Kanye West has to be one of the
most contentious performing artist/songwriter’s of today. His outrageous ego,
his over-the-top lifestyle, his penchant for controversy by constantly voicing his
opinion, of course without being asked. Then to top it all off, he goes and
marries into the biggest celebrity family, famous for not doing anything besides
being friends with Ryan Seacrest.
And yet he’s arguably one of the
few artists that’s been consistently on top of the game. Multiple critically
acclaimed albums, playing sold out arenas, even getting Paul McCartney to play
on a song. West was the most talked about artist from Glastonbury albeit for a
range of reasons - from the usual haters that hate just because to being exponentially
lauded by fans and critics alike. Never to squander a presented opportunity,
the rapper went on to tell the Glastonbury crowd that they were witnessing “the
greatest living rock star on the planet!”
Without a doubt, keyboard warriors
had a field day with this one. This claim had also brought the ire of Corey
Taylor, the lead singer of Slipknot (a nu-metal band that wears Halloween masks
and calls banging on trash cans “percussion”), and lead singer of Stone Sour, a
band that sounds like every other hard-rock band of mid-to-late 2000’s
sponsored by Monster Energy Drinks. While both bands were highly successful in
their heyday, Slipknot has fallen from grace into hard rock purgatory, co-headlining
tours with Korn, another nu-metal band still attempting to stay relevant (even
going so far as to collaborate with Skrillex for some Nu-Metal Dubstep).
So why is he so bitter that West
has proclaimed himself to be the greatest living rock star? Currently Taylor
seems to be abiding his time by playing small venues with max capacities of
5000, so his small stage pales in comparison to the Yeezus Mountain West towers
over. In every comparison, record sales, ticket sales, Grammy awards, West has
Taylor beat by a huge margin. The better question is why do we really care what
Corey Taylor thinks?
Yes we all know West likes toot his
own horn like it’s the only one left, but he’s surely not the only musician to
give himself such praise. John Lennon infamously said that he was bigger than
Jesus, then Oasis frontman said they were bigger than Jesus as well and
eventually the Beatles. There’s also another similarity between these three
aggrandizers, they can actually back it up with multi-platinum albums and
adornment by critics. Corey Taylor cannot say the same.
Taylor said West is acting like he
just got laid. This is Kanye West we are talking about, do we really need to go
into the women he has been intimate with? His songs ooze so much sex that
Prince gave it up for protest songs instead.
Love him/hate him, Kanye West is
here to stay to keep turning heads and stomp onto new ground. He’s the epitome
of what it means to be rock star –loud, egotistical, and genius. And if that
pisses off Corey Taylor, then Yeezy is doing something right.
Ben Affleck has just been announced as director and
co-screenwriter for a future Batman movie, date yet to be determined. Now every
movie fanatic can say they foresaw the future. It was just way too obvious after
Affleck was casted. He was originally offered to direct the Justice League
movie along with the role way before he was ever officially announced as
Batman. 
