http://www.rhapsody.com/goto?rcid=art.5015309&rws=%2Fkanye-west%2Fmusic-videos.rssOne of the most successful pop personalities of the '00s, Chi-town producer/emcee Kanye West may be hip-hop's most unlikely superstar. After Jay-Z's <I>The Blueprint</I> dropped in 2001 with West productions "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "Never Change," his patented chipmunk soul (sped-up soul loops for choruses; dramatic, sweeping strings) ushered in a new era of polished hip-hop formalism. It was a nice rejoinder to the bombast of Timbaland and the Neptunes. Many doubted that West could make the transition from producer to emcee; his flow was rigid compared to his Roc-A-Fella counterparts, and his middle-class perspective was the antithesis of their crack raps. But on his 2004 debut, <I>College Dropout</I>, West delivered one of the most thematically complex pop albums of the decade, alternately accepting and rejecting rap's conspicuous consumerism and reconciling his middle-class upbringing with hip-hop's more nihilistic archetypes. Subsequent albums documented West's ascension from quirky underdog to king of the hip-hop world, a position he continued to hold with 2008's mystifying <I>808 &amp; Heartbreak</I>, which brandished his sensitive heart on its Auto-Tuned sleeve. - Sam ChennaultHitmakersen720Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:12:00 -0800 http://static.realone.com/rotw/images/logo_rhapsody_113x22.gif http://www.rhapsody.com/goto?rcid=art.5015309&rws=%2Fkanye-west%2Fmusic-videos.rss One of the most successful pop personalities of the '00s, Chi-town producer/emcee Kanye West may be hip-hop's most unlikely superstar. After Jay-Z's <I>The Blueprint</I> dropped in 2001 with West productions "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "Never Change," his patented chipmunk soul (sped-up soul loops for choruses; dramatic, sweeping strings) ushered in a new era of polished hip-hop formalism. It was a nice rejoinder to the bombast of Timbaland and the Neptunes. Many doubted that West could make the transition from producer to emcee; his flow was rigid compared to his Roc-A-Fella counterparts, and his middle-class perspective was the antithesis of their crack raps. But on his 2004 debut, <I>College Dropout</I>, West delivered one of the most thematically complex pop albums of the decade, alternately accepting and rejecting rap's conspicuous consumerism and reconciling his middle-class upbringing with hip-hop's more nihilistic archetypes. Subsequent albums documented West's ascension from quirky underdog to king of the hip-hop world, a position he continued to hold with 2008's mystifying <I>808 &amp; Heartbreak</I>, which brandished his sensitive heart on its Auto-Tuned sleeve. - Sam Chennault