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Yes, this, exactly this. You've said better than I did. He is absolutely, totally a hacker. Pushing the limits. Challenging himself. Challenging the status

Yes, this, exactly this. You've said better than I did. He is absolutely, totally a hacker. Pushing the limits. Challenging himself. Challenging the status quo. I was just talking to a friend about this. You know what somebody's really made of when they have all of the money in the world. Then you watch them and see what happens. Everything Kanye does (at this point) he does because he feels it needs to exist in the world. Another million doesn't mean anything to him. $10 million probably doesn't even mean much to him. He doesn't do it for the money. Unlike lots of musicians, he didn't release 1 or 2 platinum albums and quit. He just keeps going. I align him more closely to somebody like Mark Zuckerberg than, I dunno, Huey? Zuckerberg has billions and just keeps on hacking. Kanye is a hacker through and through. > Kanye also sacrifices for his art. He paid millions out of his own pocket (back before he was financially set, I might add) to produce his own music videos for "Jesus Walks", after the studios wouldn't go with the direction as he wanted. I can't pin down the quote right now, but I recall him saying something to the effect of "If that album [Late Registration] wasn't a success I would have been broke". As we all know "Jesus Walks" became a #1 hit, Kanye got his videos on MTV, and the album went triple platinum. He continues to shell out of his own pocket for tours (that consistently succeed far past expectations) Did not know this any of this. Wow. Just one more reason to respect Kanye.

dragonwriter 13y ago
> He paid millions out of his own pocket (back before he was financially set, I might add) If you can pay millions out of your own pocket for anything, you were financially set when you decided to do that.
- guynamedloren 13y ago
  Partially true. Depends on how many millions, I guess. If it was in the low millions, it's definitely not "fuck you money", especially at a relatively young age with 50+ years of life left. It's enough to be comfortable, but I don't know if that's equivalent to "financially set".
- pdeuchler 13y ago
  I originally went into an in depth explanation of this in my original post, but decided it was a rabbit trail. Oh well. Essentially, artists have a lot of "credit" (i.e. they can elicit services for cheap due to the massive exposure it might get), but very little cashflow. They usually pay their living expenses through signing bonuses and use the rest of the contract money to finance the production of the album. In this specific case Kanye used a large amount of his own signing bonus for Late Registration to pay for the videos, while using the bare minimum the studio would give him to pay for just the directors. While theoretically he still would have had a lot of earning potential, and probably would have kept at least some of his "credit" if LR failed, he still would have been extremely cash poor. Kanye frequently talks about how bad he is with money and spending habits, so his financial situation was most likely pretty precarious. Side note: this is part of the "scam" of record labels... they purposely keep the economic buying power away from the artists' wallet and keep it tied to the artists' image, which just so happens to be very dependent on the studio's continued marketing efforts. Kanye actually addresses this in an interview, where he talks about "who is really free?" when comparing an up and coming artist in a Maybach to a homeless man on the side of the street.
pdeuchler 13y ago
Thanks for writing the post, you gave me the impetus to finally spit out what's been rolling around in my head for so long. Your comparison to Zuck seems very apt... The Black Eyed Peas had a song ("Gone Going") on Elephunk that (rather ironically) talks about an artist that gets famous and rich and falls out of touch with his fans because of that. I've always felt like Kanye has been the antithesis of that image, he continues to make "dopeness" (his word, not mine), and the fact that even his most avant-garde music continues to go platinum is great affirmation of that ideal.

dragonwriter 13y ago

> He paid millions out of his own pocket (back before he was financially set, I might add) If you can pay millions out of your own pocket for anything, you were financially set when you decided to do that.

guynamedloren 13y ago
Partially true. Depends on how many millions, I guess. If it was in the low millions, it's definitely not "fuck you money", especially at a relatively young age with 50+ years of life left. It's enough to be comfortable, but I don't know if that's equivalent to "financially set".
pdeuchler 13y ago
I originally went into an in depth explanation of this in my original post, but decided it was a rabbit trail. Oh well. Essentially, artists have a lot of "credit" (i.e. they can elicit services for cheap due to the massive exposure it might get), but very little cashflow. They usually pay their living expenses through signing bonuses and use the rest of the contract money to finance the production of the album. In this specific case Kanye used a large amount of his own signing bonus for Late Registration to pay for the videos, while using the bare minimum the studio would give him to pay for just the directors. While theoretically he still would have had a lot of earning potential, and probably would have kept at least some of his "credit" if LR failed, he still would have been extremely cash poor. Kanye frequently talks about how bad he is with money and spending habits, so his financial situation was most likely pretty precarious. Side note: this is part of the "scam" of record labels... they purposely keep the economic buying power away from the artists' wallet and keep it tied to the artists' image, which just so happens to be very dependent on the studio's continued marketing efforts. Kanye actually addresses this in an interview, where he talks about "who is really free?" when comparing an up and coming artist in a Maybach to a homeless man on the side of the street.

pdeuchler 13y ago

Thanks for writing the post, you gave me the impetus to finally spit out what's been rolling around in my head for so long. Your comparison to Zuck seems very apt... The Black Eyed Peas had a song ("Gone Going") on Elephunk that (rather ironically) talks about an artist that gets famous and rich and falls out of touch with his fans because of that. I've always felt like Kanye has been the antithesis of that image, he continues to make "dopeness" (his word, not mine), and the fact that even his most avant-garde music continues to go platinum is great affirmation of that ideal.