Kanye West: Shows Face for Fresh Kicks, Fresh Prez

TOP DOG
Kanye West has gotten a jump on 2009 and already ingratiated himself to President Barack Obama, and has found time with Louis Vuitton designers Marc Jacobs and Paul Helbers to unroll a new line of sneakers that have recently shoed down a runway in Paris.

Asked about why he’s designing sneakers, West tells all: “For me, like, this is one of the biggest moments in my life, cause I was designing stuff since like fourth grade. I went to art school.” Breaking out into a new genre, sneakers, West elevates himself to the category of rappers designing kicks, shared by Eminem/Nike, Missy Elliot/Addidas, and Pharrell Williams/Ice Cream Shoes.

West, looking less shorn than usual, has also performed at an inaugural ball for President Obama. The blogosphere has been extremely chatty about West’s live performances since 808’s and Heartbreak was released, citing that his live use of Autotune is either annoying, dishonest, or totally non-functioning (a la his drowning in boos in front of a fiery video projection during a recent Saturday Night Live performance).

The execution of his inaugural performance seemed right on, though. Kanye West and company accelerated through a seven-minute medley of West’s catalog, including “Stronger,” a song he did with Daft Punk. At the end of “Heartless” he changed the accusatory lyric “how could you be so heartless?” to a supportive “Obama” and gave his mom a shout out: “my Mom would be so proud right now to see her baby boy performing the number one song in the country right for our new African American president… being that she got arrested in the sit-ins at age six.”

In two weeks we’ll return to review Kanye’s new hairdo: the afro-hawk.

by Thomas Wilk

http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/