Through rap and hip hop, entertainers have provided a voice questioning and challenging the sanctioned view of society. Examining the moral and social implications of Kanye West's art in the context of Western civilization's preconceived ideas, the contributors consider how West both challenges religious and moral norms and propagates them.

Reynaldo Anderson, Harris-Stowe State University, USA
ShaDawn Battle, University of Cincinnati, USA
Dawn Boeck, Texas A and M University, USA
Regina Bradley, Florida State University, USA
A.D. Carson, University of South Carolina, USA
Tommy Curry, Texas A and M University, USA
Akil Houston, Ohio University, USA
John Jennings, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Nicholas Krebs, Purdue University, USA
David J. Leonard, Washington State University, USA
Heidi Lewis, Colorado College, USA
Monica R. Miller, Lewis and Clark University, USA
Mark Anthony Neal, Duke University, USA
Tim'm West, Artist and Activist

Foreword; Davey D Preface ; Julius Bailey PART I: REVISITING THE PHARMAKON: ARTISTIC GIFTS/HUMAN COMPLEXITIES 1. Now I Ain't Saying He's a 'Crate Digger': Kanye West and the Soul Archive; Mark Anthony Neal 2. Kanye West: Asterisk Genius?; Akil Houston 3. Afrofuturism: The Visual Imagery of Kanye West; Reynaldo Anderson and John Jennings 4. You got Kanyed: Seen But Not Heard; David J. Leonard 5. 'An Examination of the Kanye West Higher Education Trilogy; Heidi R. Lewis PART II: UNPACKING HETERO-NORMATIVITY AND COMPLICATING RACE AND GENDER 6. 'By Any Means Necessary': Kanye West and the Hypermasculine Construct; Sha'Dawn Battle 7. Kanye West's Sonic Cosmopolitanism; Regina Bradley 8. 'Hard to Get Straight' Kanye West, Masculine Anxiety, Dis-identification; Tim'm West 9. You Can't Stand the Nigger I See!: Kanye West's Analysis of Anti-Black Death; Tommy Curry PART III: THEORIZING THE AESTHETIC, THE POLITICAL, AND THE EXISTENTIAL 10. When Apollo and Dionysus Clash: A Nietzschean perspective on the work of Kanye West"; Julius Bailey 11. The God of the New Slaves or Slave to a Religion and a God?; Monica Miller 12. Trimalchio From Chicago: Flashing Lights & The Great Kanye in West Egg; A.D. Carson 13. Confidently (Non)cognizant of Neoliberalism: Kanye West and the Interruption of Taylor Swift; Nick Krebs 14. Kanye Omari West: Visions of Modernity; Dawn Boeck