Oct. 23--Sometimes an artist walks away from an interview with a different impression of how things went than the reporter. That seems to be the case with a recent profile of Chicago rapper Rhymefest by the Daily Beast.
The article's headline -- "Kanye West's Songwriter Wants His Due"-- seems to promise more than it actually delivers, but in a digital world where SEO is king, perhaps that's not surprising. Rhymefest spoke with reporter Marlow Stern for a piece pegged to the documentary "In My Father's House," which I wrote about here and which centers on Rhymefest's tentative efforts to rebuild a relationship with his estranged father, who at the movie's start has been living on the streets for more than 20 years.
Presumably, the film (an engrossing look at complicated family dynamics and the adjustment to a new life after homelessness) is what Rhymefest hoped would be the focus of the Daily Beast article. But the conversation was wide-ranging (as long-form interviews often are) and included topics such as his collaborations with fellow Chicago native Kanye West.
"According to Rhymefest, he's been writing with Kanye since 'The College Dropout,' and hasn't received credit on a lot of the songs he's worked on," Stern writes and quotes Rhymefest telling him: "I've written for all of Kanye's albums with the exception of '808s Heartbreak' ... (but) there are a lot of songs that my name isn't even on."
Earlier today, Rhymefest took to Twitter to clear up some things.
"For the record I spoke to the guy from the @dailybeast 4- 2hrs mainly about my film community his article boiled it down to Kanye West," he wrote in a series of tweets.
"I think it's misleading to say 'Rhymefest wants his due' when I never said that @DailyBeastENT," he continued. "I believed @dailybeast had higher standards of journalistic integrity (than) TMZ I guess not. However I said the words I own them, however (I) said so much more about our film @IMFHfilm parenthood in our communities the power of Love. Let's be better @dailybeast."
Fair enough. But the piece, which offers a fairly good sense of Rhymefest's personality (smart and unwilling to traffic in hokum) is a good read nonetheless.
nmetz@tribpub.com
