updated with the knowledge we now have of Kanye West to better represent its intended meaning.

Grant Wood painted American Gothic in 1930. It represented quintessential America. That was before Kanye West was born. Now that Kanye West has hit the scene, he is quintessential America. Thus, this painting has been improved and updated for a 21st century audience.

The Vitruvian Man was drawn by Leonardo da Vinci circa the year 1490. It represents and embodies perfection in the human form. It did until 1977, when Kanye West was born. We can only imagine that if Da Vinci was alive today, this is how he would have envisioned the Vitruvian Man.

This is an example of one of Kanye's longer tweets. It is ripe with meaning.

If we examine the first part of the sentence, the structure appears to be a run-on. This is intentional on Kanye's part. The meaning it conveys is that the opinion of the "journalists" is just as valid as his own. He has placed them both in the same sentence in order to illustrate how there is no hierarchy. The journalists opinion only comes first because he is measuring it chronologically.

Next, let's analyze the portion following the ellipses. He calls his sweaters "homeless." That is meant to be a double meaning. Some undue criticism of his clothing has been that it looks like homeless-chic. Here, the second meaning is also that the clothes do not have a home in the hearts of journalists who are unable to comprehend his genius. Kanye West is acutely aware of this, and he has thus used his syntax to make reference to this point.

This tweet is short, but filled with profound depth of meaning. Like Hemingway, Kanye has masterfully crafted an idea, but only showed us the tip of the iceberg. It is up to us to decipher its true meaning.

The tweet is composed of the imperative, "be real," to remove the subject from the text. This is to mirror the fact that the real-ness that Kanye is discussing is separated from the subject. The subject has no real-ness, and thus, the real-ness can have no subject. Furthermore, if we notice the ellipses, Kanye is giving the implication of something that transcends the text. He does not use a period because the real-ness can have no end. It is a continual process.

Year after year, there has been one voice that society has yet to listen to. There has been one mind that has been denied the Nobel Prize, unjustly. The time has come to finally acknowledge that voice. Kanye West deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

There is not yet a Nobel Prize for music, which is a travesty in and of itself. But until there is, there is still another prize Kanye could win, and that is the Nobel Peace Prize. Kanye West has done more for society since 1977, than any other nominee or recipient can claim to.

First, the most obvious point: Kanye West has REVOLUTIONIZED the music industry. Until he hit the scene, the majority of the population was forced to listen to gangster rap, which is inarguably the worst type of rap music, by far. Certain people should stick to selling vodka and leave music to the true creative minds.

Second, Kanye West has revolutionized fashion. Kanye was the first to introduce leather jogging pants, and now everyone loves it. Give him credit where credit is due. When Kanye was telling everyone how big leather joggers would get, they thought he was crazy. Well, to quote Claudius in Hamlet (Shakespeare was dope, the Kanye of the 16th century), “madness in great ones should not unwatched go.” Now, people are starting to see the light. Kanye allowed people to come out of the dark ages of fashion and into the leather pants renaissance. That aesthetic vision can be compared to Da Vinci’s new aesthetic in painting or Van Gough, who was seriously underappreciated, like Kanye.

Third, Kanye has inflitrated the realm of pop culture to influence what we even consider an idol. If there is any doubt to this assertion, try to think back on who Kim Kardashian was in 2007. If you don’t want to/can’t, that proves the point. Kanye took the shell of a celebrity and turned her into an icon with a following.

In 2012, the European Union won the Nobel Peace Prize, and while they did some dope shit, Kanye obviously was more deserving. He had already dropped six albums by that point, which brought more peace to the world than the European Union did. Kanye has never participated in any wars; the countries of the European Union, however, have not only participated in, but have STARTED many. That is the opposite of peace.

It’s time for the world to stand up for justice and give peace a chance.