Producer Bob Ezrin dropped a nuke on Kanye West the size of his ego yesterday via Bob Lefsetz's the Lefsetz Letter. Ezrin tore into West's legacy and influence, saying that he hasn't really done anything of significance in his career. "He didn’t open up new avenues of public discourse like NWA, or introduce the world to a new art form like Grandmaster Flash, or even meaningfully and memorably address social issues through his music like Marshall, Macklemore and Kendrick," Ezrin said.
He continued, "His songwriting – meaning the stuff with melodies – is sophomoric at best. I was embarrassed for Sir Paul – one of the greatest Artists of our era – by their collaboration." Ezrin went on to sum up the controversial rapper's appeal by saying, "Instead Kanye’s greatest achievements have been in the form of excessive behavior, egomaniacal tantrums and tasteless grandstanding. What he is a true artist at is living his life out loud – and shoving it down the throats of the rest of us whether we give a shit or not."
Woof.
Whether you agree or not, Ezrin's point is basically that West is famous in the eyes of many for all the wrong reasons. He's akin to watching a car wreck. You want to look away, but you just can't. Maybe what Ezrin misses is that there is a majority who enjoy West for the music he makes, and look down on the Kardashian machine he has willingly put himself into.
But enough of that, let's get to Kanye's reaction and see if we can't help him out a little bit. Because as you can imagine, Ezrin's letter made Yeezus maaaaad.
Yes, Kanye. If you've heard of KISS, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Phish, etc, you've also heard of Bob Ezrin.
Excellent query, Yeezus. Not sure.
"No connection with anything" might be a little bit of a stretch.
The Wall is pretty relevant. So is Destroyer. Those Alice Cooper records too......
Well, now we've cleared the line and are deep into full-blown crazytown.
Ezrin's granddaughter is actually really into this.
While I agree that Macklemore is not more musically important than you, Kanye, that wasn't exactly the quote. Here it is again: "He didn’t open up new avenues of public discourse like NWA, or introduce the world to a new art form like Grandmaster Flash, or even meaningfully and memorably address social issues through his music like Marshall, Macklemore and Kendrick."
At least you guys are on a first-name basis now.
As a reminder in every one of Kanye West's Twitter rants: The man is in debt.
Interesting theory.
Oh God is this a Taylor Swift reference. Jesus, Kanye.
What.
One final haymaker for Mr. Ezrin.
Literally none of this felt positive.
