FALLEN KING OR ETERNAL WILDCARD? KANYE WEST IN 2025

By Rishma • On Current Issue

Kanye West. The name alone is like a gren­ade. You drop it into any con­ver­sa­tion about music, cul­ture, or fash­ion, and boom, people start arguing. Some defend him with reli­gious-level devo­tion, swear­ing he’s the greatest artist of our time. Oth­ers can’t stand him, claim­ing he’s lost his mind and has been embar­rass­ing him­self for years. But the thing is, no mat­ter which side you’re on, you’re still talk­ing about him. That’s the thing with Kanye in 2025, love him or hate him, you can’t ignore him. And that’s pre­cisely why we need to ask the ques­tion: where exactly does Kanye West stand in hip-hop today?

Kanye’s music changed the game

Let’s start with the obvi­ous. Kanye West didn’t just make music; he shif­ted the entire sound of rap. The Col­lege Dro­pout in 2004 was a rev­el­a­tion. Here was a kid in a pink polo and back­pack rap­ping about insec­ur­it­ies, faith, and fam­ily when the industry was dom­in­ated by gang­sta rap. He made it okay for rap­pers to be vul­ner­able, to be weird, to step out­side the box. Then came Gradu­ation, when Kanye turned hip-hop into sta­di­um music, bring­ing in elec­tron­ic influ­ences and show­ing rap­pers they could go toe-to-toe with rock stars. By the time he dropped My Beau­ti­ful Dark Twis­ted Fantasy in 2010, people had star­ted talk­ing about him as a cre­at­ive vis­ion­ary. That album isn’t just con­sidered one of the best rap records ever; it’s up there with the greatest albums of any genre.

And let’s not for­get 808s & Heart­break. At the time, people didn’t know what to make of it, but that auto-tuned, emo-rap sound basic­ally paved the way for Drake, Juice WRLD, and an entire gen­er­a­tion of melod­ic rap­pers. Ye changed the DNA of hip hop, twice. Some would argue three or four times. What do you think?

So yeah, music­ally, his influ­ence is untouch­able. Even now, young pro­du­cers and rap­pers still study his beats, his samples, his will­ing­ness to exper­i­ment. He’s that good. But the prob­lem? These last few years, the music has been back­ground noise com­pared to the drama of his life.

The chaos that eats the genius

Let’s not gonna sug­ar­coat it: the last dec­ade of Kanye’s life has been a roller­coast­er without brakes. One minute, he’s drop­ping gos­pel albums and talk­ing about God sav­ing him, the next, he’s going on social media rant­ing, so brands are drop­ping him overnight. He ran for pres­id­ent, he has a feud with almost every­one in the industry, and said things that made even his most loy­al fans ques­tion if they could still rock with him. It’s like every time Kanye does some­thing bril­liant, he imme­di­ately fol­lows it up with some­thing reck­less. And hon­estly, after a while, it becomes exhaust­ing. I know fans who stopped listen­ing to him alto­geth­er, not because the music fell off, but because they couldn’t sep­ar­ate the art from the chaos anymore.

But do you know what the wild part is: Kanye seems to know this. He feeds on con­tro­versy. He’s been addicted to the spot­light his whole career, and in a way, he’s mastered the art of stay­ing rel­ev­ant, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.

The Kar­dashi­an era and beyond

Of course, we can’t talk about Kanye without talk­ing about Kim Kar­dashi­an. That mar­riage wasn’t just a rela­tion­ship but a cul­tur­al jug­ger­naut every­one wanted to know more about. Their wed­ding was basic­ally the Super Bowl of celebrity events, and Kim’s wed­ding dress? Head­lines every­where dis­cussed the top­ic of how to get a wed­ding dress like hers for your wed­ding. She turned walk­ing down the aisle with a veil that looked more like a train into a fash­ion moment that magazines are still referencing.

But like most things with Kanye, the fairy tale didn’t last. The divorce was messy, pub­lic, and heart­break­ing to watch play out in real time. It wasn’t just two people split­ting, it was a glob­al spec­tacle, with every out­let cov­er­ing their fights, cus­tody battles, and subtweets.

And because Kanye’s life is nev­er quiet, he remar­ried not long after. This time, it seemed like he was try­ing to keep things lower key, but who are we kid­ding? Noth­ing Kanye does is low-key; just check how he dresses his new wife, or more exactly, undresses her. His new mar­riage still makes head­lines, and every move he makes with his new wife gets ana­lyzed as if it were part of a real­ity show. With Kanye, even say­ing “I do” feels like per­form­ance art.

Kanye in fash­ion and culture

Let’s not for­get: Kanye didn’t just influ­ence hip hop through sound. His Yeezy brand changed sneak­er cul­ture forever. For years, people camped out for his shoes like they were lot­tery tick­ets. He made baggy hood­ies and beige sweats a glob­al trend. And even now, in 2025, you see his fin­ger­prints on the way the cul­ture dresses. But just like with his music, his fash­ion empire got rocked by scan­dals. Part­ner­ships col­lapsed, brands dis­tanced them­selves, and sud­denly, the guy who built one of the most hyped labels in the world was watch­ing it crumble in the spot­light. It’s almost Shakespearean, the rise, the dom­in­ance, the downfall.

So, where does he stand in 2025?

Here’s my take, raw and unfiltered: Kanye West is hip hop’s most con­tro­ver­sial legend. On one hand, his leg­acy is untouch­able. Nobody can erase the albums, the beats, the innov­a­tion. He’s one of the greatest to ever touch a mic or an MPC. His music is woven into the fab­ric of hip hop his­tory, and even his crit­ics know it. On the oth­er hand, his present is messy. He’s not just an artist any­more, he’s a head­line machine, a cul­tur­al wild­card, a man who can’t stop trip­ping over his own geni­us. And that’s why his place in hip hop today is com­plic­ated. He’s both the fallen king and the etern­al dis­ruptor, the guy who lost con­trol of his own nar­rat­ive but still refuses to be silenced.

The truth is, Kanye mat­ters because he refuses not to. Even if you’re done with him, even if you can’t stand him, the next time he drops an album or says some­thing wild, you’re gonna hear about it. And chances are, you’re gonna click, you’re gonna listen, and you’re gonna have an opin­ion. That’s his superpower.

 

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Rishma

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds
Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voiceless.

About Rishma

Rishma Dhaliwal has extensive experience studying and working in the music and media industry. Having written a thesis on how Hip Hop acts as a social movement, she has spent years researching and connecting with artists who use the art form as a tool for bringing a voice to the voiceless.