Forward looking Kanye West has seen his future and it looks like someone trying to re-invent the 60s, 70s, and 80s. So the rapper is trying on some new sounds for his new CD, '808s and Heartbreak', in which he SINGS instead of raps.
West, who said two weeks ago that he was the "voice of this generation," says of the album, "T.i. is not hip-hop music. Taking a sample, looping it and doing all that 'throw your hands up in the sky' thing has become such a cliche. Hip-hop is over for me."
"I sing, not rap, on this album. I now want to be grouped among those musicians you see in those old black-and-white photos - the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles."
"And I'm not going to get there by doing just another rap album full of samples."
Well, he's got that right, but just by mentioning hisself in the same sentence as Hendrix and the Beatles is not going to convince anyone he belongs in that echelon. His music needs to speak for itself.
West calls his new direction Pop Art - er, but don't confuse him with Warhol.
He adds: "I've had to create a whole new musical genre to describe what I'm doing now and I'm calling it 'pop-art' ... which is not to be confused with the visual art movement."
