With the ensuing media frenzy, you would think Kanye West might entertain the idea of taking a low profile, having just released a new album a few weeks ago. I'm sure for most artists, the idea of stirring up controversy while simultaneously promoting their latest work is hardly an ideal situation. Say what you will about Tom Cruise and his supposed engagement/promotion frenzy this past summer, but that's trivial compared to this.

This is about a young man taking a minute and a half of live television and checking everybody on the situation, not only in New Orleans, but across the nation. Yeah, he said "black people" but I think that was because that's the image we're seeing in the news. Whether it's a fair assessment that most of the population in New Orleans devastated by Katrina was black and working class, I don't know, but what West said speaks to larger segments of the nation as a whole--minorities and the impoverished, which more than often overlap each other. It's a bold thing to bring up a topic like this in the middle of a national crisis, but obviously West thought it was relevant, and as it turns out, it might be a key factor in the the astounding number of deaths from this disaster.

And yet Kanye West took a stand and is going to stick to his guns. Just seeing how he took the stage at Apple's announcement event yesterday and thanked a knowing Steve Jobs for still letting him perform was a humble, earnest moment. Yet, he still brought his "A" game when he changed the lyrics of "All Falls Down" to "...and George Bush get paid off of all of that." and got another dig in.

Personally, I really liked his first album "College Dropout" and while I thought it had some rough spots, it definitely deserved the acclaim that it received. The new album, "Late Registration", I have yet to really listen to, but it's been getting a lot of attention--and that's before all of this controversy.

Overall, West's message has been one of truth, integrity and sometimes potentially embarassing candor laid over catchy beats and hooks. Sure, sometimes he might come across as contradictory or even cavalier, but when it comes from the heart and at least makes you yourself think, then that should only be a good thing. The message that I always seem to get from Kanye West's music is that sometimes you have to admit your selfish before you can reach out to others, sometimes you have to acknowledge your own ambition before you can see what you're leaving behind. I only hope that it's a message that more people pick up on.