Opinions about musician Kanye West could fill libraries. From smooth samples crooning over The College Dropout to ominous beats growling throughout Yeezus, West's remarkable musical legacy seems matched only by the divisive nature of his celebrity. Music journalist Mark Beaumont (Jay-Z: The King of America) peels back the demonized veneer and eschews mythos to present an in-depth, if sometimes chaotic, profile of Kanye West's career. Kanye West: God and Monster situates the man, his music, his relationships and his outbursts within context. Would he have co-opted Taylor Swift's Video Music Awards speech had he not been so emotionally exhausted since his mother's death? Would he appear so paranoid were his persona not continually twisted by corrosive tabloid media?
Beaumont traces the hard-won trajectory of a passionate music maker determined to prove his worth despite pervasive skepticism. When West finally released his debut, The College Dropout, audiences rejoiced, but no matter how many records he sold, his next efforts were met with industry pessimism that lightning doesn't strike twice.
His fans and hip-hop aficionados may find Kanye West most intriguing, but Beaumont's omniscient narrative renders the man and his work accessible to the uninitiated, too. Though occasionally straying into questionable phrasing--describing West, after Kim Kardashian's divorce from basketball player Kris Humphries, as animalistically "coiled... to pounce"--Beaumont's profile demonstrates the artist's vast stores of energy, ingenuity, resilience, ambition and confidence. In the engine of West's driven creativity, ego is mere exhaust from the afterburner; his resolve has always been to make incredible music. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness