Kanye West
Kanye West exclaimed towards the end of his much anticipated Glastonbury headline set that he was the ‘greatest living rockstar’. Now, he definitely has some challengers for that title but let’s be honest, his name has to be in the hat. Yes, he’s the most arrogant person the music industry may have ever seen, but surely that’s one of the criteria for being a great rockstar? You have to know and believe that you are the best and boy, does Kanye have that. He has enough self confidence to fill an entire secondary school of adolescent teenagers and the tunes to back all of that up too.
Not only has he been trying and succeeding in moving the hip hop genre forward with his own music but he puts his musical genius to other people’s records, producing tracks for other huge artists like Jay Z and Big Sean. This man is the biggest star on the planet so why shouldn’t he be given the title of the greatest living rockstar? Yes, we still have the likes of Jagger, Richards, Townsend and McCartney but in reality, they are living off past glories. Yes, back when their respected bands were taking over the world, no one could touch their greatness and still, no one can argue what they achieved will never be done again. But here, we have someone moving music forward like the past greats have and who isn’t scared to get people talking.
Kanye West is the modern rockstar, he’s at the top of one of the biggest genres in music and doesn’t look like he’s going to be moved anytime soon. So yes, when you look at Kanye West, you are looking at the greatest living rockstar.
By Callum McCormack