An uneasy star

I love the game so much, he went on,and Im so passionate about it,that I just cant take the stress. Then he started rapping,a new,unreleased verse: Im so anxious,Im getting anxiety/Begging one of these 8230; fashion houses to hire me, he began again,with some colourful language strewn in,then continued: I said,if you acquire me/I could be a quiet me/Call it verbal dieting/Give me your herbal chai tea8230;

With that,West,promised,Ill be calm.

As if. Wests resistance to stasis has been his one constant in the last decade,which has taken him from behind-the-scenes Chicago rap-purist producer to perma-spotlighted global pop dynamo. Of celebrities in any milieu,hes the least predictable without sacrificing his art. Instability is his diesel.

He was the most musically inventive,the most psychologically complicated,and the most emblematic of the times. He began the decade as a nobody,but even after 10 million albums sold,West is nowhere near comfortable. Maybe its a fear of impermanence,or a persistent mistrust of the wisdom of others,but no one advertises for himself quite like West. He got a list of his early hit productions tattooed on his forearm,presumably in case anyone forgot about them. And every time he was nominated for an award and didnt win,he griped,loudly.

These moments were blasts of arrogance,sure,but also showed the raw pain of rejection laid bare. In an era where micro-confession became the main form of communication,West helped set the tone. Important moments and insignificant ones tend to have the same value in his world. His mother dies,he assaults a paparazzo,President Obama calls him a jackass: its all just more data for the live stream.

In this way he was the most consistent artist of the decade,a beloved superstar whose worst enemy was a complete lack of superego. Often it came off as trying too hard. For his second album,West imported Jon Brion,invigorator of contemplative troubadours,to be as much collaborator as passport stamp. He worked with Larry Charles on a never-launched TV show. He made a gruesome,fantastical short film with Spike Jonze. He released signature sneaker lines with Nike and Louis Vuitton. He wore Rick Owens,and bragged about it.

But West could still transcend his own self-consciousness,achieving something sublime. His Glow In the Dark tour was extravagant and captivating. West pitching himself alternately as a fearless explorer and a lost space boy. After Hurricane Katrina,he went on TV and proclaimed,George Bush doesnt care about black people.

Even if its going unnoticed,West is improving,as a producer,a songwriter and as a rapper. Hes grown more than anyone in the genre,still rapping like the next rhyme might get him the record deal that saves him from a life of Midwestern mediocrity.

Police escorts,everybody passports/This the life that everybody ask for/This a fast life,we are on a crash course/What you think I rap for,to push a 8230; RAV4?