Re: Rebuttal to Kanye West comparison

Dear Mr. Jones:

First, let me say that I, though a child of the hip-hop generation, also grew up on a lot of the music you produced. My family was big into music, and my father was what some would consider a maven, chocked full of facts about all genres and sounds, from yours, to the Motown sound, to Bob Dylan, and even the early makings of hip-hop, Kurtis Blow. He gave me lesson after lesson about the intricacies of harmony and melody, pointing out the instruments and movements, the lyrics and vocal nuances. When we would watch Sanford and Son, he’d be sure to remind me that the theme song was created by you. I knew it was called “Streetbeater,” because he made me know it. He made sure I knew the same about The Color Purple, who can forget, “We Are The World,” and of course I would be remiss to not mention the rest of the legendary work you did with the late Michael Jackson. To say it was perfection is an understatement. It might be one of the most important musical runs in the history of the world. You were then, and are now, a giant.

But what exactly is a giant’s role. Well, I suppose I have no say in that. But there are some obvious options. One being, the giant could crush all things that stand in his way, tearing down all things seemingly smaller than himself. It’s nothing for a giant to cause destruction. A wave of his hand. A stomp of his foot. Nothing. But another option, a slightly more humbling, but far more constructive option, is for the giant to help the smaller people become bigger. To teach them the ways of the giant. To teach them how to walk like a giant, talk like a giant, and do the things giants do, even if the giant himself doesn’t think the smaller individuals are in fact, giants.

I wish you had taken option two, when that reporter asked you what you thought about Kanye West being “similar to you in that he’s the producer everybody wants to work with in the last decade…” You had an opportunity to shed some light on an artist, a man, who for one reason or another has been living under a dark cloud, one perpetuated by himself and an insane media storm, for quite some time now. And if you had just taken a moment to process the question, possibly you would’ve answered differently.

No one can tell you how to feel, or what to say, but the truth is, he is the most sought after producer in the last decade. Especially in his own genre, but reaching out into the pop world as well. Not only is he sought after, but the way in which he has influenced pop culture has been incredible, and has only been done maybe ten other times in your lifetime. Does he play instruments like you? No. Has he ever written for a symphony orchestra? Absolutely not. But does that mean his music can’t someday hold the weight, that yours does? Maybe. To keep saying he’s a rapper, as if a rapper is “less than,” is a misfortune, Mr. Jones. Hip-hop is here to stay, and if it’s such an easy thing to do, if it’s so easily looked at as the bastard child of American music, why don’t you try your hand at it? What you wrote for the clarinet and the bassoon, he, and others like him, express in lyrics and beats. To say he’s “just” anything is awfully insulting, especially coming from such a giant who knows music well enough to know that no genre should be belittled. Music is for movement, and celebration, for statement and revolution, not for elitist mentalities, and silo’d generations who refuse to learn and take part in the music of the now. Hip-hop is the largest musical force in history, all over the world, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. With Kanye arguably at the helm, I find it hard to believe that you don’t think about him, at all.

He hasn’t had the training you’ve had. Very few of us have. But isn’t there something to be said for his ear? His vision? Could it be that he can hear it just like you can, but the way he translates and dissiminates it, has to do with the technology that we have today, that you didn’t have? The ways to make sound and music have changed. We need you to allow for it. As a matter of fact, Mr. Jones, we need you to encourage it as an elder in music, and also as elder in our community.

I wish you would’ve said something that highlighted the fact that he is talented, and that he has contributed not just to hip-hop, but to the whole of music in a major way. That you can at least see some of you in him – the gumption, the edge, the innovative spirit. The icing on the cake would’ve been for you to say that you wouldn’t even mind working with him, if not to make music (though that would be amazing) but maybe even to mentor him, at a time where he just might be about to go to some other level of influence in pop culture, which could potentially push him further into possibility of self-destruction. Encouraging words from a giant like yourself, could be groundbreaking for a tortured trailblazer like Kanye, and one more notch in music history for you. He poses no threat to you. Your legacy is safe. So you have no reason not to be encouraging to a young man with extreme potential for greatness. Remember, Mr. Jones, giants don’t become giants on their own. Not even you did.

Thank you for your life, and your music.

Respectfully,

Jason Reynolds

P.S. Did you even listen to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy?