It is my honor to present the winner of this year’s award for Highest Self-Esteem. I BELIEVE, that this years winner is someone with undeniable and unwavering self esteem. Ladies and gentlemen, I am here to award Mr. Kanye West, a self proclaimed God and genius, with the 2014 award for Highest Self-Esteem. Born in Atlanta, Georgia on June 8th of 1977 to successful parents, his mother was an english professor and his father an award winning photographer and church counselor. They divorced a mere 3 years after Kanye was born. West spent most of the year with his mother, on the south side of Chicago and the summers with his father. Despite the success of his parents and a separated family, Kanye never let large shadows cast doubt on his worth. …show more content…
West graduated from a chicago high school and attended Chicago State University for a single year as an art major before finding his calling among musicians. Upon finding his true passion, Kanye promptly moved from Chicago to New York the following year without a single worry as to whether his choice was the right one. West immediately tasted success, producing for a multitude of A-list musicians including Jay-Z, Ludacris and Beyonce. At the same time, Mr. West had no trouble getting signed and began working on his debut album with Roc-a-fella Records. Kanye’s debut album released in 2004 and after selling 2.4 million copies won a Best Rap Album Grammy. But of course, that was no surprise to Kanye. In total, West has produced 8 albums and has won a total of 124 awards throughout his career, including 21 Grammys. One is tempted to attribute West’s immense success to great talent, and perhaps a love affair with luck. However let us not underestimate the power of a strong and steady self-esteem. Google defines self esteem as confidence in one’s own worth and abilities or self - respect. As we have seen Kanye West is never doubtful of his abilities as well as his opinions and the respect he
Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter on December 4, 1969. He grew up in the infamous Marcy projects in Brooklyn with a sister and a brother. You would think that just growing up on the Marcy projects would be hard enough on a kid, but at the age of twelve, Shawn’s parents got a divorce. Shawn then attended the Brooklyn High school with two of today’s better known rappers, Biggie Smalls and Busta Rhymes.
He describes the sensation of “measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity” (2). West tackles double- consciousness in a lot of his songs, but more so I “Gorgeous” and “Power”. He does have slight elements in “Monster”, however. In “Gorgeous”, West is straight-forward in his approach, voicing his frustrations about appearing to fit in with the majority of popular artists (namely the white ones), yet when he does something stereotypically black he gets massive media attention and is berated for his actions. It is even in his clothes: if he is wearing the right clothing he is accepted, but is automatically perceived as ghetto when he is wearing sneakers and a white t-shirt. “As long as I’m in Polo’s smiling they think they got me/But they would try to crack me if they ever see a black me” (Lyrics On Demand). In “Power”, he discusses issues with fame and general concept of power, as well as being a minority with limited options. He talks about how education is limited and that minority children are eventually doomed to prison. “The system broken, the schools closed, the prison’s open” (Lyrics On Demand). His lyrics speak of how the world around him in controlled by the majority, and how minorities are forced to conform to the standards of the rest of the world. In “Monster”, the biggest hint at double- consciousness is the inclusion of Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, a white indie folk musician. Vernon’s appearance on such a quintessential rap track is impressive and jaw-dropping considering these types of songs (posse cuts”) are notorious for featuring all- black artists. His presence plays to the double-consciousness West expresses, by mixing black and white artists together for
June 16th, 1971 in Brooklyn, New York. Lesane Parish Crooks was born. Left by his father, Alice Williams, Tupac's mother changed his name from Lesage to Tupac Amaru Shakur. Tupac has moved from Oakland to New York and back again. When he was fifteen he was into writing rap lyrics and gang related subjects. By the time Tupac was eighteen he had been arrested eight times, even serving eight months in prison after being convicted of sexual abuse. Tupac studied the teachings of a war strategist known as Machiavelli in prison.
Well, he shows you do not have to be the smartest person to be successful and that never to give up on what you’re after. For example, he puts parts of his personal life into his music to show that just because he has fame and fortune that doesn’t mean he’s like any other human being. He sings and raps about love, passion, and loss. For one in his song “Hotline Bling” from his album “Views,” shows a loss of a friend, or maybe a lover and how things change and one you stop trying to make the relationship work, but turns out into just being “you used to.”
He says in the song “Man I’m so self-conscious, that’s why you always see me with one of my watches,” showing that he took the route of obtaining material possessions as soon as he acquired money to try and show others his success (West). He furthers this point by stating “then I spent 400 bucks on this, just to be like, you ain’t up on this,” showing it wasn’t just one instance, but a constant reoccurrence of showing off his material possessions to constantly try and present himself to others as “successful(West).” Even though both songs describe the shortcuts of people trying to show others their success through material goods, they overlap by not promoting those actions.
Charlie Sheen is a well-known actor, although the person he is today is no longer Carlos Irwin Estevez. Charlie sheen, born on September 3, 1965, is the son of Martin Sheen. Charlie almost died at birth and was named after his doctor for this, thus his middle name was Irwin. His father, also an actor, was entering the stage of Broadway around the time Charlie was born. Charlie’s mother is Janet Sheen and the two of them had three other children. These included Ramon Estevez, Renee Estevez, and Emilio Estevez. All of them turned out to be actors, following in the footsteps of their father.
