Move Over Mozart

Do you think Mozart is great? How about Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, or Bach? Or modern composers like John Williams or James Newton Howard? Well, apparently these men have nothing on self-proclaimed rapper extraordinaire, Kanye West, who recently stated, "There's nothing more to be said about music. I'm the [expletive] end-all, be-all of music."

Yes, I'm sure Mozart would be impressed with West's repertoire of soaring symphonies and tuneful, emotionally moving compositions.

In the interest of fair reporting, I did a little research on Mr. West, as up to this point I've known him only as a rapper who is incapable of putting two words together without an expletive in between, and as someone who stormed the stage of the MTV Europe Music Awards when his video did not win a prize, interrupting the acceptance speech of the real winner and arguing that he should have won instead. (You can't make this stuff up).

Some quotable quotes, for your reading pleasure:

"People ask me a lot about my drive. I think it comes from, like, having a sexual addiction at a really young age."

In January, 2006, after appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone in the image of Jesus wearing a crown of thorns, he told a magazine "I throw up historical subjects in a way that makes kids want to learn about them... [I'm] definitely in the history books already."

"I have, like nuclear power, like a superhero, like Cyclops when he puts his glasses on."

"...I am one of the greatest rappers in the world. I'll get on a track and completely annihilate that track, I'll eat it and rip it in half. I wouldn't have to think of it."

"I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice. It's me settling into that position of just really accepting that it's one thing to say you want to do it and it's another thing to really end up being like Michael Jordan."

That great sucking sound you hear is the complete vacuum that surrounds such an ego. I apologize for subjecting you to the strangling feeling that accompanies it, but as my jaw is still resting on the desk, I thought these quotes were worthy of sharing. Mostly I'm just having trouble believing that someone could get to this point without his hugely-inflated head exploding. Who knew that narcissism could exist to such an extreme?

Is this our self-esteem culture gone awry? Individual parenting gone horribly wrong? Or is this just the natural result of gaining fame and fortune for all the wrong reasons? West does nothing but denigrate women, marriage, and family, has no respect for others, stomps on humility, kindness, and compassion, knows nothing about being a gracious winner or loser, and most of all just needs to have his mouth washed out with soap. He couldn't write a meaningful song to save his life. I can't even tell you the words to the "songs" he has written without having to clorox my eyeballs, my brain, and then my computer screen afterwards.

I would say Mozart is rolling over in his grave, but honestly, he and his composer friends are probably laughing their heads off. Either that or weeping over the sad state of music nowadays.