2. Kanye West
Nobody polarizes opinion quite like Kanye West. For every music fan who thinks he’s a genius who is responsible for some of the most adventurous and thrilling hip-hop records of all time, there are plenty of others who see him as a boorish jerk who relies too heavily on auto-tune and guest stars. His palpable arrogance hasn’t been tempered by the fact that record labels were similarly split down the middle in their opinions of him.
Before he signed to Def Jam, Kanye admits that he was rejected by “tonnes” of labels. They allegedly saw him as being a brilliant producer but unlikely to forge a solo career. Yeezus played them demos of tracks he’d written, produced and MC’d at his home studio, including the version of the sublime Jesus Walks that ended up on his solo debut, The College Dropout, to little effect.
While Kanye can drop some clunky rhymes, he is undoubtedly a brilliant MC and his live shows justify Def Jam’s decision to take a chance on ‘Ye. L.A. Reid possibly feels slightly better about knocking back Lady Gaga when he counts Kanye’s record sales.
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