I refuse to renounce my abiding admiration for the music of Kanye West. He’s been canceled ten times over, but his personal missteps don’t invalidate the artistic quality of his discography.
West is undeniably the most important musician of the first two decades of the millennium. I relished the era in which each of his triumphant releases altered the direction of popular music.
Travis Scott’s reprehensible new album Utopia makes me miss West’s dominance all the more. Almost every passage on the 73-minute release references West’s art.
Drawing inspiration from West is as commendable as it is inescapable for a mainstream rapper, but Utopia registers as shameless theft rather than loving homage.