View source for The Life of Kanye West

==Introduction==
===Rationale===
Kanye West is one of the most influential artists of the 21st century. He has received 92 awards out of 380 nominations including 21 Grammys. Born on 8 June 1977, Kanye has evolved from a record producer to a rapper, songwriter, fashion designer, and entrepreneur. He has been named by Time Magazine one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005 and 2015. There is no doubt Kanye West has had an impact in the modern world and the evolution of this impact is worthy of pursuit. Kanye West’s music is an important topic because it has influenced many people in the current century and has changed the way modern day hip hop is produced. Not only has Kanye influenced the people that listen to his music but he has also shed the light on other artists such as the most recent artist Chance the Rapper. Throughout his career Kanye has featured little known artists in his songs that bring these artists into the spotlight allowing their careers to flourish as well. 

To put a number on how popular Kanye is, Spotify, a digital music streaming service, reports that Kanye has 21,546,447 listeners per month and 4,470,661 followers which make him the 29th most popular artist on Spotify in the world. If all this did not make him one of the most popular people in the world then his spouse does. Kanye West is married to Kim Kardashian-West with 2 children. Kim Kardashian is one of the most popular TV personalities in the world. Outside of music Kanye has his own clothing brand. Currently Kanye has 7 solo albums and 2 collaboration albums and has been featured on numerous songs. What makes Kanye such an interesting topic is that Kanye has had multiple styles of music. He has evolved his music through the years and this evolution is the perfect centerpiece for an investigation.

===Method===
The topic of the project is the evolution of Kanye West. Kanye West has experienced many ordeals throughout his life but perhaps the greatest ordeal was the passing of his mother due to complications from surgery. This death occurred during the middle of his career. The guiding question is: How was Kanye West’s music affected by the death of his mother? We believe Kanye West became much more aggressive and explicit after the death of his mother because he had to cope with the deep sadness and he dealt with is by taking a narcissistic approach to his music. We will investigate this thesis by first outlining Kanye West’s life. A timeline will be created to pinpoint exactly when Kanye West’s mother passed so there is a before and after that can be analyzed. To do most of our investigation we will compile the lyrics of every single song from Kanye’s 7 solo albums and analyze them through digital technologies. Only the 7 solo albums will be looked at and not 2 collaboration albums because the 7 solo albums represent the thoughts of just Kanye West. Text mining will be used to gage the explicitness of Kanye’s music before and after his mother’s passing. Every lyric, even the lyrics sang by features in Kanye West's songs, will be analyzed because Kanye West had the final say on whether or not the lyrics would be part of the final product and therefore represent him in that time period even if he is not the one singing the lyrics. Once specific words are analyzed, the songs in which those word appear in with the greatest frequency will be analyzed to help gain context behind the usage of the words which will better help us determine the impact of Kanye's mother's death on Kanye's music.

==Timeline==
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==Text Mining==
To use text mining to determine the explicitness/aggressiveness of Kanye's music, one has to text mine not only negative words but also positive words to get a whole sense of how Kanye is affected by his mother's death. The nature of Kanye's lyrics give a look into how Kanye copes with his mother's dead. For Voyant Tools, two corpi are used. One corpus divides Kanye's discography by album and the other corpus divides it by song. The corpus divided by album will give insight into the usage of specific words before and after Kanye's mother death. Kanye's mother died after Kanye's third album Graduation. The corpus divided by song will help pinpoint high frequency usages and allow further analysis which will give context behind the usages.
===Bitch/Fuck===
These curse words tackle specifically the explicitness of his music. The thesis is that Kanye becomes more explicit after the death of his mother which occurs after his third album Graduation. Fuck is used most in his fifth album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy while Bitch is most in his sixth album Yeezus.

