Does Kanye West Play Any Instruments?

Rappers such as Kanye West are known for their rhymes and wordplay, but does the Famous hit-maker also play his own instruments?

Kanye is not just a rapper, but also a record producer who makes his own beats and has produced albums for others. While Kanye might not play different instruments such as the drums like a session player would, he does know how to create music through a sampler and with production software, making and engineering entire tracks by himself.

If you want to find out more about what Kanye plays and how he creates his music, read on!

Kanye Has Been Producing Beats since The Age Of 15

Many musicians and fellow producers and artists have publicly brawled with Kanye over his opinions on guitars, rock music, and other artists, but the fact remains that Kanye knows the theory of music more than just that of writing entendre-laced lyrics with the quick-fire braggadocio he champions.

In fact, Kanye West’s mentor, legendary music producer and fellow Chicagoan No I.D., first entered his life when he was still in high school, making beats on a sample he got at the adolescent age of 15. This translated into him writing for influential rappers of the day such as Mase, quickly following it up with producing credits on Jay-Z’s culturally significant 2001 album The Blueprint, being hailed for its unique sound. 

Other Artists’ Opinions on Kanye Fluctuate

Kanye has worked with artists across the board, from Miley Cyrus to Sir Paul McCartney. While those who’ve never worked with him such like to comment on his lack of musical skills, others praise him for his ingenuity and fresh and consistent vision, with West having bagged a GRAMMY nod for Producer of the Year in 2018.

Sir Paul McCartney has talked about Kanye’s unique artistic methods, saying: “But it turns out he was writing. That’s his muse. He was listening to this riff I was doing and obviously he knew in his mind that he could use that, so he took it, sped it up and then somehow he got Rihanna to sing on it.” 

Still, Kanye himself is quick to point out that he doesn’t think of himself as a musician. While he’s been known to sit at the piano in live performances and noodle around or introduce his tracks himself by playing their now-iconic opening licks, he commented that he couldn’t play the piano like a real musician. Many fans and peers choose to see this as his ambition and discrimination speaking, while others use the same statements to confirm the fact that he doesn’t play instruments in the traditional sense.

Kanye’s knowledge of music theory, whether supported by the skill of physically being able to play different instruments, is still widely discussed and appreciated. Universities have entire lectures and courses centered around dissecting the structure of his produced discography, featuring on harmonic balancing, genre fluidity and the wide variety of influences he directly samples on the tracks.

Kanye Has Changed the Way We Look At Instruments

The way you think of music being played on a stage, most of us would close our eyes and imagine, at the least, a vocalist at the front, the drummer to the back, the bassist and guitarists hovering somewhere awkwardly in the middle. 

Being a studio-session based musician, Kanye West has innovated by bringing the producers’ tools to the front and center of the live music experience. Calling the AKAI MPC Drum Sampler the guitar of our time,  Kanye featured it in his famous VMA performance of Runaway, honoring the intuitive innovation of the original product and its storied history in the stores of hip-hop legends that abound regarding this simple rhythm machine no bigger than a child’s toy.

Much has also been written about Kanye’s use of the vocoder, and his use of the voice as the “ultimate” instrument. Comedian Bo Burnham and filmmaker Bo Burnham has also emulated Kanye’s style of autotuned ranting to claim his own critical acclaim on the basis of Kanye’s now-iconic style of production and performance – as traditionally averse to the meat and potato “instruments” as it might be.

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