and oh yeah, Yeezy

I must confess, I am an avid Kanye West fan. Not an avid rap fan (at least not main stream), but definitely a fan of him personally. I can't put my finger on one thing about him. I certainly don't agree with his point of view on some issues (e.g., women and politics), but i just typed the word "issues." How many musical artists, especially popular artists will even come close to the issues? Not many, for sure. I respect that he has opinions. So many in our generation don't. I respect that he actually has a vocabulary and uses it. So many people don't.

He's just different. He does things no one else does. But most of all? He's passionate.

anyways, i don't have a man-crush on him. i just these past couple of days have felt a biggie-sized burden relating to Kanye. Lost = Kanye West. I don't think he really has a clue about why he's here on Earth. His mother died recently and he and his fiancee have split up. His new album 808s & Heartbreak is all about those two things. But the track that really kinda started all this for me is the last one on the album, Pinocchio Story. It's a six-minute live freestyle in Singapore. The fans are screaming because they don't know English, and it adds an eerie effect to what he's saying. Now, I know that people have been through much worse than Kanye, but it just goes to show that at the bottom of it all, the soul of humanity yearns for meaning. Some type of purpose beyond the temporal, day-to-day life that we live. He doesn't have it, and neither do people all over the world.

here's some of his freestyle:

Its so crazy
I got everything figured out
But for some reason I can never find what real love is about
No doubt
Everything in the world figured out but I can never seem to find what love is about

Do you think I sacrificed real life
For all the fame of flashing lights?
Do you think I sacrifice a real life
For all the fame of flashing lights?

There is no Gucci I can buy
There is no Louis Vuitton to put on
There is no YSL that they could sell
To get my heart out of this hell
And my mind out of this jail
There is no clothes that I could buy
That could turn back the time
There is no vacation spot I could fly
That could bring back a piece of real life
Real life, what does it feel like?
I ask you tonight, I ask you tonight
What does it feel like, I ask you tonight
To live a real life
I just want to be a real boy
They always say Kanye, he keeps it real boy
Pinocchio story is, I just want to be a real boy
Pinocchio story is to be a real boy

in some ways, maybe in the most real ways, Kanye West is no different than anyone else. Whether or not you have fame and fortune, you're still lost. And whether or not you're really lost or just barely lost, you're still lost. But that's the cool thing. A guy who was God carried His own cross up a hill called Golgotha and died on it. And the reason he did that was so that people like Kanye, people like you and me, could be found. We could never find ourselves, but Jesus can find us.