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<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?view=Trends&query=bitch*&query=fuck*&bins=7&corpus=def28fd0f15cbe0201418749d2b47744'></iframe>
<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=bitch*&query=fuck*&bins=100&view=Trends&corpus=7eb22a0921cf351f88380102b1ea6764'></iframe>
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===Kill===
Kill is analyzed to give an insight into the subject matter of the music. The word kill could signify a more aggressive Kanye as a result of his mother death. Kill is used the most in Kanye's third album Graduation. 

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<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=kill*&bins=7&corpus=def28fd0f15cbe0201418749d2b47744&view=Trends'></iframe>
<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=kill*&bins=100&view=Trends&corpus=7eb22a0921cf351f88380102b1ea6764'></iframe>
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===Money===
Money is analyzed again to gain insight into the subject matter of the music. The usage of the word money might not necessarily mean a greater degree of explicitness but with context it could unveil narcissistic lyrics which is another way Kanye could have dealt with his mother's death. It is used the most in Late Registration followed very closely by Life of Pablo. 

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<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=money*&bins=7&corpus=def28fd0f15cbe0201418749d2b47744&view=Trends'></iframe>
<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=money*&bins=100&view=Trends&corpus=7eb22a0921cf351f88380102b1ea6764'></iframe>
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===God===
God is one of the positive words that is discussed earlier on. The usage of the word God could signify a religious approach instead of a narcissistic approach that is being tested for. Higher frequency in the usage of God could mean that Kanye has turned to religion instead of become more explicit to deal with his mother's death.
 
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<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=god*&bins=7&corpus=def28fd0f15cbe0201418749d2b47744&view=Trends'></iframe>
<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=god*&bins=100&view=Trends&corpus=7eb22a0921cf351f88380102b1ea6764'></iframe>
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===Jesus===
Jesus is another positive word and it is being analyzed because of why God is being analyzed. Little is known about how religious Kanye West is and the usage of Jesus could give an insight on that as well as see if Kanye took a religious approach instead of a narcissistic approach to deal with his mother's passing.

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<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=jesus*&bins=7&corpus=def28fd0f15cbe0201418749d2b47744&view=Trends'></iframe>
<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=jesus*&bins=100&corpus=7eb22a0921cf351f88380102b1ea6764&view=Trends'></iframe>
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===Love===
Love is analyzed because it could give the greatest insight on how Kanye feels at the time. The usage of love depending on the context could show direct connection with his mother and even his current family. Love is a positive word that would help determine if Kanye became more explicit over time.

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<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=love*&bins=7&corpus=def28fd0f15cbe0201418749d2b47744&view=Trends'></iframe>
<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=love*&bins=100&corpus=7eb22a0921cf351f88380102b1ea6764&view=Trends'></iframe>
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===Mama===
Mama of course is perhaps the most important text of all. The usage of mama helps determine if Kanye had a strong relationship with his mother at all using only his lyrics. It is known that Kanye was very close to his mother but the mention of mama in his music would further solidify that claim and bring the whole analysis together.

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<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=mama*&bins=7&corpus=def28fd0f15cbe0201418749d2b47744&view=Trends'></iframe>
<iframe style='width: 75%; height: 400px' src='//voyant-tools.org/?query=mama*&bins=100&corpus=7eb22a0921cf351f88380102b1ea6764&view=Trends'></iframe>
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==Context Analysis==
===Jesus Walks, The College Dropout, 10 February 2004===
Jesus

===Last Call, The College Dropout, 10 February 2004===
Kill

===Gold Digger, Late Registration, 30 August 2005===
Money

===Hey Mama, Late Registration, 30 August 2005===
Mama
===Love Lockdown,808s & Heartbreak, 24 November 2008===
Love

===Monster, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 22 November 2010===
Fuck

===I Am A God, Yeezus, 18 June 2013===
God

===Send It Up, Yeezus, 18 June 2013===
Bitch

==Conclusion==
===Sources===
Genius. "The Evolution of Kanye West Rewind." Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ARmSqvfwnE. Accessed 17 April 2017.
Sinclair, Stefan and Geoffrey Rockwell, Voyant Tools, 2017 Web. 19 Apr 2017. <http://voyant-tools.org>.