The Life of Kanye West
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===Method=== | ===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. | + | 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. |
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| + | 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. In music sometimes a word is repeated many times in the chorus or the hook. This can affect the analysis because the frequency of a word may not necessarily equate to the significance of that word in the song. For this project we chose to ignore this because the frequency of a word in a rap song usually implies in emphasis rather than simply the repeating of a chorus to transition to the next verse. | ||
==Timeline== | ==Timeline== | ||
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</html> | </html> | ||
| + | ==Map== | ||
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| + | <html><iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/embed?mid=1DY15DgW7ypY2plMWBTdtWnqj2jQ" width="640" height="480"></iframe></html> | ||
==Text Mining== | ==Text Mining== | ||
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</html> | </html> | ||
| − | == | + | ==Contextual Analysis== |
===Jesus Walks, The College Dropout, 10 February 2004=== | ===Jesus Walks, The College Dropout, 10 February 2004=== | ||
| − | Jesus | + | Jesus is used extensively in Jesus Walks, a song in Kanye West's debut album. The song could be described as a hip-hop song that promotes Christianity and it even won a Grammy for Best Rap Song. In the song itself Jesus is used mostly but not exclusively in the hook where a choir sings "Jesus walks" intermittently between Kanye's verses. This was one of the first song Kanye ever released and it showed a religious side of Kanye. This song still has a few explicit words in it but compared to most of Kanye's music this is a very clean song and is a classic representation of "early Kanye." |
===Last Call, The College Dropout, 10 February 2004=== | ===Last Call, The College Dropout, 10 February 2004=== | ||
| − | Kill | + | Kill or a variation of kill is used 5 times in this song making it the most times out of any Kanye song. Last Call is the very last song on Kanye West's debut album, The College Dropout. It is also the longest song Kanye has ever recorded lasting 12 minutes and 41 seconds. This song has a lot going on in it but in summary Kanye raps about his rise from a minor producer to major producer to underappreciated rapper to the rapper he is now. In the verse "Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem" Kanye talks about how people never thought he could become a successful rapper. The word kill in this song is not used in an explicit way as much as it is used in a way to express how Kanye feels now that he has become a successful rapper. Kill is only used 5 times anyway so that goes to show Kanye does not use the word kill very often in any of his music. |
===Gold Digger, Late Registration, 30 August 2005=== | ===Gold Digger, Late Registration, 30 August 2005=== | ||
| − | Money | + | Money is used frequently and mostly in the hook of this song. Gold Digger is one of Kanye West's most popular songs ever and it was released in his second album Late Registration. The verse "She take my money when I'm in need" is echoed throughout the song and is sung by Jamie Foxx who is impersonating Ray Charles in the song. Money is used to talk about a gold digger. The word money was text mined because if the lyrics included Kanye boasting about his money it could represent narcissism but that is not the case in this song. This song is not a narcissistic song. |
===Hey Mama, Late Registration, 30 August 2005=== | ===Hey Mama, Late Registration, 30 August 2005=== | ||
| − | Mama | + | This song is a complete tribute to Kanye West's tribute. Kanye's relationship with his mother was private until this song came out. The obvious affection and love for his mother is echoed throughout this song. Kanye describes his appreciation of her raising him amidst all of the personal hardships and instilling her values in him. During Kanye's first performance after his mother's death on 17 November 2007, Kanye broke down in tears trying to perform this song. Kanye's relationship with his mother was very strong and her death influenced him greatly. Mama was used extensively in this song. |
| − | ===Love Lockdown,808s & Heartbreak, 24 November 2008=== | + | |
| − | Love | + | ===Love Lockdown, 808s & Heartbreak, 24 November 2008=== |
| + | Love Lockdown was the first single released for the album 808s & Heartbreak. This was also the first single to be released after the death of Kanye West's mother and Kanye's breakup with his fiancee. It was also Kanye's first song that contain only singing and no rapping. 808s & Heartbreak is in interesting album in that there is not a single curse word used in the whole album and every song features a 808, which is a drum pattern. Every song in the album is completely clean, the only such Kanye album. This song is about his breakup with his fiancee because it covers keeping control over love. It is about not loving someone anymore and not being about to get out of that situation. | ||
===Monster, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 22 November 2010=== | ===Monster, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 22 November 2010=== | ||
| − | + | Monster may be one of Kanye's most explicit songs he has ever recorded. It has a horror aspect to it and has been described as disturbing and weird. The music video that accompanied it was even more explicit and was banned by MTV. The song itself talks about a monster using atmospheric, heavy-drum composition. The hook "I'ma need to see your fucking hands at the concert" is repeated many times throughout the 6 minute 18 second song but the use of fuck is also very common in other verses. This type of aggressive music was new in terms of Kanye's previous type of music and started the cascade from "old Kanye" to "new Kanye." | |
===I Am A God, Yeezus, 18 June 2013=== | ===I Am A God, Yeezus, 18 June 2013=== | ||
| − | God | + | God was text mined to see if Kanye West's used religion in his music at all. As seen before Jesus was used quite a bit in the song Jesus Walks for Kanye's first album therefore there is evidence of a religious Kanye early on. This song, however, is quite the opposite. In this song Kanye proclaims himself as a God. Kanye promotes his "new brand of Kanye" in that nobody love Kanye more than Kanye. Narcissism is rampant in this song and the new style of Kanye has long been differentiated from Kanye's first few albums. |
===Send It Up, Yeezus, 18 June 2013=== | ===Send It Up, Yeezus, 18 June 2013=== | ||
| − | Bitch | + | Bitch is used many times in this song. The hook "We can send this bitch up, it can't go down" is Kanye boasting that even with the success he has had he can not go any farther down. He can only go up from here. More narcissism is evident this song. This song is also about how the old Kanye is gone and the new Kanye is back and here to stay. If you keep reliving the old Kanye then you are going to miss out on the new Kanye. |
==Conclusion== | ==Conclusion== | ||
| − | + | Using the analysis from text mining and contextual analysis, the thesis, "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" is supported. The use of explicit words and themes skyrocketed after the death of Kanye's mother. However, this change was not evident immediately. Kanye's first album after his mother's death, 808s & Heartbreak, did not use a single explicit word throughout the whole album. The change in Kanye was first evident in My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy where Kanye becomes the most explicit he has yet and this trend is carried throughout Yeezus and is even seen, though to a less degree, in Kanye's most recent album The Life of Pablo. Kanye even goes as far as proclaiming himself as a God in the album Yeezus. Kanye's mother's death has had a major impact on Kanye's life. When the death first occurred Kanye went into almost a depression releasing his album of heartbreak with 808s & Heartbreak. But after this release Kanye has not looked back and has embraced a narcissistic attitude toward life. This narcissism is a way to deal with his mother's death by displacement. Displacement in psychology is the movement to a new aim or goal to cope with an event. This can be seen in Kanye's music after the death of his mother with the creation of "new Kanye." | |
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| + | ==Sources== | ||
Genius. "The Evolution of Kanye West Rewind." Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ARmSqvfwnE. Accessed 17 April 2017. | 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>. | Sinclair, Stefan and Geoffrey Rockwell, Voyant Tools, 2017 Web. 19 Apr 2017. <http://voyant-tools.org>. | ||
