It seems unlikely that David Bowie and Kanye West would share a fan base, but then again, Bowie was an inspiration to so many that there is bound to be some cross over.
How would you feel about a David Bowie tribute album? Awesome, I’ll bet. But what if it were Kanye West’s tribute album to Bowie? Me? I’m a tad sceptical. I am all for new Yeezy, and definitely all for any Bowie tributes. But Kanye has struggled to keep his promises of late (or his wife’s promise that G.O.O.D. Fridays would be back) and I am worried that the self proclaimed God should be focusing instead on his much delayed album, Swish.
After the tragic passing of one of music’s most innovative and talented artists, David Bowie, tribute songs have been pouring in, and many artists have been truly amazing – Gang of Youths, Lido, Sarah Blasko and Bruce Springsteen to name some. So the question is, will Kanye have what it takes to honour Bowie?
Yeezy is said to have been getting to work in the studio putting his own spin on classic hits like Charges, Heroes and Rebel, Rebel.
David Bowie was one of my most important inspirations, so fearless, so creative, he gave us magic for a lifetime.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) January 11, 2016
According to The Daily Star, Kanye wants to pay tribute to the legendary performer by recording a mix of some straight Bowie cover versions, and some that he will be rapping over.
The Daily Star also claims that Kanye sees himself as a successor to Bowie in terms of musical innovation and that “he is determined to carry on David’s work as a musical innovator. He says that the torch has been passed to him.”
Sure, the words ‘Kanye’ and ‘innovation’ are no strangers to each other, having been used in the same sentence before. Granted, mainly when Kanye is referring to himself: “Graduation was an innovation. 808s & Heartbreak was an innovation. The song Niggas in Paris was an innovation. Only One was an innovation. FourFiveSeconds was an innovation. I care about innovating,” he said in an article (he wrote) in Paper Magazine.
Please forgive me for containing my excitement, but two of the aforementioned songs FourFiveSeconds and Only One feature Paul McCartney from The Beatles. When the songs were released, Kanye fans took to Twitter to find out the answer to their burning question of, ‘who is Paul McCartney?’ Whether the barrage of tweets were jokes or not, my greatest fear is that the youth of today might just think that the tribute album is original work by Kanye ‘The Innovator’ West.