Tupac Amaru Shakur born in East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. His birth name was Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16 1971. His both parents were members of the Black Panther Party. Tupac Shakur was a vocal participant during the East Coast and West Coast hip hop rivalry. He went to High School in California and Maryland. His career brought him back to New York City. Forget about his education and family background, thinking about how he put himself into his career so successfully. To succeed and accomplishment that made him in legacy…..
Tupac’s first big break came when he joined the group Digital Underground as a dancer and roadie. During that time, Tupac spent a lot of the time composing his own poetry and lyrics to launch his own career. In 1991 he signed with Interscope records and a year later he released his first album 2Pacalypse Now, which immediately landed him
He received a boom box for his birthday one year and from there, the rest is history. Jay-Z is one of the most talented rapper alive. Many rappers including J. Cole and Kanye West idolize him. His songs paint pictures and tell stories. He uses his past experiences as the base of many of his rhymes. Every line of every verse has a detailed meaning. Jay-Z used his musical gift to create initial success and wealth for himself. However the one part that is often overlooked is the countless hours he spends working and perfecting his craft. Jay-Z’s process for recording is unlike most. Ever since then Jay-Z decided not to write down any of his lyrics; he has memorized every line of every song he has recorded, making his style even more unique. He has released 12 studio albums and every single one has sold over a million copies, making them certified platinum albums. As a result, Jay-Z has been nominated for several Grammy Awards, while winning 21 of them. Jay-Z has performed at many major events including President Obama’s rally in 2012, as well as his popular music festival entitled “Made in America” just this year. Jay-Z has sold out shows all over the world, including New Yorks very own Madison Square Garden and Barclays Arena. There have been many great musical talents to emerge from Brooklyn, however none of them have been as skilled and crafty as Jay-Z. Jay-Z’s music success as a rapper alone arguably deems him the King of New
He may just seem like another rapper to you but if you actually listen to his lyrics you can see he’s not like any rapper out there. His name is Kanye West and he was born in Chicago Illinois. He grew up in the “ghetto” and learned to appreciate life. He didn’t learn to really, truly appreciate life until October of 2002. Driving back to his hotel late one night after a recording session, the new-coming rap/hip-hop artist was involved in a devastating, near fatal car accident. The crash left him with a broken jaw in three places and an appreciation for life. Just weeks after being released from the hospital he recorded his first major hit, “Through the Wire,” with his mouth still wired shut. He records every song like its going to be his last song and that makes every song better than the last. He’s not only a rap artist but also a producer. He has been responsible for being behind songs like Jay-Z’s Izzo, Girls, Girls, Girls, The Takeover, and 03 Bonnie and Clyde.
In 1997 he went to the Rap Olympics in Los Angeles where a few producers were very impressed and took a demo to Dr. Dre. After the two met, they recorded four songs within the first six hours of working together, creating his first album Marshall Mathers LP. That album was the first rap album to ever be nominated for “Album of the Year” and won 3 Grammy awards. In the first week the album was released, it sold 1.76 million copies in the U.S. which is a record for a solo artist. Eminem has released 10 albums, all rap music. He would spend hours...
C.M., Emmanuel. "Kanye West Says He Is The Most Influential Person In Fashion Of The Last
The problem that laid in his way, was the social stigma at the time. In the early 90’s rap was dominated by the “gansta” rap scene. People like Tupac, Biggie and Dr. Dre ran the industry at that point and there was no room for Kanye and his pink polo. Kanye was seen as a producer first and foremost, since that’s what he was so good at and that’s all he had done up until that point. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that Kanye was brought onto Roc-A-Fella records with Jay-Z where his producing really started to shine. Helping produce Jay-Z’s 2001 album The Blueprint, the album was a huge success and lead to the revitalization of Jay-Z’s career. Kanye didn’t get a chance to make his own record until the following year (even though he had been working on it for almost 3 years now) when Roc-A-Fella finally gave him the go ahead. Kanye started his production of The College Dropout. It was also around this time that Kayne started a relationship with a girl named Alexis Phifer. Their relationship would be on and off again for the next few
Colin Powell was born on April 5, 1937 in a Harlem New York hospital. His parents were immigrants from Jamaica. Colin grew up in the south Bronx in a neighborhood nicknamed “Banana Kelly”. His father pushed him to get a good education and Colin tried to study and get good grades but he graduated high school from Morris High School with a C average. Even though this was not an outstanding average you could get his father was not angry at him. After high school Colin went to a city college in New York. Later on Colin married Alma Vivian Johnson and they had three children. Eventually he wrote a best-selling auto-biography.
In just 9 years of being in the music industry, Rihanna has achieved 12 billboard music awards, 8 Grammy awards, sold 210 million songs and 54 million albums worldwide. You think that’s all? No! She’s the fastest solo artist to hit the no.1 singles on billboard hot 100, thirteen times; that too as the youngest in the scene!