1/27/2006 06:04:00 AM|||Brian Fending|||

First, let me say that I received Kanye West's Late Registration for Christmas. And yes, I like it and it's in heavy rotation on my iPod. It is one of few albums that I will listen to from start to finish. Now, then. If you always have something negative to say about him when his name comes up, this little article is for you.

West has received a lot of attention for his "President Bush hates black people" comment and for the Rolling Stone cover (The Passion of Kanye West) in which is adorned with a crown of thorns. Some call the former outrageous, the latter sacrilegious. Derisive comments about his music, of course, ensue. All who express this opinion put more weight on the artist and his outward views than the art which he creates. These people are, in my view, a pack of wild jackasses, heehawing like the media-washed slaves that they are.

Throughout history, we have praised an artist's output and placed significance upon their work NOT because they were saints or wonderful people, but because their art contributed to the ouvre of their genre and that of others. Orff's Carmina Burana? A largely anti-Semitic work that paints Jews as the pagans who will get theirs in the end. Are you a Nazi if you leave O, Fortuna! on when used in commercials or heard on the radio? Probably not, but the significance of the work remains. It has many layers, even past the meaning implied here, and therein lies the art of it. Are you a big jerk for going to an art museum and appreciating the work of a womanizing Mexican who created more pain for those who loved him than for those he loved? Maybe not, but you appreciate Diego Rivera's sociopolitical commentary nonetheless. It has layers - big, fat visual ones that bonk you over the head in each large work.

The latest Madonna release (Hung Up)? She's having sex with music through dance. That's it. Catchy hook, sexy video, brilliantly produced (as usual!) electronics, but that's it.

West created an album with tracks that interconnect as a monologue on the subject of race and equality in America, a commentary on recreating himself upon emerging from that inequality, and reflections on what that means for everyone including those still blind to the division. Plus it sounds gorgeous, has intelligent lyrics, and makes you want to dance like Madonna never could.

That is significant. Those are layers. That is art contributing to its ouvre and hatching controversy, discussion, and even revulsion in some. Hell, Varese's Ionisation was booed off stage when it premiered. But it's art, the whole package, and if you can't see that then you need to put that Madonna track on your iPod and go to the museum and look at some watercolors with your Columbian-brewed latte.

Oh, but before you do: Listen to Late Registration. You'll be glad you did.

|||113837215094323832|||Art v. Artist: A View on Kanye West