REFLECTION & REASON

I'm a fan. I've always been a Kanye West fan. Antics and all. Actually, sometimes I feel like it's because of the antics why I can appreciate Kanye's creative journey even more. This industry is not for the weak, nor is it for the super strong. Sane, insane, or otherwise. We know it's a mess. We know it's hard to navigate, as are fame, scrutiny, and aging. Some of us are old enough now to have lived and witnessed the full career trajectory of so many of our favourite artists. For me, Kanye west is one of those favourites. Let me preface this by saying that I'm at the point where I can take all of his music, good and bad (and there's definitely been some baaaaad), because I'm now more interested in the long-term progression of his sound and his mind and can overlook the glitches and questionable judgement at times. On a personal level, it's difficult...on a musical level, it continues to intrigue me. Sure, I could have done without the red M...

It sucks. It's uncomfortable. It's embarrassing. It's unfortunate. It's a shame. It's hurtful. It stings, and it makes you question your priorities and morality in a way that you never thought you would have to. Drawing that firm line in the sand against one of "your own" can feel like betrayal, even when it's abundantly clear that something is wrong, and that something must be done. Like many, that R. Kelly docu-series "Surviving R. Kelly" was the last thing any of us will ever have to see to know and remember just how terrible this man's behaviour has been...from time. Those testimonials, the pain on the faces of those women was disturbing as hell. We've all heard the whispering, the shouting, and seen the evidence plain as day, but somehow it took years. Decades even, for a collective cultural "WTF" moment where we are forced to look at Robert Kelly without the lens of his fabulous R&B hits...and see him for the a...

The first album from Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones--"Illmatic"-- was released on my 16th birthday, in 1994, and it remains my favourite hip hop album of all times. In fact, Nas remains my favourite rapper of all times. As far as I'm concerned, he'll always reign in that genre of music because of who he was to me growing up, and who he continues to be in the industry. An intellectual, yet humble, yet powerful musical soul. Yesterday the hip hop community lost two of its young contributors: Miami's XXXTentacion and Pittsburgh's Jimmy Wapo. My dedication to keeping up with hip hop has waned over the years so I'm unfamiliar with the music of the 20 and 21 year olds, respectively. Regardless, I hate to see the words "rapper killed" or "rapper shot" and know that it automatically casts negativity and doubt throughout the industry. Paranoia. Social unrest. Internal evaluation. Hardly an expert in the genre and barely a seasoned purveyor of hi...

Kanye West's 6th album " Yeezus " was released on June 18th, 2013, and I finally picked up a copy. I can't lie... I automatically felt like he was pulling a fast one. Putting out a CD with no cover art, no labels, no track listing, and no nothing...but a price tag and a lyrical warning label. Then I was annoyed with that big piece of orange tape at the side that is now ripped and sticky and gross, and makes my brand new blank case look old like something from 1995. Then I listened to the first track and was like...WTF? First thoughts: is Kanye trying to prove something? That we'll still buy his album with no promotion, and have it sound like GARBAGE and still have it hit the charts? Arrogant. Over the top. And then I realized that I had done just that. I had bought the album just because it existed, and because I'm a Kanye fan. And that even though the first few tracks sounded like hot noise, that I would still play the disc on repeat for the next week...

Yes, I'm bitter. I was "stickin" as the Trinis would say. I was stickin, and I didn't jump on tickets the day they went on sale like I normally would. And so, tonight and tomorrow night (Nov. 23 & 24, 2011), Jay-Z and Kanye West will be just mere kilometers away from me, down at the Air Canada Centre for their Watch the Throne tour...and I will be at home, listening to the CD and cursing my bad timing. But so it go. Big concerts for me are like inspiration waiting to happen. Especially from big artists. It's an opportunity for me to take in someone else's phenomenal creativity, internalize it, and eventually reproduce it into my own art form: writing. Here are 12 reasons why I SHOULD have bought "Watch the Throne" tour tickets... #01) No Church in the Wild ~ I originally loved this song because Frank Ocean really reminds me of Canadian rapper K-OS. And I think K-OS is dope. The sombre rap-singing (now made signature style by Drake, of course)...