I'm going to start this post off by saying that I absolutely think Kanye West is one of the best artists alive. Remember that his first album came on in 2004, and he's still going strong. In a field where one-hit wonders are the norm, Kanye has managed to execute at a high level for five years. Can you imagine how difficult this must be? How draining it must be, emotionally, physically, and creatively? For comparison, remember that Eminem blew up in 1999 then took a hiatus after 2004. Five years of topping the charts and creating fantastic album after fantastic album is something way harder than anybody that's reading this site could probably comprehend, and I have an appreciation for that level of excellence.

Another thing I truly respect about Kanye is his understanding of art and creativity. He has commissioned remixes of his own works (the Sky High remix was absolutely fantastic) and he's also given creativity liberty for his music videos: after seeing Zach Galifinakis lip sync the whole Fiona Apple song "Not About Love", Kanye commissioned an alternate video ... two white guys on a North Carolina farm lip syncing to hip-hop:

When it comes to giving credit where credit is due, I've seen nothing but humbleness from Kanye - he has not been shy about attributing his success to the artists he sampled (look at early interviews for College Dropout) - even recently: "On July 3, 2007, West, who had repeatedly expressed being an avid fan of Daft Punk, told Zane Lowe on BBC Radio 1 that although he believes "Stronger" is a great song, it does not compare to the sampled original."

But sometimes he can get a bit ... too big for his britches. I was watching his VH1 Storytellers for his latest album 808s and Heartbreak, which really was a fantastic show - the lighting/set was amazing, and the live performance brought a whole different feel to the song.

In this particular song Amazing from the VH1 set, Kanye got a bit carried away with himself:

At the end of this song, Kanye starts talking about the need to be amazing. I'll quote the transcript for you:

Amazing ...
Michael Jackson ... amazing (crowd cheers loudly)
Michael Phelps ... amazing (crowd cheers)
OJ Simpson ... amazing

The crowd goes silent. Kanye tries to justify himself with this comment:

Is he not? What he did, when he did, what he did, was he not amazing, though?

Come on now, Kanye. First time I heard this, I nearly busted out laughing. And you know what makes this funnier? Quoting those lines over and over again after some Sapporo and sake!