Yesterday I was having an overly analytical conversation about KanYe West, and my friend made a good point about rappers in particular, but I think it can be applied to most musicians and/or celebrities. His point was that the more success you gain and the more money you make the less your work (whatever that may be) will be relateable to the your audience because in essence your getting further away from their lifestyle. The further you get the harder it becomes to create work that deals with issues and topics that they can relate to and understand because you no longer understand them. I found this intriguing and very true because neither of the participating parties is dealing with the same things anymore. So from a content standpoint your work will inevitably suffer because the very thing that made your fans love you has now become absent from your work, but on the other hand from a creative standpoint you will now have the resources to do the things you had always envisioned and desired to create. If you are a rapper this means that inevitably the more successful you become the more and more your message will become diluted and lost, but your production value, beats, features, and extras will significantly improve and level off the disparity that is created and allow you to create final productions that your fans will still enjoy and love.
My question then becomes my question then becomes as an artist or entertainer of any kind is it enough to merely make a product that is visually or audibly pleasing or to really create a masterpiece does it have to have further meaning. Since I consider myself an artist and spend ample time only focusing on the visual I would love to say it is enough to create things that are merely pleasing, but the truth is that's not enough. Don't get me wrong your creations can be merely audibly or visually pleasing and they will be appreciated, but I don't think they will truly captivate your audience like all artists aim to do. In order to do that you have to make them think, reflect, and analyze what you have created and why. Only then can you make the audience bring that work into their everyday life inspire them to change and think or do things they may never have considered before. Only then can truly create an impact and ignite change.
How then can an artist reconcile personal success while maintaining the same level of in depth message that got them to the level they are at. The truth is the only way you can accomplish this is to understand it, and to continue to strive and stand for more than just yourself, but for a greater purpose. You have to have an insatiable desire to stand for more than just a person, but for the ideals behind the person that you are, you have to surround yourself and constantly keep yourself connected to the issues that were important to you from the start and that made you who you are. In essence you have to remember why you started doing what you started doing, because rarely does anyone do what they do simply to become rich and famous, most people want to make a difference, an impact, to change the system.
Unfortunately most celebrities and people in the public eye forget this and we are often left with fantastic musicians, artists, actors etc. who create wonderful things that lack substance because they are simply too disconnected from their audience.
-Insights-
