Roar in the Jungle: Grande vs. West

Over the past few months, Kanye West and Ariana Grande have been an extremely hot topic. Fan or not, there’s a good chance you have seen something about their Twitter beef on social media or even on the news. The two are extremely big and well known artists who are top-tier in their respective genres of music, but, who is the more influential artist?

Back in December 2018, Kanye was venting on Twitter about the issues he has with Drake and how the whole situation between them was wrong. Kanye was upset because Drake was following his wife on Instagram, saying disrespectful things towards him, and dissing the companies he is associated with.

During the rant, Grande decided to take a shot at Kanye’s beef with Drake over Twitter. “Guys, I know there are grown men arguing online right now but Miley and I dropping our beautiful, new songs tonight so if y’all could please just behave for just like a few hours so the girls can shine that’d be so sick thank you,” the popstar stated in a now-deleted tweet.

Kanye decided to fire back at the statements made by Grande, something he has never been shy about. “I know Ariana said this to be cool and didn’t mean no harm but I don’t like even the slightest level of slight commentary from someone I know loves and respects me,” Kanye responded.

Kanye even used his mental health problems as an argument in the Twitter beef. “All of this foolishness weighed on my mental health so @ArianaGrande you know I got love for you but until you’re ready to really make sure everyone’s ok don’t use me or this moment to promote a song,” West tweeted.

As the two went back and forth, fans from each fanbase started going at one another and the opposing artist on Twitter. In the midst of all of this, a great debate on who is the more influential artist was brought up. This is a very divided topic, so I decided to interview students at Oswego High School and see what their thoughts on who is the more influential artist are.

Daniel Rodriguez (senior):

“I’d say Kanye. He’s done a lot more for the culture and innovated a lot of things way more than Ariana. I don’t think the fact that he has more Grammys and awards matters because they are in different genres of music. Also, I’m more of a Kanye fan rather than Ariana as well. But that doesn’t sway my opinion. Kanye has also been around longer and has done way more, like I said.”

Alvaro Ochoa (senior):

“Kanye! Ariana hasn’t really done much for the culture in my eyes. Kanye has been influential not only in music but in fashion as well making new strides every year. I think the accolades matter in an artist’ career because it proves that they are making an impact by how good it is. Proving that shows that they are the best artist in the genre. Maybe even overall by saying that Kanye is the far better artist and has had the bigger impact and is more influential.”

David Murphy (junior):

“That’s hard to answer! I think Ariana is the better music artist and makes better music, but it’s hard to ignore how big Kanye’s influence is. Without him, we might not have several artists that we know today. Kanye’s handprints are all over hip-hop today as well as the clothing industry. Ariana is very popular right now for the time being maybe even a little more than Kanye. Some of the stuff he’s been saying is crazy! But overall I’d have to give it to Kanye.”

Jason Cluchey (sophomore):

“ I’m not really a fan of either, but I’d say Ariana. I like her music more as well. She is probably the most popular person on the planet and a lot of people look up to her. Kanye is very popular as well don’t give me wrong, but I feel like if you were to ask  a random group of people , they would say Ariana more than Kanye. She’s had a lot of great albums and videos within the past couple years as well so I think it’s definitely her.”

Overall, these particular OHS students overall felt that Kanye was more influential. Although only one person said Grande was more influential, students seemed to be more one-sided towards Kanye. However, these two are undoubtedly two of the most influential people of our generation. The beef between them seems to be over, however, Kanye is very unpredictable, and you never know what road he will choose to take next.