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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<iframe src='https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1nQRzFUIR-i5cEhhB9gibafAO3sqDJh1IDEl09ZOjf_s&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650' width='100%' height='650' frameborder='0'></iframe> | <iframe src='https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1nQRzFUIR-i5cEhhB9gibafAO3sqDJh1IDEl09ZOjf_s&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650' width='100%' height='650' frameborder='0'></iframe> | ||
</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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===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>. | ||
