Pop Lockdown

Traditionally, pop stars have rarely made themselves. If you go back in the time, record labels, anxious parents who wanted their children to be stars, or the demand of the fans made the pop star. But today, people have the Internet, MySpace, independent labels, and every outlet imaginable to define their own image and make it on their own.

Infrequently, do artists design their road to becoming a pop star as methodically as Kanye West has. In the past hip-hop artists have crossed over that threshold into the mainstream mostly by a classic radio hit that wasn't expected to cross over and sometimes by a conscious effort by the record label to make a big hit.

Kanye doesn't care. To him, he's bigger than hip-hop. 808s & Heartbreak (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam) isn't Kanye the MC, but more like Kanye the "superstar". He's not testing limits, he's breaking limits. Hate it, or love it, it's pretty darn creative. It may seem random, but it's not, he has a plan. He's driven himself into a lane where he can be more than a rapper and people are falling for it. New sound, new look, new book, and new ambitions. Some still scream for the old Kanye though. I do too.

I'm still a bigger fan of the rapper in Kanye, still was utterly confused by "Love Lockdown", then grew to love it as a good song when I realized had anyone else did it I would of automatically liked it so there was no point in resisting, still think it's hard to top College Dropout (in my mind), and don't agree with Kanye's statement that his latest is the best he's every done, but I respect the craft. He's the pop on lockdown.


Kanye West's and Louis Vuitton sci-fi inspired kicks:
The verdict's still out on this one but I may need Damon Wayons and David Alan Grier's soundcue of "hated it" from Men on Film"