These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
In general, is he a tortured, introspective genius who just happens to have remarkably poor self-control, or is he just an arrogant bigmouth? It often seems that the former opinion will prevail, until Kanye says something stupid again.
Kanye claims to be an alien in the Katy Perry song "ET".
Award Snub: Despite receiving rave reviews practically everywhere upon release (see So Cool It's Awesome below), being in almost everyone's list for best albums of the year (often topping it), and being ranked on Metacritic as the best reviewed album released in 2010 (with a 94 consesus rating), "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" failed to even get nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. The general feeling among critics was that it not only deserved to get nominated, but that it was the first time that Kanye genuinely deserved to win.
Ear Worm: Not so much his songs themselves but the hooks are dangerously catchy, particularly "The New Workout Plan", "The Glory", "Heard 'Em Say", "Power", and "Devil in a New Dress".
College Dropout's "Last Call" and Late Registration's "We Major" has this effect on some listeners after dragging these otherwise good songs for far too long. "Last Call" could've done away with the eight-minute portion of Kanye talking about how he got discovered after a great four minute song. "We Major" would've also ended stronger without the final two minutes.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy's "Runaway" has had a similarly polarizing reaction. You think the song's over, then Kanye plugs in the vocoder...
"Cold" (aka "Theraflu") also falls victim to this, with DJ Pharris shouting out pretty much every Chicago 'hood (even a few that don't exist anymore) in the final minute and killing the momentum from Kanye's verses.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Kanye's in-house vocalists are ridiculousfuckin'ridicklisss. John Legend was able to turn his guest spots into a successful career, so the title of darkhorse belongs to Kanye's cousin Tony Williams. As Kanye says, "He sings quite beautifully, don't you agree?"
A surprising amount of people have defended Kanye publicly humiliating a teenage girl because they agreed with what he said, or because they thought it was funny. Never mind that ripping the microphone out of her hand in the middle of her acceptance speech is definitely the wrong way and the wrong time to voice your opinion of how she shouldn't have won.
The same fans have tried to excuse his behavior on the fact that he was apparently drinking heavily during the event in question. This, to some of us, only make his behavior worse.
Fridge Logic: The album cover of *My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy* was a manufactured attempt by West to stir up controversy, and indeed, many digital outlets would only display a blurred version of it. However, the blurring of the image obscures the fantastic elements of it (that the woman is a harpy or (ahem) "phoenix", making it so all you can make out is a man and woman having sex, which is arguably more offensive.
Hate Dumb: Kanye has to be part of the Illuminati, guys! He has to be!
Kanye himself actually mocked the idea on Twitter.
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Universal acclaim. Metacritic score of 94/100, and 10/10 and "Album of the Year" from the notoriously fickle Pitchfork.
In particular, "All of The Lights (Interlude)" and "All of the Lights", featuring an All-Star Cast.
Within the hip hop community, The College Dropout, his debut album, is considered a classic, possibly moreso than Fantasy.
Misaimed Fandom: A unique selling point about Kanye West is that his ego lends itself to the creation of new memes. Thus people actually want his ego to INCREASE as they speculate it would lead to even more memes. Some people gleefully watch as he ruins moments and makes outlandish comments simply because they're entertaining.
Also notable was an incident during a Katrina benefit where he randomly blurted out "George Bush doesn't care about black people!" appropos of nothing. Mike Myers, seated next to him, looked quite embarrassed.
A lot of people abruptly stopped hating Kanye West once he joined Twitter.
And after My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy... ladies and gentlemen, nuff said.
So Bad, It's Good: "RoboCop". Kanye himself has called the song a "train wreck" (supposedly the version on the album was supposed to remixed by Herbie Hancock before it was released), but god damn it's catchy.
So Cool It's Awesome: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy got rave reviews upon its release. And by 'rave', I mean almost every single freakin' media outlet gave it either a near perfect or perfect rating.
Unfortunate Implications: Some of the backlash against him shows heavy shades of this. Especially on the internet. So does some of the defense that basically says "it's okay to be a jerk if I agree with your opinion."
