![]() Yes, they channel their complications through their art, but they also give voice to them outside their art, and they aren’t particularly concerned with how it sounds.Īs West drove the Internet crazy for a couple of weeks this year upon the release of The Life of Pablo, or at least its first public iteration, it would have been helpful to understand that while the whole sh-bang (Is it finished? Who’s on it? What the eff is Tidal?) was outrageous, there was a way to process it without getting caught in the must-respond-to-every-last-tweet-NOW frenzy that burned away hours of life that will never be recovered. There have been black men not at all shy about daring America to accept them in all their audacious blackness since at least Jack Johnson a century ago, but West and Mingus represent a separate strain within that swaggering lineage: their public lives represent their working out in real time the contradictions and frustrations of being an outspoken black artist, and outspoken black man, in America. ![]() They both represent an extreme form of the complicated-and-proud-of-it black man, within a society that prefers its black men as uncomplicated and untroubling as possible. Both of them were prodigious commentators on the state of their industry.įurther, both West and Mingus were anything but meek and mild about all that. ![]() Both of them were concerned with control and the means of production. Both of them were highly restless and creative. West’s rap acuity is unquestioned, as was Mingus’ on his bass, but the common bonds they share have relatively little to do with music. There’s a reason Kanye West’s career to date lends itself to a summary recalling the opening lines of Beneath the Underdog (1971), the autobiography of the jazz bassist/composer Charles Mingus. Then there’s the ‘Ye that sometimes can’t stay out of his own way, undercutting his brilliance and perception with ill-timed excesses that serve little apparent purpose besides keeping his name in the paper. Another ‘Ye isn’t satisfied with the bigness of the statements he’s already making, and has come to believe quite firmly that’s he’s capable of doing whatever he wakes up in the morning determined to do he has previously declared himself a god. One ‘Ye is relentlessly clever and innovative, possessed of both the desire and the ability to make big statements. – Kanye West, as quoted in Kanye West: God & Monster – Sue Graham, from a 1972 interview with John Goodman included in Mingus Speaks. You know, it can be at the expense of a lot of people around you when you’re doing this, but this is an artistic need. You know, most people don’t expose themselves all the time, but that’s how you do find art. Saying everything, spitting it all out, getting out all your feelings, examining them - and eventually certain truths become apparent. You know, a lot of art is simply really being a loudmouth. See, most of us have learned to curb certain things, to control certain things.Īnd… that’s partly what an artist does anyway. He is inhibited about very few things, and he lives out his feelings, he lives out his doubts, he lives out his angers. See, what he does is, he lives out all his - most people don’t live as full a life as Charles does.
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