The Cultural Impact of Kanye West

The ability of popular art to offer societal critiques and challenge received ideas has been recognized throughout history. Through rap and hip-hop, composers, singers, and entertainers have recently provided a voice questioning and challenging the sanctioned view of the times. This book offers an in-depth reading of the works and cultural impact of Kanye West. Looking at the moral and social implications of West's words, images, and music in the broader context of Western civilization's preconceived ideas, the contributors consider how West both challenges religious and moral norms and propagates them.

Julius Bailey is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wittenberg University, USA. He is the editor of Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop's Philosopher King (2011) and author of Philosophy and Hip-Hop: Ruminations on Postmodern Cultural Form (2014) and numerous articles on hip-hop pedagogy and social justice issues.

Foreword; Davey D
Preface; Julius Bailey
PART I: REVISITING THE PHARMAKON: ARTISTIC GIFTS/HUMAN COMPLEXITIES
1. Now I Ain't Saying He's a 'Crate Digger': Kanye West and the Soul Archive; Mark Anthony Neal
2. Kanye West: Asterisk Genius?; Akil Houston
3. Afrofuturism: The Visual Imagery of Kanye West; Reynaldo Anderson and John Jennings
4. You got Kanyed: Seen But Not Heard; David J. Leonard
5. 'An Examination of the Kanye West Higher Education Trilogy; Heidi R. Lewis
PART II: UNPACKING HETERO-NORMATIVITY AND COMPLICATING RACE AND GENDER
6. 'By Any Means Necessary': Kanye West and the Hypermasculine Construct; Sha'Dawn Battle
7. Kanye West's Sonic Cosmopolitanism; Regina Bradley
8. 'Hard to Get Straight' Kanye West, Masculine Anxiety, Dis-identification; Tim'm West
9. You Can't Stand the Nigger I See!: Kanye West's Analysis of Anti-Black Death; Tommy Curry
PART III: THEORIZING THE AESTHETIC, THE POLITICAL, AND THE EXISTENTIAL
10. When Apollo and Dionysus Clash: A Nietzschean perspective on the work of Kanye West"; Julius Bailey
11. The God of the New Slaves or Slave to a Religion and a God?; Monica Miller
12. Trimalchio From Chicago: Flashing Lights & The Great Kanye in West Egg; A.D. Carson
13. Confidently (Non)cognizant of Neoliberalism: Kanye West and the Interruption of Taylor Swift; Nick Krebs
14. Kanye Omari West: Visions of Modernity; Dawn Boeck