LogFAQs > #930685395

Best Music Artist/Band of the 2010s: Kanye West
Runners Up: Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Frank Ocean, James Murphy

If the decades were broken up differently, say from 2005-2014 instead of 2010-2019, Kanye West would have been a shoo-in for best artist. That time period encompasses Late Registration through Yeezus, in which Kanye ripped off what is probably the greatest stretch of critical and commercial success since The Beatles. However, the 2010s as it is currently delineated makes this decision a little harder.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Yeezus, and The Life of Pablo are all, at worst, near-masterpieces. They also represent the culmination of Ye's powers that he had been honing throughout the previous decade. He knew exactly what he wanted on all three of those records--and as much as people wanted to hate on them or dismiss them, you just couldn't. Kanye appeared poised for a clear-cut artist of the decade victory.

But then the rest of the 2010s happened. Since TLOP, Kanye has put out a variety of collaborations that never really hit the mark and some singles that were downright confusing. This all reached a creative nadir in the disappointingly short Ye, which was released in a series of six albums that he fully produced himself (which could have been a really cool concept, except most of those albums sucked). And now finally, at the latter half of 2019, we have Jesus Is King--an album full of so much potential, but is hamstrung by its overt Christian proselytizing.

So why am I still awarding Kanye West artist of the decade? Well, 2010-2016 was pretty unequivocal. He was the most gifted, most fascinating, and most prolific mainstream artist in the world at the top of his game. But the more important reason why I can't dock him much for the past 3 years: the 2010s have been really hard for album-oriented artists. I know Giggs will point to a million examples, as I am sure they exist; but for the music that I generally enjoy listening to, I am hard-pressed to point to many artists that have had consistent success across all ten years.

So that's perhaps a perfect segue into our runners up. Kendrick Lamar emerged in the 2010s as pretty much the paragon of rap--an MC with all of the right tools, focus, and generational voice to snatch the GOAT crown if he wanted to. And he may very well do that. Kendrick has 2 fantastic and one great album this decade, with no real sign of slowing down.

Frank Ocean is the R&B equivalent of Kendrick. He peaked his head into the scene around the same time on a few key featured tracks, and like Kendrick, then decided to do his own thing and made two stellar records in his own right, without worrying about getting singles in the top 40.

The top 40 king, however, is Drake. I have tried my hardest to dislike him ever since he was gifted the most talented producers in the world when he was like 20 years old. But god damn, you cannot deny this dude's talent. I don't say this lightly, but he is probably the most gifted pop song writer of my lifetime and has a knack for knowing exactly what will catch on at the right time.

And finally, James Murphy gets a shout out for being a behind-the-scenes sneakily important figure this decade. While LCD Soundsystem wasn't the phenomenon that is was in the 2000s, Murphy also played a major role in bringing in his minimalist electronic production as an era-defining sound--from his work on David Bowie's final album to helping Gorillaz evolve and stay somewhat relevant. You can hear his fingerprints on nearly everything in between, for better or worse.

Perhaps I'll save some more overall thoughts I had for the album and song posts, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about who I may have missed. Because, for my money, the 5 guys I listed above both defined the decade and put out its best and most consistent work.
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"A more mature answer than I expected."~ Jakyl25
"Sephy's point is right."~ Inviso