“WAVES,” Kanye West’s upcoming album, set for a Feb. 11 release, should worry you more than the Presidential election does about the future of America. More than any politician, Kanye understands the spirit of the American everyman.
Kanye has done a lot of obnoxious things recently — marrying Kim Kardashian, declaring he will run for president, auditioning for American Idol — and yet these outrageous antics sustain his popularity. Much like Donald Trump, who has captured the public’s attention with claims that his billions qualify him to be a political leader, West has managed to stay in the limelight for 12 years because he claims his lyrical abilities qualify him to be a god.
It was not always this way. Kanye’s first two albums, “The College Dropout” and “Late Registration,” are relatable and human works. In the style of the Wu Tang Clan, he heavily employs soul samples and places humorous skits about his struggles with social expectations between songs. In his early career, Kanye distinguished himself from other rappers by managing to straddle the line between braggadocio and honesty.
But West’s most recent studio album, “Yeezus,” veered sharply away from his previous work. Like everything preceding it (except “808s & Heartbreak”), the album contains heavy racial overtones. But leave this element aside and all that remains is a shameless self-deification. “Yeezus” employs abrasively minimalistic beats and grimy lyrics. In arguably the most terrifying song on the album, Kanye repeatedly proclaims, “I am a god,” as oppressive synth and unearthly shrieks overtake the recording.
But, through this repulsive image, West exposes a part of American culture few care to admit exists. We love ourselves past the point of excess. We love to boast about our second or third car. We love to reference our material wealth: The newest iPhone, the Patagonia quarter-zip. We love to shock our elders with gritty nihilism. And Kanye West, the man who declared: “I understand culture. I am the nucleus,” just so happens to be the perfect conduit for this generational narcissism.
In a way, “Yeezus” defines the millennial generation. Combined with Kanye’s public stunts — which are almost inextricable from his musical work — the album effectively unleashes the latent longing in the American everyman to fully embrace self-indulgence.
Of course, this artificial reality can only persist for so long. Following his 2010 effort, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” Kanye put himself on a steady path toward his 2013 apotheosis. His fashion line, his newfound love of artists like Le Corbusier, his marriage to Kim Kardashian — all aim at the deification of the man Kanye believes to be the world’s most gifted individual. But after the release of “Yeezus,” Kanye made it impossible to mature anymore, at least thematically. Being a god is well and good, but what’s next? Self-destruction?
In a way, “WAVES” will act as a cultural beacon. Kanye is not the reason we act as we do; he is simply the self-proclaimed prophet of the 21st-century zeitgeist. His “G.O.O.D. Fridays” releases seem to indicate his new album will be just as self-absorbed and narcissistic as “Yeezus,” though this time with a twinge of exasperation at his status.
Ezra Pound once said that “artists are the antennae of the race.” If that’s true, we should be worried about what signals WAVES might pick up.
