Brood wrote:EminemBase wrote:^ Even now, I wouldn't say Kanye is more "daring" - Do you honestly think anything Kanye has said in the... well, even his entire career touches the sides of the audacity of the things said in "Almost Famous" alone lmao?
Like I said, it's just because his edge has worn off a lot. People are used to him. But his words are like a fucking sledgehammer to the head.
Kanye is more willing to change lanes to bigger degrees, I'd agree with that. Em has also reinvented his styles every album but needs to take bigger leaps into new areas now. But it's because Kanye has a more artistic, inspired background. He's more worldly and informed.
Perhaps I should've worded it better. I'm not talking about lyrics. When I say daring, I mean that Kanye's willing to step outside of his comfort zone to make a pop album. Do you see Em experimenting as severe as that nowadays?
Call me crazy, but I think Em is very capable of creating a decent rock album if he wanted to. Like you said, Kanye comes from a more artistic and inspired background, but Eminem has a bit of rock in him and has always displayed it in his prior albums. It might rile up fans if he'd make a pure rock album -- however, 808s was a pop album, and look how successful that turned out to be sales-wise. Generally favorable reviews as well!
Yes because like I say - Kanye's background is extremely different.
The reason you see Kanye doing that is he went to art school, and knows a lot of other music besides hip-hop. He's had a totally different kind of background.
Em grew up strictly on hip-hop (and rock), but primarily that one genre was his entire existance. He lived paycheck to paycheck, didn't finish high school let alone go to college and spent every waking minute working out better rhyme schemes and punchlines.
They're two different pepole with different aims and intent. You can of course draw comparison in certain aspects of their attitude and things they've done and for what reasons but they're still very different. Eminem isn't in love with cultural art like Kanye is, he doesn't have the same passion for fashion and imagery as a whole.
So saying Kanye's more daring for doing a pop album is like saying Eminem is a better artist because he fits more words into a bar. That's not Kanye's aim or strong-point.
Eminem evolved extremely quickly. You can take two Eminem songs back-to-back from two years and they sound NOTHING alike, example: "My Name Is" vs. "The Way I Am". He's a quick-fuse, he lights up and blasts off, he's the Tyson of rap. Kanye is more of a slow burn with more areas he wants to dabble in.
But Eminem did an extreme amount of experimentation from 99-04. Just because he didn't change genres or dress like Prince doesn't mean he didn't experiment. He dabbled with the art-form of rap and pushed it to absolute new heights, in ways never done before. Why would he want to make a rock album or switch genres in that period if not satisfied with his expermentation in his own genre yet? He was still (and still is) trying to push the boundaries of wordplay, flows and rapping.
Where as Kanye isn't as interested in that direct aim. He's more interested in music as a whole, so it makes more sense that he would do something like switch genres. So it's not really that daring given the context of his aims, no more than it is for Em to rhyme one of the longest words in the dictionary, as that's
his context.
But when you say Kanye is more daring you imply as an artist as a whole. In terms of the boundaries he pushes with ideas and execution. And that's not just lyricism, I can even leave that aside but you still have to take into account the ideas... and how he's executing them. And on that level, Eminem is again - 10000% more daring. Kanye is just more open to other cultures, genres and... colours from his paint palette - So you may get a richer sound or a more shocking admission. But as an artist, as a whole, he really isn't a scratch on Eminem's daring nature. In any sense.
But yes I would like to see Em experiment with form much more now. Relapse was IMO a step in the right direction, the 'accent' as people call it was fantastic, people can't pin it down as it's no 'one' accent. He was simply bending and emphasizing words to absolutely maximise the effectiveness of delivery to the ears, the flows were sublime.
Em has more than experimented with lyricism and flows long enough though. I definitely think it's time to experiment with ideas now. He needs to think BIG.