Raising Kanye: A Review
The interview with Kanye’s Mama was featured on the site today. I didn’t get good feedback about it from my friends but I have to tell you that I enjoyed doing this interview WAYYY more than I enjoyed interviewing John Legend because this interview was real and the Legend interview felt like we were both acting. Neither one of us were interested in what the other person was saying. This interview was really me pouring out my heart to my main man’s Mama while trying to understand the reasoning behind the choices she made while Raising Kanye.
Would I suggest you buy the book? Hmmm…If you aren’t a lover of Kanye West you probably wouldn’t want to pick it up.
If you are a lover of success stories and intimate biographies, you may enjoy it. It has an easy to follow narrative flow that feels like Mama whispering in your ear. The reason I liked the book was because it held the keys to Kanye’s success and the belief system he was raised with which I believe could benefit anyone’s life, well anyone who has goals for their life.
It was more of an inspirational book than a biography at some points. She traced her life and the decisions she made leading up to Kanye’s birth and beyond. She writes extensively about her large family and their importance to Kanye’s upbringing. She chose an interesting lead-in throughout the book, using Kanye’s lyrics as a jump-off to tell stories. I liked that. At other times, it was obvious she wanted to take the chance to defend her son’s personality, even dedicating almost an entire chapter to that. You can really tell where he gets his personality from.
Her views on parenting, religion and relationships are extremely liberal. For example she encouraged Kanye and his friends to masterbate instead of experimenting with young girls. She lived with a couple of different men that she was dating while she hoped for love and raised Kanye which may cause some people to raise their eyebrow and others to say, “Damn…that’s reality right there.” I realize that we share the same thought patterns on equipping your children with every tool necessary in order to seek, find and flourish in his purpose.
All in all it was a book about a mother trying to raise her son the best way she could, affording him opportunities that she never had and loving him unconditionally along the way. After all…look at what became of the little boy whose mother thought she never wanted children…