Kanye West: Soul-Fired Hip-Hop

On his record My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, hip-hop superstar Kanye West "unleashes an array of flavors-old school hip-hop, progressive rock, R&B, classical music-and mixes and matches them," says USA TODAY, the Nation's No. 1 Newspaper. The paper describes Kanye's songs as "sonic jewels."

Since releasing his first album, The College Dropout, in 2004, Kanye has taken the hip-hop world by storm. He raps, he sings, and he dances, dazzling audiences with his unique musical style. People cheer when he takes the stage, but his socially conscious lyrics also make listeners think about what the words mean.