Blog 8: A Different Kind of Rap

Kanye West

1) Heavy Bass

2) Sampling

3) Taking voices from other songs and raising the pitch

Rap is often criticized for its lack of creativity, as well as its repititive rhythms and melodies. However, it takes creative thinking and a mastery of drum machines, computer knowledge, as well as engineering ability to make great hip-hop beats. Kanye West is an example of this. All hip-hop contains heavy bass. West did not start this, but he does use it in his songs. Originally, hip-hop was the anti-disco and African-American's way of expressing themselves through music. The heavy bass is symbolic of aggression that used to be part of hip-hop music. West just does this because it creates more fullness to the sound of the piece, and hip-hop is dull without it. Sampling, however, is something West is known for. He will take a piece from another song, chop it up and alter it on a drum machine, and put a beat to it. Many feel this is unoriginal, but it is characteristic of hip-hop music. It recreates the piece, and changes the feeling altogether. West's sampling is different because he takes music from unordinary genres and makes hip-hop out of them. He also combines genres, which is seen on a song with rap star Common and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. And finally, taking the voice from another song and changing the pitch. Though it is done a lot in hip-hop now, West was the first to do so. He has taken voices from many different varieties of music, and combined them with other samples to make distinct beats. This shows his creativity and desire to steer away from the norm. Hip-hop is continuing to evolve, and West is known for his ability to sample. Because he is a rapper, he wants to incorporate other types of music into hip-hop. This is the reason West is considered one of the best and is respected by not only hip-hop fans and artists, but musicians worldwide. It is his ability to sample music no one would thought could be sampled that reveal Kanye's true identity and creativity.