Why I Can’t Give Up On But Won’t Give In To Kanye

The hardest thing to do as a Christian is to forgive. There’s a kind of ironic determinism to it — we are adamant that forgiveness is too precious to come without cost, yet God calls those of faith to forgive freely.

I’ve never felt as ambivalent about any artist as much as I do Kanye West. As a writer and beatmaker from the south side of Chicago, I won’t stunt and understate the influence Kanye had on me. Unless you were a teenager around 2007–2008, it’s hard to describe what it feel like when a Kanye album dropped. His sound was so rich and expansive, it eclipsed basically anything else in hip hop (aside from a Lil’ Wayne mixtape). The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation. Whether it was clever lines or an innovative sample, it felt like Kanye pushed the boundaries of the genre with every album. Where most music felt mundane, Kanye was intergalactic.

If I was forced to choose, I’d probably say My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is my favorite among his list of classics. 808s & Heartbreak doesn’t get enough credit, though I will admit my opinion isn’t Black barbershop-level objective. Suffering from a bout of depression my first year in college, songs like “Streetlights” remained on repeat. 808s & Heartbreak stuck with me on a personal level, even if it took some critics years to realize its influence.