Fuckin' Kanye West.

A washed out white set, two dozen or so ballerinas with limbs and movements perfectly choreographed, a shocking red outfit and twenty pounds of gold bouncing around and yet disappearing into the stark white background, and an ego the size of New York City and then some all coming together to produce two remarkable live music performances.

What strikes me most about Kanye's SNL performances are the pure audacity of them. They're visually stunning yet bare productions from a man who is always trying to top himself and no one else. He may not always go about it the right way and when he fails he does so very publicly. But even the best of us fail every now and then. How else do we get harder, better, faster, stronger, or grow a set of cojones big enough to do something like this?

Hip hop isn't supposed to be like this. Or is it? That's what I like most about it all: the disregard for expectations, the contrast of brash hip hop and graceful ballerinas, a stark white set to wipe the slate, the visible rush during the moment of creation, and the air of performance art. Like him or not, Kanye West blew out the expectations and gave us something so simple, so brilliant, and unlike anything we've seen in a while.